Fly Drive -- East Coast and Southwest

Hi Jamie

My boyfriend and I were hoping to road trip across America this summer we have 21 days and were hoping to start in Washington DC and finish in Las Vegas going a southern route I know that 21 days isn't enough time, so was wondering if you had any advice about where to focus on, and where we might drop the car (we are happy to finish with a flight!)

Thank you


Vicky

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Hi Vicky --

Thanks for writing in to Road Trip USA -- and don't worry, three weeks is plenty of time to have a fabulous trip. Even if you had 21 years instead of 21 days, you couldn't "see everything", so don't mourn what you might be missing, and just make the most of being in these fascinating places -- DC, Las Vegas, and a whole wide world in between.

:-)

While a cross-country drive is a solid achievement, the downside of doing one in a rental car is that it can cost you a lot of money to "drop off" the car at the end of your trip, rather than return it to where you started. Have you thought about maybe doing a couple of discreet trips?? -- flying into DC, explore the city for a few days (DC is fascinating -- and mostly free, since the main attractions don't charge admission fees), then hit the road?

You definitely don't need (or even want to have) a car in DC, but you could pick one up to start your road trip -- down the Appalachian Trail, if you like mountains and wilderness? Or maybe down the Atlantic Coast-- if you prefer beaches to rivers, the Outer Banks of North Carolina can be lovely, then you could loop down thru historic Charleston and Savannah, all the way to Key West at the tip of Florida.

If you wanted to do a loop back to DC and hop a airplane west, you could also make it as far west as New Orleans, and maybe follow the Mississippi River up via Memphis. One big advantage of doing a loop trip, rather than a cross-country one-way, is that without the distant goal you don't tend to feel such a strong magnetic pull, so you can stop and enjoy places rather than get glued to the highway. Just a thought...

I have pretty recent "mini-books" on both these routes, plus my big book -- and the website, which I assume you've checked out.

Money-wise, an cross-country flight home often works out cheaper than the week of driving it can take to get across the USA.

Then again, if you have your heart set on seeing all the places in between, a cross-country road trip is definitely the way to go.

If instead you took a plane west, you could get another rental car and do a great big road trip loop out of Las Vegas -- cruising Route 66 across Arizona to see the Grand Canyon, then meandering around to see the other amazing national parks of Utah, plus maybe even Death Valley...

Lots of possibilities -- let me know what you get up to!

Happy Trails,



Jamie Jensen
---
Road Trip USA

Appalachian Trail book

Great River Road book

Western States Road Trip

Hi Jamie

Here comes another danged foreigner seeking free information !

I have enjoyed reading your Road Trip USA book, and looking at the routes and dreaming of that long lazy drive amassing more US states to add to the list of 24 I have so far (not bad for an Englishman)

However I want to get even more and next September I am planning to fly into Seattle and spend about 10 days to make my way to Las Vegas - flying home from there.I could stretch the 10 days if need be

So can you please suggest a route with plenty of interest that could include states I have not been in and including if possible Yellowstone and Yosemite. I would like Washington State, Oregon , Idaho (for the potatoes), Montana, Colorado & Wyoming as a minimum if possible . I have not done The Dakotas either but I don't know if they are realistically in reach or even if what I proposed already is really viable.... so I would like to ask the expert !

I have done California to death including Pacific Coastal drive Big Sur etc and Utah Arizona and of course Nevada coming up for 10 times so I will be going over some old ground but I would rather approach Las Vegas from the east than the west

I am already poring over the Maps and other sources of information and should you have any suggestions I would be REALLY grateful and most interested

Many thanks,

John

PS: wont rest till I touch all 50 States !

===>>>

Hello there John --

Many thanks for your message -- hope I can help you get closer to your 50-state goal. After 30 years, I have got to 49 of them -- all that's left is Alaska.

(And I'm saving Alaska until after Sarah Palin has moved down to Hollywood...)

About your September trip -- from Seattle (which is a lovely city, surrounded by gorgeous scenery!), you could have fantastic trip. Drive east across Idaho (most of the potatoes are grown in the not-so-scenic south, but if you like breathtaking wilderness take US-93 up to Glacier National Park,), then down via Missoula and /or Stanley and Sun Valley. Idaho is amazing -- and you can then zip east again (along US-20, maybe?) to Yellowstone & Grand Tetons National Parks.

From there you could get to South Dakota in a day or two (to see Mount Rushmore, and the crazy Horse Horse statue) -- I cover these in my US-83 Road to Nowhere route.

Or if you don't want to have too many crazy drives, you could head south toward Colorado (check out the Million Dollar Highway, between Montrose and Durango in the SW corner of the state). And if you have time cross over into New Mexico -- Taos and Santa Fe are beautiful, historic "Wild West" towns.

And if you're collecting states, the Four Corners area is ideal -- even though there is some technical / cartographic dispute about where the state borderlines actually should be drawn. I love the Four Corners region -- if you haven't seen Monument Valley and Canyon de Chelley, put them on your list.

After all this you can make your way to Las Vegas -- I'd go via southern Utah, since I think Zion National Park is the most beautiful place on Earth.

(By the way, I just noticed Yosemite on your list -- it's a bit off the rest of your route, but from Las Vegas you could get to Yosemite, via Death Valley and Tioga Pass Road, and maybe you ought to consider finishing the loop and returning via Seattle -- car rental prices are often a lot cheaper if you return the car where you started!)

OK, there are some ideas -- hope you keep in touch, and have a great trip!

Happy Trails,



Jamie Jensen
----
Road Trip USA

US41 - Dixie Highway

Hey there Road Trip USA !

I really enjoy your site. My blue PT Cruiser and I have seen over 100,000 road miles in 3 years. Question for you: Why don't you include US 41? It begins in Copper Harbor, MI and goes all the way to Miami, FL. I did it in two parts and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

I plan to do the US 20 drive in 2011.

Keep up the good work!

Brenda from Texas


==>>

Hi there Brenda --

Many thanks for your message, and your kind words about the Road Trip USA website. (Have you checked out my book? that's even more full of fun!)

I'm impressed by your US41 trips, and have done quite a lot of the route myself (one of my all time favorite road songs is the Allman Brothers Ramblin' Man --
"..I was born in the back seat of Greyhound bus, rollin' down Highway 41..."!)

100K in 3 years -- that's pretty impressive. For your sake, I hope most of these miles have been off the Interstates, far away from commuter traffic...

:-)

About US41, when I was first working on the book (20 odd years, and 6 editions ago...!) , the Dixie / US41 was a main contender, but as the book got bigger and bigger, to save space I sort of gave up on the "diagonal" routes, with the exception of everybody's favorite, Route 66.

But now that you remind me how important -- and cool -- US41 is, I am going to try to squeeze it back in. (And if I ever figure out how to do an "eBook" or "app" version, then word count is no longer an issue.) At first I may do "The Dixie" as a feature, as I do for the Lincoln Highway, but I'll definitely do my best to do US41 justice. Are there any favorite stops or sights you think I really really HAVE to include?

And do let me know what you get up to on US20 next year -- I'm going to be doing some that route again too, so maybe we can compare notes.

