I'm planning that marathon trip which I hope can happen next summer.Is it unreasonable to do a cross country trip in 4 weeks? The other option I'm considering is taking my brother in law up on his offer to store it in northern ca and make it a two part trip.Maybe I could do some separate regional trips before bringing it back east.Any thoughts?
Many years ago my family took a 70-day trip west to east and back, with some detours stuck on the sides of the loop. It wasn't nearly enough time to see everything we wanted to see. I cannot imagine why you would want to do such a trip so quickly. You may be having trouble with the idea also, since you are asking us for opinions. When it's right for you, you'll know it.
We travel for 6 weeks every summer and still have not made it all the way across. We have done many regional trips and it has worked out very well. It gives us a chance to really see everything without being rushed. I'm sure you could do it in 4 weeks if you just want to see the highlights and do not mind some long driving days.
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A 'Marathon'? Literally, or joking?...Over-the-road truckers average 600+ miles a day. If you sleep/drive/sleep/drive figure on 500 tops NY/LA. if you're not used to it. 2 drivers? 3 weeks easy. TOM
Locomotiveman..Yes I am a career cross-country Locomotive Engineer. Wife is an RN. We are CLOSE to retiring and 'downsized' to a Monaco Executive w/450hp Cummins and nice drapes. Locomotiveman
Ya know, I agree with you there Locamotiveman. Heck, I made it from DC to CA in 3 days when I was in the military....had to return from leave and was running late. Now, I wouldn't do that with a family, and it wasn't fun at all, but if you just want to get to the other coast I would think 7-8 days one way is not that bad.
We are planning a trip from CA to Fl, up to VA and back to CA in 30 days as well. While there are a few things on the way that we'd like to see, our main purpose is to get to the other coast and apend time with my family. Thus, the trip out will be mostly driving. I would like to make it out in no more than 8 days. On the way back, I have about 10 days for the return trip to stop and see a few things.
However, most of the things we want to see like Grand Canyon, places in Utah, Colorado, etc are smaller trips we can take in the future. Thus, we will stop on the way back for a day at each, relax, and see some things, but will take longer trips there later.
One thing I plan on doing is the same thing I did when I was on leave. I will head out around 6PM and drive through the night, stopping only for gas. The kids will sleep and I can hand off the driving to the wife early in the morning. We should be able to cover over 500 miles that night, all while everyone is asleep. After breakfast, it's back on the road for the day. That will take a large chunk out of the miles. We can stop that night and let the kids out, eat, sleep and get an early start the following morning. After that we can take our time so that the family doesn't get burned out.
However, if the purpose of your trip is to see the country and really take in everything you can during the trip, then as others have said, 30 days won't cut it.
* This post was
edited 10/10/07 11:13pm by dmatt *
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I took a trip from Maryland to Arizona leaving at 3pm and traveling all night arrived in morning to see Elvis in Tenn. Then on to Texas the same day. Arrived in Arizona the next day. Two kids and a wife in tow. Only had a short vacation time to visit parents but got it done. This was done years ago in a car.
All depending on where you want to stop, for how long and what you want to see in what area, I don't think its that unrealistic. We've done Sturgis bike week for the last few years, on an average we travel 500 miles per day. At 2,000 each way, we spend about 4 days each way and make it around a 2 1/2 week vacation. I don't feel that we beat ourselves up and there are a couple of things along the way that we stop at briefly to see but don't spend a lot of time doing such.
I think it can be done easily enough. A few years ago we went from Georgia to California and back in a month. We picked out certain things we wanted to do and see along the way and made them happen. We have friends scattered all along our route complements of the Air Force and we found the time to stop and visit both going and coming. There is no way to see and do everything so pick what you want to see and do the most an plan to just do it!
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We took six weeks last year and hit 38 states. Take off the week we spent in DisneyWorld, and it was five weeks - with twp-day stops each for Boston, NY, Philly, Wash D.C.
So yes, you could do it - you'd either have marathon driving days followed by relaxing days, or, like we did, never drive for more than 1/2-day and spend the rest of the day in tourist activities.
We had a blast, but 8 weeks would have been better.
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