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I love taking my dog on road trips. She's good company and I feel safer, too.
What you could do, is give yourself a half-way destination that's somewhere you'd like to see anyway. Get there and then see how you're feeling about going all the way to LA.
Anybody have any experience with the transfercar program? I am somewhat confused as to how it works.. I may take the one way and one way flight back route to save time.. Sounds like the most ideal plan to get the experience and still have some time away from driving.
Anybody have any experience with the transfercar program? I am somewhat confused as to how it works.. I may take the one way and one way flight back route to save time.. Sounds like the most ideal plan to get the experience and still have some time away from driving.
You pick it up and drop it off at their spots. For the RV you're responsible for fuel and incidentals, but they pay the insurance, and charge you $1 a day for the rental. Just remember though, you'll have to bring a crate for fido to fly back in.
We did it a couple years ago, and it was fun. But only really works out if it's somewhere where you want to go.
The site does a good job of explaining everything, and they'll answer any questions you have.
Okay so so far, I'm thinking transfercar an RV and enjoy the drive, followed by a flight back on the 9th day (Sunday) only obstacle now is finding the safest way to travel with my dog via plane. She is 55 lbs and medium in size. I really want to take her. I know she would have o travel via cargo under the plane. I don't mind paying the extra fee. Another thing I have never done is travel with a dog via airplane. Need to do some more research
In the time you have allotted all you will be seeing is interstate with no time to stop for anything,the whole experience will be nothing more than a boring blur. The dog will be a real inconvenience as many places dont allow dogs,do the dog a favor and leave him with a friend as the dog wont share your enthusiasm for the adventure..
The logical course of action is to ask your boss for more time off then fly out there and rent a car once there as theres nothing of consequence in your short time span between Miami and New Mexico.
Some touring ideas once you get there= http://www.pashnit.com/motoroads.htm#roads
That is an alternative, anybody dealt with a rental car going one way? I'm pretty sure there is a hefty fee associated with brining a California car to Sfl or vice-Versa. The dog doesn't HAVE to come, but I would like to bring her. She is pretty well behaved and I would like to be able to say I took her with my instead of stashing her at home with a babysitter. I know the challenge is really getting much done in 9 days. But I still have some time to decide.. An ideal trip would be fly one way and drive back, depending on the associated rental fee for bringing a car back..
I have used Alamo a few times to do a one way from DC to New York without having to pay a fee, but your success in avoiding the fee may depend on the location you are picking up at and where you are dropping it off so try to look at the cost of picking up at MIA vs. FLL and the cost of the airports that you may want to drop off at, you should have several to choose from. The lack of a fee is usually an indication that company would like to encourage someone to more the cars for them. I would start with a site like travelocity to search several companies at once, unless your company benefit requires you use a certain company. The benefit of using travelocity is that you will usually see which company will charge a fee and which won't. If you can't find a company that won't charge for the whole trip, try looking in smaller chunks, like Florida to New Orleans then New Orleans to your next destination and so forth.
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Sounds like a fun trip. Where in California? Either way, you'll probably be mostly on I-10 the whole way, unless you wanna go through I-20 as well though that may take longer. I'm not familiar with I-10 in Texas but I've been on it in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. It's a frustrating highway in my opinion, the traffic in Louisiana on I-10 is miserable, but New Orleans is such a beautiful city as well.
Have you considered bringing a friend with you? Y'all can split the gas money, driving time, etc. I too am from Miami originally, and my first actual big road trip where I done some driving was last summer from Abilene, TX to Miami and we're doing that drive again but from Denton, TX. Also going to Minnesota this summer. Road trips are real fun and I prefer them to flying. Seeing every bit of geographic change makes you appreciate this gorgeous country. Also trying different local foods is all part of the fun. Can't do that on an airplane!
You and the dog will be miserable and might end up hating each other with that much car time. Since you're bent on driving and taking the dog, why not take a little more time off and go slower? The Google drive from Miami to San Diego is 38hrs. You are risking the lives of others on the road by driving sleep deprived. Take 3 days and drive 12hr days with a little left on the 4th day to drive a little and get there. That's still too much but you are 23! I've found 11hrs to be my limit. I've also begun hallucinating after sleep deprivation while driving, which scared me to pieces. Don't risk it. OR get a pet sitter, fly out and enjoy several days.
That's really pushing it solo and I say that as a fellow 23 year old with plenty of road trip experience solo and with a partner. I've done 13 hour drives by myself without much issue but I still end up pretty tired at the end of the day. To do another ~13 hours day after day will add up. If it were me, I'd try to keep it under 10 hours per day, ideally 7 or 8. But, the middle of the desert with an hour to the nearest hotel is no place to realize you can't handle all the driving.
I have a friend who just finished a 7 day trip of southwestern US. They flew in from the northeast, and then drove around 500 miles/day and saw most of the major national parks. If you are interested I can get more info.
I personally think it's a lot of miles in a short amount of time, and if it were me, I'd try and either take 2 weeks, or split it in 2 sections and do half this year and half in a year or two.
I've done what NoSnow has mentioned - driving a full day to get to an area and then exploring for 5-6 days. During that time I typically drove 200-300 miles each day (usually 9am - 7pm) but I didn't have a schedule or hotel reservations so it never mattered what I did during the day or where I stopped for the night. It was a lot of time in the car, but I love to drive and because I stopped whenever something caught my eye, it was really relaxing. That said, I always found places I wanted to explore more, which meant a couple more trips
I'd also like to take a trip of the US from the northeast, but would expect to take 3-4 weeks to really enjoy it.
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I've found 11hrs to be my limit. I've also begun hallucinating after sleep deprivation while driving, which scared me to pieces. Don't risk it. OR get a pet sitter, fly out and enjoy several days.