Thanks again for writing, and please keep in touch.

Happy Trails,



Jamie Jensen
---
Road Trip USA

Musical Road Trip

Hi there Jamie,

I had some questions! For a couple of years I am having this idea of travelling through the US to visit some birthgrounds of (traditional) American music. My interest is quit broad, ranging from Bluegrass (Bill M.), Southern Gospel (Chuck Wagon Gang), music from the more broad Folk tradition (Carter Family) and Hank Williams. All this culminating in Bob Dylan. You might get the picture!

So I wanted to visit the following States: Texas, Oklahoma (Woody), Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia. Next to that I would like to visit family in Utah and a friend in Chicago. So I was thinking of flying to LA (I have been there before, so dont have to see that again), from there travelling through Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia and than up north to Chicago. Maybe ending in Duluth...

So, my question now is, since I can only get a visa for 3 months (from The Netherlands), if those three months will be enough, haha!

I was thinking of buying a car for transport! What would that cost me on petrol, more or less?

I understand these questions might be difficult to answer, but maybe you could give an indication?

Many thanks in advance,

Kees

(A Student from the Netherlands!)

====>>>

Hello Kees --

Thank you for writing in to Road Trip USA, and I hope I can help you plan a fantastic road trip around the USA. Music is a great theme around which to organize your trip -- I have to think that the music you describe is perhaps the best thing America has brought to the world. Fortunately for you, there are many others who share your interests, and all over the US there are museums and historic sights (and festivals!) dedicated to music and and the musicians who made it.

Personally I find the Deep South to be the most satisfying pat of the US to do a "musical road trip" like you propose. From a city like Memphis, which has dozens of musical sights to see -- not only about Elvis but Stax Soul and Sun Records (Johnny Cash et al) and everything in between. Food, hotels, most everything seems cheaper down there, and people seem to have more inclination to talk to visitors.

South of Memphis is the Mississippi Delta, "Land of the Blues" -- I describe quite a lot about this area in my Great River Road trip, along old US-61 (Route 4 on the website, and covered more recently in a book: Road Trip USA: Great River Road.

200 miles south of the Delta, you're in New Orleans, which is probably the most musical city in America, and a lot of fun to visit. As far as I know some of the music-oriented museums have yet to re-open after Hurrricane Katrina, which is appalling, but even just walking the streets you definitely get a great sense of how important music has been, especially to poorer, less privileged folks.

West of New Orleans is another musical land: Cajun Country, a rural region where there are vibrant clubs and bars all over.

Another great place to visit in the Deep South is the town of Macon Georgia, which has a very good "Hall of Fame" and a cemetery holding graves of local rockers Allman Brothers -- it's also a low-key, enjoyable little city. Little Richard and Otis Redding both came from Macon. Athens Georgia is pretty fun, too -- a college town, birthplace of pop bands like B52s and REM.

And in between Louisiana and Georgia you can pay respects to Montgomery, Alabama, home and final resting place to Hank Williams.

Along with everything else you mention, you can have a great -- and 3 months should be plenty of time to see it all, and to discover some new things you never expected (which is the best thing about traveling, in my opinion!)

(OH yes, before I forget: Duluth is pretty interesting too -- even better is the small old mining town of Hibbing Minnesota, where Bob Dylan grew up!)

Buying your own car could make sense financially, but because of legal issues (like insurance) it can be a hassle. Is there any way you could persuade your family/friends in Utah or Chicago to find a car for you, and make it street legal?

Driving in the US is pretty inexpensive, less than half the costs of driving in Europe -- fuel runs around $3 a gallon, which is 3.75 liters. Is that 60 Euro cents a liter? My math may be a little off -- but we American refuse to pay taxes, so everything is cheap! Cars are pretty cheap, too -- you could get a reliable, old Toyota-type car for around $3000, and maybe sell it back at the end of your trip (or loan it to your friends, until you come back next time? !)

OK, hope this all helps -- keep in touch, and let me know how it works out.

Happy Trails,



Jamie Jensen
---
Road Trip USA

Deep South & Route 66 -- in Deep Winter?

Hi Jamie,

i'm looking for information to organise a roadtrip from florida to california. When i saw your site, i was amazed about the useful information that's on it!

We are 2 girls, 26, from france and belgium. We've never been to the US. We're planning a road trip for 5 weeks, in January and February.

We'd like to rent a car in Florida (probably Miami), and drive to San Francisco (one way). We'd love to go to Alabama, Mississipi, New Orleans, New Mexico, Arizona, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and then drive up along the coast to San Francisco. There's only one driver. We'll have to move slowly. We don't like racing through these states, we want to see America, not just passing by in a car

:)

Do you think 5 weeks is enough for this trip?

Have you got any idea of the budget we need per person? We plan to camp, sleep in cheap motels/hostels, make our own food,...

And do you know where we can rent a cheap car, and which model we might need?
Do you think the weather conditions are OK to make this drive through the south?

I'm sorry, i have so much questions.

If you can help us out a little bit, that would be great.

If not, still thanks a lot!

N
===>>>

Hi there N --

Many thanks for writing in to Road Trip USA, and for your kind words about the website. If you think the website's cool, I'd like to suggest that you check out my book version, which has tons more information, as well as color photos and nicer maps. And it's on "special sale" in Europe right now, just in time for Christmas:

:-)

About your trip -- 5 weeks, coast to coast, sounds wonderful! You plan to stay in inexpensive motels sounds good -- this way you can invest in better food, and avoid all the junk (McDonald's etc) food that lines America's highways. The best thing about driving along the older roads, like I recommend in Road Trip USA, is that you get to eat at unique, local places, rather than anodyne national chains.

About the car rental, I think you might find it is significantly cheaper if you rent a car and return from the same location, rather than taking a long-distance, one-way trip. Florida is usually a good cheap to rent a car -- and it's good you are 26 years old, because that is the minimum age for a lot of car rental companies.

Weather will be winter, but nothing like as cold as Europe -- with a couple of exceptions* , it's very rare for snow to fall anywhere along your routes. The Gulf Coast area, from Florida down to Texas, is lined by lovely beaches, and it all seems to have recovered from the bad "BP" oil spill of earlier this year.

(*The one thing you should be careful about, weather-wise, is elevation -- there are some mountains you will cross where you can get hit by winter storms. Places you may want to see -- like the Grand Canyon in Arizona --are more than mile high and often covered in snow, which is pretty but potentially treacherous for driving. The rest of the way should be pretty clear. )

I don't know what you time constraints might be, but if you could take your New Orleans trip in late February, you could experience the cheerful madness of Mardi Gras, which is a blast . You also might be interested to tour some of the "Cajun Country" west and north of New Orleans, which was settled around 250 years ago by French colonists exiled from Canada when the English took that over.

As far as a budget, I think you could get a car for $1000 ($150 per week); gas would cost $500-600; motels probably $2000 ($60 a night on average -- be sure to look into staying in YHA / HI youth hostels in cities -- especially San Francisco, which has some gorgeous hostels. These are clean and pleasant and cheap, and you might meet fellow travelers.)

