Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Common Interests anybody know/experienced?

person i know is thinking about taking a trip from the west over to the east coast, here in VA...

i was curious if anyone has ever taken this type of road trip...

approximately how long did it take you? bad experiences? lots of tolls? ya know, the basics!

its about 1800 miles..

thanks for help, info, and suggestions

(maybe a website that helps plan long road trips, is something like this available?)

AAA should be able to give you detailed directions and a pretty accurate time estimation. my parents always use there guides for when they go to new england. i guess there is gonna be more pitstops from the west coast though

Yeah, AAA will help you plan that kind of trip.

If not, I know they make software that will plan routes and give distances and "drive time". However, never go by the estimated driving times, they have it taking 70 minutes to get to Omaha (about a 40 minute drive). And never go by "shortest route", they'll have you zig-zagging through dirt roads.

Good luck to whoever's taking that road trip.

Ya, did the whole National Lampoon "Wally World" vacation thing to Cali with my parents back in the 70's. Smell from the back seat was something awful after the 4000 mile round trip.

Take a flight. Avoid the hassle and smell. To be honest...most of America is really, really boring.

lol, he isnt going with little stinky kids in the back

flight would be cool.. but i dont think the drive is minded

Kathryn

If you recall, I just took a x-country road trip. I went from Boston -> California and back, stopping pretty much everywhere in between. From there, I drove from Boston(college) -> Ft Lauderdale, FL(home). Over the course of one month, I covered 11,000 miles. I had an absolute blast but towards the end of the trip I was ready to get back in my own bed. There are so many different ways to go, it all depends which direction you want to head when youre looking at the Atlas. Im not sure where youre friend is coming from but I make the 1500 mile trip from FL to MA back and forth between home and college quite often. My record so far is 20 hours so thats nothing to me anymore

Definitely check out AAA if youre friend is a "rookie" Let me know if theres anything else I can advise upon

thanks Jonathan

i'm guessing it'll take about 24 or so hours, give or take a few. thats drive time, not counting sleep or breaks.

what about tolls... s'what im curious about too!

i believe it's almost a straight shot across the country that shouldn't be that much of a hassle compared to other zig-zag, crazy routes.

Travelling cross country is a great thing, I didn't make it all the way to Cali. But to colorado. The trip is rewarding, yea maybe most of the US is boring to somepeople, but I've flown across the US many times, and nothing beats the drive I took.

Suggestions:
Get a CB radio, you'll be amazed how much info you can get, ie where smoky is.<-KEY
AAA will/can provide a nice list of other things to bring with you as well.

Thats all, enjoy our great land.

It is a lot farther than 1800 miles from Virginia to the West Coast.

I would plan my route around the sights I wanted to see.

I drove from Missouri to Sacramento once and only thing I planned to see was the Grand Canyon, looking back I would have liked to see a lot more sights. Definitley plan on seeing the interesting roadside attractions and spending time in small town America.

Is Josh coming for a visit? LOL sorry couldn't resist!