So, that adds up to US$3500, divided between the two of you, comes to $1750 -- about 1300 Euros (I think) each, for car, gas and lodging.

Plus food and fun (museums, Disney World, etc) -- maybe another $50 a day? You could definitely get by on much less -- if you eat breakfast and lunch and make your own dinners (like you can at hostels), you can live pretty well on $25 a day. (20 Euros a day?)

By the way, seeing as you have 5 weeks, I think you could get all the way from Florida to San Francisco and back again, and not feel like you're doing too much driving. So long as you stop the car every hours or so and go for a walk, huge swathes of America look best from the highway -- just make sure you bring enough good music with you to make the miles go past more painlessly!

OK, there are some big ideas -- hope all this helps you to plan a great trip.

Happy Trails,



Jamie Jensen
---
Road Trip USA

US50 & Route 66 Loop?

Hi Jamie --

My husband and I are considering a road trip out west this year. We've been intrigued with both Route 50 and Route 66 and completed a stretch from Cincinnati to Ocean City, Md a few years back on 50.

I'm curious about US-50 traveling west and coming back east on 66. Is it reasonable to think we can accomplish this in a 2-week period and actually see some sites?

Thanks,


Glenna

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Dear Glenna --

Many thanks for writing in to Road Trip USA -- I think I can help you plan a fun and memorable road trip!

If you take US50 west to San Francisco, cruise south along the beautiful Pacific Coast Highway, then head back home along Route 66, you're looking at something close to 5000 miles, which if you give yourself two weeks would work out at an average of just over 300 miles a day -- or about 5 hours of driving each day. Which sounds like a lot, but if you could add a couple of days, and maybe have some long days broken up with some more leisurely days, it could make for a fantastic trip.

Alternately, you might want to think about taking US50 as far as the Utah national parks, then heading south thru the spectacular Four Corners region -- Monument Valley and all that, and maybe the Grand Canyon -- before heading back east via Route 66 from Santa Fe NM. This would save you around 1000 miles (and at least $1000 in West Coast hotel prices!), and would give you more time to savor the sights along the way.

Then again, some people could spend 2 weeks just in San Francisco, so everything depends on you and your tastes.

:-)

I would say 3 weeks would be closer to an ideal amount of time to do the full cross-country loop, but depending on your stamina (and if you can take turns driving, which I hardly ever can...), there are some wonderful things to see and do, no matter how far you decide to go. One the route west, I really like stretch of US50 across southern Indiana (thanks to Larry Bird's French Lick, and the historic hotel at West Baden Springs), and if you are a history buff the old Santa Fe and Oregon Trail remnants make the drive across Kansas more interesting than it might otherwise appear. The best parts of US50 are across Colorado (highlights here include Royal Gorge, Salida and the Million Dollar Highway); the amazing national parks of Utah (Arches, Canyonlands and many more), the wide open spaces of Pony Express country, on the Loneliest Road across Nevada; and Lake Tahoe and San Francisco in California.

The drive south from SF to LA is one of my favorites in the world -- Hwy-1 from Monterey and Carmel, through Big Sur, is deservedly an All American Highway, the best of the best (and worth dedicating 2 days to, at least). Then you can have fun in the expensive-but-idyllic southern California paradise of Santa Barbara, before cruising thru Hollywood and heading back east on legendary Route 66.

Next stop: London Bridge? or the Grand Canyon? (or Sedona, or the Native American lands of the Four Corners region -- all of which are unforgettable!)

Then there's Santa Fe New Mexico, then the Great Plains (to my mind, the best and longest stretches of old Route 66 run across Oklahoma). Then comes the Ozark hill country (and Branson Missouri, if you want to see any of your old favorite TV entertainers). Then St Louis and home again. Sound fun?

As you hint from your question, you may feel this means too much driving and not enough "seeing the sights" -- but if you can find a balance between all this, you will have a fine time. As you may have found on your Ocean City road trip, once you get in the right groove a road trip is a great way to see America. For me, driving 100 miles, stopping for cherry pie and a cup of coffee in a small-town diner, wandering around oddball local museums or hiking thru a state park, then getting back in the car and doing it all again a couple hours later, is a perfect pleasure. However and wherever you go, the magic lies in doing what you want to do, when and how you like, and the flexibility a road trip offers is pretty hard to beat.

And the western US places you are thinking of seeing are really amazing -- and to my eye are best experienced via a road trip along great old roads like US50 and Route 66.

Hope this helps you have a great trip! Thanks again for writing in, and keep in touch,

Happy Trails,



Jamie Jensen
---
Road Trip USA

** On Sale Now **

Rocky Mountains Road Trip

Hi Jamie!

Let me start by saying I love your website and route planners! I live in London and have been obsessed with America for a LONG time!

My brother lives in Portland,OR and I've been lucky enough to come over 4 times in the past 2 yrs to see him. For this reason I am a bit more biased towards the west coast and just think people are so much more chilled and happy on that side of America! I have been to New York twice and Boston and can say the people were not so friendly and helpful! I think living in London too I see the similaritiess between the two bustling, cosmopolitan cities and as much as I love them the feeling I have in me when I think of the west coast leaves me with delight and excitement about my next adventure!

I did a roadtrip in June with my partner and my brother and his partner which was fantastic! we started off in Portland and made out way down towards California going through napa, san fran, big sur, santa cruz, santa barbara towards LA where we did some partying (ending up in Johnny depps old haunt on sunset boulevard) then headed towards Las Vegas and then death valley to yosemite and up to lake tahoe...it was awesome and well, the next adventure is going to be even bigger!!

Basically my next wish is to head for the rockies and then onto the great plains so we were thinking Portland thru idaho,utah,colorado,new mexico,texas, then up thru oklahoma, kansas, nebraska, south dakota and then head back west thru wyoming and back to oregon...its gonna be a long one but I feel these states are all well worth a visit and if I going out that far I should try and see them all! basically I would like your tips on what there is to see in each of these states and highlights..also how long roughly would all this take??

we obv don't want to be driving non stop and want to see the big places ( yellowstone park,badlands,rocky mts...) and we will prob hire a car or maybe take my brothers, and stay in motels, so money wise do u have any idea how much all this could cost??? sorry! lots of questions! but any help or advice from u would be fantastic!!

thank you and can't wait to hear back from you!

becky.x


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Hi Becky --

Thanks for your kind words about my Road Trip USA website, and my fellow West Coasters, and I hope I can help you plan a great trip around the Rockies.

I'm not sure I can replicate hanging out with Johnny Depp on Sunset Strip, but I can recommend a diner in Idaho that was once owned by Bruce Willis...

:-)

I cover the areas you want to tour, and a whole lot more -- so if you like route planners and website, let me say there's a lot more info and ideas (and pictures and maps etc) in the book version of Road Trip USA, 40% off with Free Shipping in the UK (or so the website tells me).

But seriously, there are some fabulous places to see. Starting in Portland, you can head east up the Columbia River thru the beautiful Columbia Gorge, where there are lovely waterfalls and a couple of very stylish little hotel/restaurants (the Columbia Gorge hotel, and the landmark Timberline Lodge up on Mount Hood), though I suspect your brother knows more about the ever-trendy, always-enjoyable Portland area than I ever will.

Getting back to your question, I think driving to New Mexico & Texas is more than you'll want to tackle, but that said there are some great destinations closer to Portland that you'll definitely want to see. Heading for the Rockies is a good plan: the northern Rockies have some amazing national parks (most famously Yellowstone and Glacier), and there are also some enjoyable small towns and cities here among the mountains: Whitefish and Missoula in Montana, Sandpoint and tiny Stanley in Idaho, are very fun places to stay while you're exploring the surrounding vastness.

East of the Rockies, it's another 500 or so mile to the Black Hills of South Dakota, where you can pay respects to the famous Presidential Heads of Mount Rushmore, as well as the Badlands and the historic scenes of Wounded Knee. This all might be too much driving -- and the partying possibilities of the Great Plains are pretty limited -- but you will definitely have an unforgettable feel for just how varied and huge the USA really is.

Or if the Great Plains don't appeal quite so much as New Mexico, you could head south from Yellowstone on a gorgeous drive, by way of the red-rock sandstone of Utah's national parks, down Colorado's Million Dollar Highway to Durango and Telluride, and on to Taos and Santa Fe NM. Which are gorgeous, enjoyable, civilized places -- surrounded by stunning wild landscapes of the predominantly Native American "Four Corners" region.

Costs and time to do this is really hard to figure -- you could definitely make Yellowstone from Portland, and have fun doing so, in a week-long round-trip, and if you stay in motels you could do it for less than $1500. Then again, you can spend that much per night on a Ralph Lauren-style "dude ranch" resort in Wyoming, so it's really all up to you. If you went as far as Mt Rushmore or Santa Fe, you'd want more time, for sure -- but you could do it all in a crazy 2-week road trip (especially if you had some downtime in Portland, before and after the road trip, to deal with trans-Atlantic jet lag and highway-induced white-line fever!)

Hope this helps, and "Happy Trails" and happy holidays, too,



Jamie Jensen
---
Road Trip USA

Southern Pacific -- By Motorcycle

Hi Jamie --

My husband and I are taking another cross country trip on our Harley. We used your book when planning a few other trips on Hwy 93, US-20, US -50 and Route 66. We’re thinking of taking US-80 with a stop in New Orleans in May/June next year. Your thoughts are appreciated.

Also, are there plans to publish your book as an eBook anytime soon?

Jeanne

====

hi again Jeanne -- and sorry it took me a while to get back to you. I had a great family road trip down the California coast -- but completely lost track of my email.

Apologies! (Also, sorry to say we still haven't yet figured out how to publish the Road Trip material as an eBook -- I did help put together a Android smartphone app for Route 66, so I'm trying, but basically it's all pretty overwhelming -- so if you have any ideas, I'm all ears!)

About your trip: May / June is great time to do the "Old Spanish Trail" along US-80, especially if you add in a detour south to New Orleans (though you will miss the end of JazzFest -- which happens the first week in May...)

About the changes since your edition of the book, there have been a lot -- big, small and in between. Most of the changes between 2001 and the current one are to do with restaurants and hotels -- some changed owners, or changed names or phone numbers, some closed and some have opened.

The biggest loss along old US80, to my mind, was Len Berg's fantastic little diner in downtown Macon GA -- it closed in ~ 2005, after 97 years in business...

The main new "attractions" are a number of high-style art museums in Dallas and Fort Worth area, a Eudora Welty museum in her longtime Jackson MS home, and a nifty new bridge carrying US-93 over the Colorado River, near Hoover Dam -- which looks amazing, but I haven't seen it.

On the downside, all over the Southwest you have to factor in the pretty scary, drug-related violence that has been flaring up, esp in El Paso / Juarez area. All this makes me think twice before crossing the border (I used to love the drive / ride down from near Tucson to Puerto Penasco on the Sea of Cortez, but don't know if I would do it these days).

Finally, don't know if Kartchner Caverns was open when your edition came out -- located near Benson Arizona, this is a wonderful place to see.
URL: http://www.explorethecaverns.com/

Anyway, those are a few of the biggest changes -- hope it helps you have a great trip.

Happy Trails,


Jamie Jensen
==
Road Trip USA

Old West, via US50

Hi Jamie,

I've got a couple of your books (Road Trip USA and Road Trip Route 66) that I've read with interest. Spent 3 weeks of 2010 and again in 2009 travelling around Arizona and New Mexico, and plan to do a Washington to San Francisco trip between end of July and September next year. We aim to take 5 or 6 weeks to do the trip, and already have a list of places we want to see. We're going to do as much of the trip across on Highway 50 as possible, rather than the other alternatives. Plan to come off this road to see such places as Deadwood, Mount Rushmore, Wounded Knee, Crater of Diamonds in Arkansas, Dead Horse Point in Utah. Really interested in the old west, so while on Highway 50 will stop off at the likes of Dodge City and Wichita.

I wondered if there were any other places that maybe you could suggest that we try and fit in on our way across, especially any with an 'old west' feel about them?

Thanks very much,

Cheers,

Chris...........

===>>>

Hello Chris --

Many thanks for writing in to Road Trip US, and for checking out my books. There are many great places with a "Wild West" feel for you to visit on your trip -- and you are fortunate to have so much time to see these places, which can take some time to reach, and to appreciate. Dead Horse Point, for instance, is a long long way from anywhere, but when you get there make sure you spend enough time to get away from your car, and you'll be overwhelmed by the scale of the surroundings. (So long as you don't suffer from any fear of heights!)

Though I would suggest you take as many detours as you can manage, the US-50 "Loneliest Road" route is a fantastic way to organize your trip -- especially across Nevada, and Utah, and Colorado, this road passes across perhaps the most extensive stretch of undeveloped landscape left in the USA. In Nevada the route basically parallels the route of old Pony Express, which to me is the quintessential enterprise of the American frontier, and if get away from the highway you can still follow the route and see almost no sign of the modern world (apart from occasional USNavy fighter jets, which scared the stuffing out of me one trip...).

Another real highlight along US50 is Bent's Old Fort, in eastern Colorado -- this is a reconstruction, but an accurate and evocative recreation of a lonely frontier trading post, and the setting is superb. They sometime host "Living History" re-enactments of the way things were back in the 19th Century , as do the many other preserved forts around the Rockies and Great Plains.

Also great along US50 is the town of Independence, where many of the old "Emigrant Trails" started off -- and nearby you have Kansas City and the small town of Liberty Missouri -- where Jesse James did his first bank robbery (and where not much has happened since!)

There are many other places with an "Old West " feel you might want to add to your plans, especially if you can take some detours off US-50: along my US-2 Great Northern route, one place I like a lot is the "Buffalo Trails Museum" town in Epping, North Dakota (RTUSA p 486), which is not far from the more developed Fort Union Nat'l Historical Park, on the Montana / ND border -- they have a big 'living history" Rendezvous every June. There are also a lot of Lewis & Clark-related locations all over the Pacific Northwest (I cover many of them on RTUSA pp 172-173).

Along my US-20 "Oregon Trail" route, there are many intriguing historical stops, as you might guess from the name. I really like Fort Robinson, in the "Sand Hills" area of Nebraska, not far from Deadwood & Mt Rushmore & Wounded Knee -- I cover this on page 577 of Road Trip USA) . In nearby Chadron, the Museum of the Fur Trade is fascinating, if you like this era (as I do!)

There are also quite a few "Wild West" towns, such as Tombstone Arizona, and ghost towns (like Bodie in eastern California, and Oatman AZ on Route 66, which are worth a visit.

Back along US-50, I'm not so sure about the tourism potential of Dodge City -- which has a bustling beef-products industry, but little of the romance of cowboys and the old times -- though nearby Fort Larned is definitely worth a look, even if you are not at all obsessed with the military aspects of the Wild West.

Further afield, the Southwest in general has many great "old west" sights, and though you may have seen all these sights on your last trip, I had to say it's a wonderful place to explore. Back before the railroads started slicing up the country in the 1870s, Santa Fe New Mexico was the center of this part of the world, and it still retains a ton of character -- and along with nearby Taos it's all very pretty, and very civilized as well (great restaurants!) The Native American remnants are of course another important aspect of the American story, and there are many great sights to see -- in the pueblo & Navajo communities around Santa Fe area, but (alas..) most of the real compelling icons are now in museums like the Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody Wyoming, near Yellowstone, and the Amon Carter museum in Fort Worth (and by the way, thinking of a "old west" tour, the Fort Worth Stockyards is an unforgettable taste of Texas, and Texas is a crucial part of the Old West story).

OK, that may well be more (or less...) than you wanted -- but I hope you can tell from my breathless enthusiasm that I think you will have a fantastic trip next summer.

(And I also wanted to thank you for the lead on the Crater of Diamonds -- I had never heard of it before!)

Please keep in touch, and "Happy Trails!"

with best wishes,


Jamie Jensen
---
Road Trip USA

===>>>

Hi Jamie,

Thanks ever so much for your detailed mail.

I'm going to incorporate a lot of it into our travel plans.

I'll let you know how it goes - I'm really looking forward to it.

A lot of people knock Tombstone, but having spent time there this year and last year I like the place. Close your eyes and you can imagine the way it was....especially if you get there early before the crowds. Great to stand on Fremont Street where the gun fight happened!!

Thanks again,

Cheers,

Chris.....................

Budget for 2-Week West Coast Road Trip

Hi Jamie

Great website!

I came across your website after Googling ‘USA West Coast road trip’ and I just thought I’d run a trip my friends and I are planning, with you:

We are 4 South Africans (all in our mid 20’s) planning a road trip on the USA West Coast in January 2011.

We will be landing in Los Angeles (LAX) on Saturday, 15 January 2011 and will depart from LAX on Friday, 28 January 2011. We basically plan on spending a few days in LA, visiting Vegas, San Francisco, etc.

In terms of a rough budget, here are our calculations:

Car hire: $900 for car hire for the 14 day period – taking into consideration our luggage, we are looking at getting an SUV

Gas: $300 for the entire trip

Accommodation: $100 per night/$1400 for the 14 day period. We were thinking of a 1 bedroom/2 double beds kind of set up

We would like to confirm our exact route by (latest) the end of December 2010 and in the interim – we are looking at prices of hotels in the areas that we driving through, ticket prices to theme parks/shows, etc. (e.g. Universal Studios, Disneyland, etc.)

Your thoughts/advice on the above would be great and MUCH appreciated! :o)

P.S. I have been to the USA a few times before as I have family in both Las Vegas and Los Angeles – my cousins up there are drafting up possible route(s) for us.


Regards

Brad

===>>>

Hello there Brad --

Thank you for writing in to Road Trip USA, and I hope you have a great trip. You're lucky to have cousins to help you plan your routes -- there are some fantastic places ahead of you. On your way between Las Vegas and SF, don't miss Yosemite National Park, which is gorgeous in the snow, and Death Valley, which is sunny and warm (but not _too_ warm) in winter.

I think your budget calculations are just about right on the money -- though fuel prices may be a bit higher (especially if you get a big beast of an SUV). To save on accommodation, I would suggest you look for deals before you land -- especially in cities like SF and LA and Las Vegas (in Las Vegas, prices can vary hugely, and the same room can cost anywhere from $75 to $250 a night, depending on when you buy it!) Most hotels will have a "two queen bed" option -- "queen"-sized beds are 60" wide and big enough for two people to share, but in America a "double" bed is about 8 inches narrower than a queen, and can be a bit tight (not matter how friendly you are with your bed-mate!)

Also, look out for the many good "advance purchase" deal out there, for attractions like Disneyland (where January is very much low season -- there will be coupons aplenty, online and in hotel lobbies).

Hope this helps -- have fun!



-- Jamie Jensen
---
Road Trip USA

===

Hi Jamie

Thanks for the feedback :)

You are spot on about booking our accommodation before hand! We have been using www.hotels.com for this and have come across AWESOME deals – well within our budget for hotels for everywhere from LA to Vegas :)

Also, while hunting online – we also came across super online only specials for attractions like Universal Studios, Disneyland, etc. This is why I’m taking along my laptop so that we an hunt for cool online deals, while we are up there!

Thanks for the heads up about the gas money as well, we’ll definitely budget for more in this respect!


Regards
Brad

Cross-Country, in Winter

Jamie-

Have you book and love it. I'm taking a car from Los Angeles to the East Coast. Unfortunately I need to do this in January or early February. Looking at taking Route 66 thru Oklahoma, and then going south to the Southern Pacific route to Atlanta.

I would love to take the Appalachian Trail from Atlanta north but very worried about the weather during this time of year. What is your suggestion?

Looking for a ten day trip and will end up in Boston.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Casey


===========


Hi Casey --

Many thanks for your note, and glad to hear you like my book! I've just started work on the next edition (#6!), so if you have time to take some notes on your trip, let me know.

Midwinter road trips are definitely more challenging than ones taken in the warm summer months, but I think you should be alright. The biggest advantage of tracing old Route 66 in particular is that you're never far from a snow-plowed Interstate (I-40 casts a shadow over RT66 most of the way across the USA.)

Between RT66 and Atlanta, I'd recommend a pilgrimage along the Great River Road to Memphis, and the Mississippi Delta -- and maybe New Orleans, just in time for Mardi Gras!

Winter weather can be an issue on the Appalachian Trail route -- one March I got blocked by snows off my desired route north of Asheville, the highest part of the Blue Ridge Parkway, so I ended up heading north along I-81, which is possibly the prettiest Interstate route there is, outside New England. I love the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, and when you get to Pennsylvania be sure to stop at "Roadside America", one of the country's all-time-great tourist attractions.

My main suggestion, if you really want to do all that (4000 miles?) of driving in 10 days and retain your sanity, is to wake up early and be on the road as soon as the sun rises, so you can see as much as you can and get your miles done during daylight -- driving after dark, especially in winter, is really asking for trouble. And when you're on the road, find yourself a place to stay for the night before it gets dark -- then eat your dinner after you've got settled, without ruining your digestion worrying about where you're going to sleep. I am definitely not a "early bird" metabolizer, but I have found that this makes for happier traveling than the alternative.

And much as I enjoy two-lane highways, in bad weather and after dark the Interstates really are safer; just make sure you escape the franchises along the frontage roads, and find yourself some classic diners -- which are plentiful, especially in the Northeast.

Hope this helps. Be safe, and let me know what you find! Happy Trails,



Jamie Jensen
---
Road Trip USA

All-USA road trip -- summer 2014!

Hi Jamie!

I'm looking for some advice. We are a couple planning on doing a road trip when I've finished my studying in about three years or so.

We have never been to USA and we thought New York would be a nice place to start. We are planning to drive from east to west coast and we will spend about six weeks, since we don't want to stress and maybe miss things.

This is what we have planned so far:

Starting out in New York, driving south via Washington DC and Outer Banks in North Carolina. Then driving down to Florida, visiting Miami and Key West.

We are thinking of maybe drive from Florida to New Orleans and then to Memphis (and maybe visiting Nashville for a day or two), since we are very interested in music, but after that we don't really know.

We have also thought about visiting Zion National Park, the Grand Canyon, the Hoover Dam and spending a couple of nights in Las Vegas before we're heading to Los Angeles, and then ending our trip in San Francisco.

So, we don't know where to go between Memphis and Zion. Do you have any places to recommend? We would like to see great nature and visit small nostalgic diners
and so on. See the real America, not just the big cities.

We would really appreciate your help.

Thanks a lot!

Emma

==>>>

Hi Emma --

Thank you for writing in to Road Trip USA, and sorry it took me a while to get back to you. That's what you get for giving me 3 years advance notice!.

:-)

I'm assuming you are coming to the USA from another country (England, perhaps?), and am patriotically pleased that you would want to celebrate finishing your studies by traveling around the USA. I think you'll have a blast, and think six weeks will be a very generous amount of time to explore and enjoy the places you mention.

I have lots of details on almost all of your destinations -- the Outer Banks, Key West, Memphis, New Orleans, LA, the Grand Canyon, SF, and Las Vegas et al -- in the book version of Road Trip USA, and also in an abridged format on the website, so what I'll try to do in this reply is give you some practical, advance planning advice. Such as this: I think it may be cheaper to think about getting a couple of rental cars to do the different parts of your trip, rather than have one car for the whole "shebang". It's usually about half the cost to rent a car, if you return it to the same place you started, rather than drop it off on the other side of the USA. ($800 a month compared to nearly $2000!)

So maybe you can link a couple of road trips with a flight or two in between. Or, if you have your heart set on a cross-country drive, you may want to consider making a full-circle of cross-country drives -- maybe heading west from NYC thru the Deep South, Texas and Route 66, then heading back east across Montana by way of Chicago and Detroit.

Road Trip USA is full of the sorts of things you seem to be looking for along the way -- small towns, roadside diners, wonderful scenery -- so I hope you get a chance to "test-drive" my routes on the website, and in the book as well. And please keep in touch as you get closer to your trip!

Happy Trails,



Jamie Jensen
---
Road Trip USA

Save 40% at

Big West Road Trip

Hello Jamie,

My husband and I are planning a looping road-trip starting and ending in LA.

We want to go up the coast (along your route 1) to your Oregon Trail trip (route 8, through OR and WY), then cut down down through Colorado to follow Route 66 (route 11), ending back in LA.

How much time do you think this would this take, factoring in normal
amounts of site-seeing (we have up to 3 months)?

Also, can you offer any good recommendations for a route from Yellowstone to RT66, through Colorado?

Thanks very much. Love your site!

Tamsin

--
www.SouthboundGringos.com

===>>>


Hola Tamsin --


Many thanks for your message, and sorry it took me so long to get back to you -- hope I can help you with the trans-USA phase of your great adventure.

The big question, about how much time this trip can take, is basically impossible to answer; it all depends on how long you linger along the way. And with LA, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, the dozens of national parks and millions of miles of highway to explore, there are endless opportunities for lingering and enjoying yourself.

(Plus there's Canada to consider -- the Rockies there are at least as breathtakingly beautiful, and in many ways more civilized and enjoyable, than the great expanses of Montana and Wyoming and Colorado.)

Even if you don't linger very long in the cities, you'll want to have at least 3 weeks to see the highlights -- add a few days for each big city for wining and dining and museum-going, and 6 weeks, or your full 3 months, will fill up fast.

About your other question, I do have a specific suggestion for a route between "8 and 11 through Colorado": while Denver and Boulder are interesting cities, to my mind the really amazing scenery is the far southwest of the state, along the "Million Dollar Highway", thru Durango and Telluride, and on to the cliff palaces of Mesa Verde National Park, linking up with Route 66 in the magic city of Taos and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Then you can head back to LA via the Navajo lands of Gallup (cool old hotel there -- the El Rancho!), the Teepee-shaped motel of Wigwam Village in Holbrook AZ, and of course the Grand Canyon. Fantastic... I'm very jealous!

Very glad you like my website, and I hope you'll get a chance to check out my Road Trip USA book -- which is more up to date, and has tons more pictures and maps and travel idea and fun factoid trivia, than what's up on the website. I'll keep checking your progress via your weblog/website, and wish you "buena suerte" in all your travels.

Vaya con Dios, Happy Trails,



Jamie Jensen
--
Road Trip USA

Texas to Yellowstone - Road trip to celebrate retirement!

Jamie,

Love the web site!

We will retire this may after 40 years of coaching football. We have never had a non-summer vacation. We are planning on a three week trip to Yellowstone. we live in Fort Worth and could use some advice on sites on the way.

Thanks,

Pat

===>>>

Dear Pat --

Congratulations on your upcoming retirement, and thank you for writing to me about your next May road trip to Yellowstone. I'm sorry it took me so long to get back to you; over Thanksgiving I seem to have lost track of a few things -- like answering my emails. Apologies!

For a three-week trip, you'll probably want at least a week in Yellowstone itself -- to enjoy all the geysers, the "Grand Canyon", and take a trip to neighboring Cody Wyoming, home of the fantastic Buffalo Bill wild west museum. (Which is _almost_ as good as your Amon Carter museum...). The Grand Tetons are also amazing -- though in may you run the risk of having to cope with lots of snow on trails and roads.

If you give yourself a week to get there and a week to get back, between Ft Worth and Wyoming there are a lot of fascinating possibilities. If I were doing the drive, I would probably head north and approach the Rockies via the North Platte River, along the old Oregon Trail, enjoying historic sites like Register Cliff and Chimney Rock and Fort Laramie (and maybe the Black Hills / Mt Rushmore area?)

Devil's Tower and the "Little Bighorn" battlefield are also (sort of ) on the way, if the weather looks cooperative. If the snows have cleared by May, the most scenic approach drive is via US-212 over Beartooth Pass (URL: http://www.beartoothhighway.com/ )

On the way back to Fort Worth, I'd be tempted to cross the Rockies and come back via Utah's national parks (Arches and Canyonlands et al), looping south through Monument Valley and the Four Corners region (I love Mesa Verde and the other ancient cliff palaces, like Canyon de Chelley in Arizona).

To finish the trip, you could visit Carlsbad Caverns and the Guadalupe Mountains (the highest peaks in Texas!). A clockwise tour would work, too.

You may well have been to some or all of these places, but I hope these suggestions help you have a great trip. I'm glad you've enjoyed the website, and if you get a chance I'd like to recommend the book version of Road Trip USA, which is more up-to-date, has lots of nice photos and extra info, in 900+ full color pages.

(It's 35% off at Amazon, too! ) :-)

Happy Trails,


Jamie Jensen
---
Road Trip USA

Pacific Coast drive - in January?

Hi,

My boyfriend and I are planning a driving trip along the Pacific Coast in late January. We have to start in San Diego as he'll be there for a business meeting, and we can only spend about five days on vacation after that. I'm wondering how much of the coast is a reasonable distance to cover in that timeframe? We need to figure out where to book our flight home from. Don't want to end up having to hurry or have really long driving days and not see anything along the way.

Thanks!

Jen

===

Hi Jen --

Many thanks for writing in to Road Trip USA, and I hope the weather cooperates so you can have a memorable cruise along the California coast. It is absolutely gorgeous right now, and January can be lovely (so long as no "El Nino" storms are passing through...)

I have a couple of ideas about your trip. First off, I might suggest that you explore the areas closest to San Diego on day-trips -- maybe late afternoons, or early mornings, depending on your bf's business schedule. There are a lot of nice places within an hour of SD (La Jolla for one, on the northern fringes of San Diego, and there are number of nice towns like San Juan Capistrano, along the coast up through Laguna Beach.)

I suggest this because the joys of the coast fade around metro LA -- so if you see the San Diego coast on shorter trips first, you can then race thru LA, and get back to the attractive places further north (like Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Big Sur, and Carmel!) This way, on a 5-day trip, you can really see everything, and have time to enjoy it all, all the way north to San Francisco. From San Diego, I'd suggest an itinerary something like this, which has about 150 miles of driving each day (and quite a lot of the driving is truly spectacular -- Hwy-1 north from LA through Malibu to Santa Barbara is like being in the movies, and Hwy-1 thru Big Sur is truly unforgettable!).

Also, January is perfect time of year to see some of the migrating Gray Whales, either right from the shore or from a boat (Santa Barbara and Monterey both have boats offering whale-watching trips)

Here goes:

Day One: SD to Santa Barbara (I-5 from SD to LA, then Hwy-1, the Pacific Coast Highway).
Day 2: Santa Barbara to San Luis Obispo.
Day 3: Hearst Castle, then up the coast on Hwy-1 thru Big Sur. Overnight in Big Sur if you like to camp, or can afford to splurge on some luxurious lodgings. I personally like Deetjen's, a very rustic, very Big Sur inn (I cover this in Road Trip USA -- pages 75-80.)
Day 4: Point Lobos in the morning, then on to Carmel -- which has a lovely Spanish Colonial mission, and a gorgeous beach. Then, depending on your taste and timing, you can ride rollercoasters in funky Santa Cruz, or head up to San Francisco, which is a gorgeous city.

Five days is more than enough time to do this trip, and have fun. It's about 600 miles from SD to SF, so you can set an agreeable pace, and be flexible -- if you find a place you like, stay a bit longer, and you can make up time later. That's one of the many great joys of a road trip!

Hope this helps, and Happy Trails,



Jamie Jensen
---
Road Trip USA



===


Thank you so much! I bought your book and it's great!

Jen
-

Thanks!

Solo Road Trip in April

Hi Jamie --

I am a student from France, and want to do a road trip around the USA, in a car, on my own, like the character from Jim Harrison book "The English Major" - Have your read it? It's a story of a man who decided to leave everything to cross the USA (it's all about freedom). I'm sure you'll love it! (URL here: http://www.amazon.com/English-Major-Novel-Jim-Harrison/dp/0802144144/ref=tmm_pap_title_0

I want to do my trip around April during 1 month (or maybe more) but I'm still hesitated between your "Border to Border" (from LA) or "The road to nowhere" road trip. I have to prepare it seriously but sometimes it's good to be lost! :)

What was your favorite road trip - I you had to choose one?

Merci
Alex
===>>

Hello Alex --

Many thanks for your reply, and for your mention of the Jim Harrison book. I have enjoyed many of his other works over the years, and very much liked The English Major -- the adventures and insights remind me what is so great about road trips around the USA. Thank you for the tip! I was tickled by the "puzzle pieces" motif, and shared his character's dismay at mobile phones and other techno-chatter. ( Which is an odd thing for me to say, I suppose, via email to a person on the other side of the world, but "c'est la vie", yes? )

:-)

Anyway, about your trip: April is a lovely time to be "on the road," but the weather can still be very wintery, so I would point you toward the southerly reaches -- Arizona is at its best at that time of year, so the US-93 / Border to Border trip is perfect (I love Saguaro National Park and the environs of Tucson, which is a pretty civilized place compared to most of the desert Southwest.)

I really like the stretch of my "Southern Pacific" trip along old US-80 through Tombstone (Wild West gunslingers abound!) and especially Bisbee, which is a scenic old 1890s mining town that has been re-born as an artists / hippy community. I also really enjoy traveling in the "Four Corners" region, where New Mexico and Utah and Colorado join Arizona, at the heart of the historic Native American lands (lots of lovely amazing cliff palaces, especially at Canyon de Chelley and Mesa Verde National Park). This is all pretty high-altitude country, so you can get snow and cold weather in April, but it is spectacular and very rich in historic and cultural energy.

To keep all this in perspective, I'd also recommend you spend some time further west, in California -- I just got back from a trip through Big Sur and Santa Barbara along the Pacific Coast Highway, and though I have done it dozens of times in years past I was still amazed by the awesome beauty and wild-ness. Fantastic -- mountains, forests, and golden sand beaches, giant whales and seals and hawks, alongside acres of dully comfortable modern suburbia.

So I hope you will "go for it", as we Americans say. You could definitely have a great month covering this 1000-mile (1600km?) square region -- and if you wanted to combine with a $200 cross-country flight, you could also maybe get another car and set off to explore the "Deep South" corner of the USA -- New Orleans, Savannah, Missisippi, Memphis et al. Another slice of unforgettable Americana, also at its best in April / May.

OK, there are some ideas of my "favorite road trip" -- hope they help you have a great time. Keep in touch, and


Happy Trails,



Jamie Jensen
---
Road Trip USA

On Sale in Europe, too!

All America Tour

Hello Jamie,

My husband and I are planning a looping road-trip starting and ending
in LA. We want to go up route 1 to route 8, through OR and WY, then
cut down down through Colorado to route 11, ending back in LA. How
much time do you think this would this take, factoring in normal
amounts of site-seeing (we have up to 3 months)? Also, can good
recommendations for a route from 8 to 11 through CO?

Thanks very much. Love your site!

Tamsin

--
www.SouthboundGringos.com

======>>

Hola Tamsin --


Many thanks for your message, and sorry it took me so long to get back to you -- hope I can help you with the trans-USA phase of your great adventure.

The big question, about how much time this trip can take, is basically impossible to answer; it all depends on how long you linger along the way. And with LA, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, the dozens of national parks and millions of miles of highway to explore, there are endless opportunities for lingering and enjoying yourself.

(Plus there's Canada to consider -- the Rockies there are at least as breathtakingly beautiful, and in many ways more civilized and enjoyable, than the great expanses of Montana and Wyoming and Colorado.)

Even if you don't linger very long in the cities, you'll want to have at least 3 weeks to see the highlights -- add a few days for each big city for wining and dining and museum-going, and 6 weeks, or your full 3 months, will fill up fast.

About your other question, I do have a specific suggestion for a route between Yellowstone and Route 66, via Colorado": while Denver and Boulder are interesting cities, to my mind the really amazing scenery is the far southwest of the state, along the "Million Dollar Highway", thru Durango and Telluride, and on to the cliff palaces of Mesa Verde National Park, linking up with Route 66 in the magic cities of Taos and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Then you can head back to LA via the Navajo lands of Gallup (cool old hotel there -- the El Rancho!), the Teepee-shaped motel of Wigwam Village in Holbrook AZ, and of course the Grand Canyon.

Fantastic... I'm very jealous!

Very glad you like my website, and I hope you'll get a chance to check out my Road Trip USA book -- which is more up to date, and has tons more pictures and maps and travel idea and fun factoid trivia, than what's up on the website. I'll keep checking your progress via your weblog / website, and wish you "buena suerte" in all your travels.

Vaya con Dios, Happy Trails,



Jamie Jensen
--
Road Trip USA

US-50 - best book for the drive?

Dear Sir,

I'm planning to travel over old US Route 50, from the West to East coast.

Which book do you recommend?

Many thanks in advance,

Pim B

===

Dear Pim --

Many thanks for writing in to Road Trip USA, and I hope you have a great trip.

As far as I know, Road Trip USA is the only real travel guidebook to Route 50 -- and if I do say so myself, it's pretty good. The Road Trip USA book is much more up to date than the website , and has much more information as well as full color maps and illustrations.


There have been a couple of "travelogues" written about driving Route 50 -- but the most recent I know of, a fun book by Jim Lilliefors called "Ain't That America", was written in the 1990s, which is a long time ago, now.

I haven't separated Route 50 into its "Loneliest Road" mini-book, as I have for Route 66 and other more famous roads, but I definitely think Route 50 is a fantastic, all-American highway. William Least-Heat Moon, the national expert on old roads and "Blue Highways", has said it's his favorite, too.

I hope you have a great trip -- and if you want more advice closer to your trip, please feel free to write me again.

Happy Trails,



Jamie Jensen
---
Road Trip USA

Cross-Country in less than a week?

Hi Jamie,

I recently moved from NY to CA but my car is still in NY. I will not be able to take more then 4 days off work and was wandering if its doable to fly to NY take my car and start driving on a Friday and get to CA by a Tuesday. Is this possible...?

I have never done a cross country trip however i always wanted to but this time i dont have much time and at this time of the year i am wondering if i should go for it.

I would appreciate your advise.

Nick


==

Hi Nick --

Many thanks for writing in to Road Trip USA -- in my younger freer days I would have read your note and immediately offered to do the drive for you (though preferably some time in summer, when the days are nice and long...)

That said, you can definitely make the drive in a long weekend -- if you figure it's 3000 miles coast to coast, at 75 mph that's 40 hours of driving. At 8-10 hours a day behind the wheel, you could leave NYC Friday morning, and be on the West Coast by Tuesday, for sure.

You'd probably want to take I-80 most if not all of of the way, and I'd recommend taking a long walk at least once a day, or a series of short jogs, to stretch legs and keep your body in working order. Lay off the temptations of caffeine & beer too, or you won't be able to get a good night's sleep, which is crucial for safe travel.

When I'm on a crazy road trip like this, to stay sane what I tend to do is jog around one or two sights I want to see -- for your trip, if you get an early start on Friday you could see the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland on Friday afternoon, then on Saturday have breakfast in Chicago and dinner in Des Moines.

Sunday you get to cross Nebraska, following the old pioneer trails along the North Platte River, if you like some historic resonance, or looking over the "World's Largest Railroad Yard" from atop the Golden Spike Tower in North Platte URL: http://www.goldenspiketower.net/dotnetnuke/Home.aspx

(The Great Plains are definitely the place to crank up the miles. )

Though I-80 continues west across Wyoming, whether or not you're going to Southern California, if I were you I'd want to detour south via Denver and I-70, which makes a spectacular cruise across the Rocky Mountains and the prettiest parts of the red-rock Colorado Plateau (Colorado NM near Grand Junction, and Arches and Canyonlands National Parks in Utah). Better than working on a Monday morning, for sure!

La (via Las Vegas) is a day's drive from here, so you could be "home" by Tuesday -- and if you are bound for SF then you can follow the fast and fascinating "Loneliest Road" along US-50 across Nevada, by way of Lake Tahoe.

Yes, it's a crazy long haul, but definitely do-able.

Go for it, for sure!

Hope this helps,



Jamie Jensen
---
Road Trip USA

Best Coast for road trips?

Hi Jamie, excellent website, great help!

My name's Nick and my brother and I are planning a possible road trip through America next summer (I am 25 and he will be 21). We are a pair of film makers and intend to treat half of the trip as holiday and half of it as an opportunity to create a great road trip video that includes amazing scenery as well as some funny happenings.

We are thinking of taking one of your routes and its either going to be Route 1 down the pacific or route 6 down the Atlantic.

Which one would you propose is the best for the following...

Amazing scenery
Great partying and nights out
Largest options for places to stay
nicest locals (we wanna avoid the scary hitchikers from all the horror road movies, hehe)
easiest roads

I was aiming for your Pacific Coast Highway "Route 1" originally, but your East Coast Route 6 seems rather nice after reading, and perhaps not so far out of our comfort zone, not that we aren't prepared to be uncomfortable :)

If you could chuck me a quick reply with the route you think is best for this trip I would really appreciate that.

Many thanks

Nick.


==

Hi Nick --

Many thanks for writing in to Road Trip USA, and if you like the website, I bet you'd love the book, which has tons more full color photos and info and maps, too.

Choosing between the two coastal trips is a tough call -- if you're after partying / fun and funky older Americana, I'd recommend the East Coast route, which passes through a lot of established summer beach resorts (Atlantic City and Wildwood NJ, Ocean City MD, Myrtle Beach SC and many "party towns" in Florida). There are also some cool historic sights -- like Savannah Georgia -- plus miles of wide open beaches. If you can add in a run to the north, the New England coast, especially Cape Cod, it's a wonderful trip.

Then again, the West Coast has some wild big cities -- San Francisco and Los Angeles -- and much more spectacular scenery, like the coastline of Big Sur.

Maybe you could do a little of each, linked by a wild ride across the USA?

And I'm sure the locals, and the roads, will be very welcoming wherever you go.

I know this reply may not make your make your decision any easier, but you'll have a blast for sure, one way or the other.

Happy Trails,


Jamie Jensen
--
Road Trip USA