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Was thinking about taking a week off this summer and just hitting the open road. Obviously in a week, I'm not thinking of going cross-country or anything but maybe a trip up the California coast heading to San Fran then maybe hit Seattle and traverse the Pacific Northwest winding down through Las Vegas and back to Phoenix. Might be a fun adventure.
Does anyone else on the forum take roadtrips anymore? What's the best roadtrip you've ever taken?
Hi SpeedyAZ--
Spring Break 2011, my last year in college. Everyone talks about going to Panama City Beach, so we tried bucking the trend and headed north to Canada instead. When you cross the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, the first intersection on the Canadian side you can see a gentleman's club, a couple bars, a place called "The Beer Store", and a place selling Cuban cigars all within what seems like thirty seconds of crossing the border.
That, and the nearby University of Windsor has some really cute girls walking about.
Needless to say, our road trip ended with a rather stern-looking mountie that said "Sir, would you please step oot of the vehicle?"
He let us off on the condition that we immediately head back for the border. I think our collective diapers were pretty full at the time, but now we laugh about it at the poker table. None of us are welcome in that country anymore.
Absolutely. I couldn't handle the miserable Sonoran Desert Summers if I didn't take monthly trips up to Flagstaff just to hand out or hike the mountain.
We absolutely love them. Most of our best family memories come from road trips.
We try to do one big one a year and several smaller ones. Our last big one was 2011, we did not do one in 2012 because I could not afford to take vacation. In 2011 we drove to Michigan's West coast and too a ferry across to Wisconsin and drove to Seattle for a wedding. We took a nothern route, with stops at troll city, a cave tour, the dells, that big mall in Minnesota, North Dakota (not a lot to see there, but it was still neat to see it), a museum in Montana, Pompey's point ( a big rock formation along a river where lewis or clark scratched their name in the rock during their expedition).then redlodge MT where we relaxed a bit in a B & B. Then over beartooth hwy to Yellowstone, out to Missoula, through Utah and finally to Seattle where we stayed for three days (or two?). On the way back we spent a day in a ghost town (virgina city or Nevada City forget which they are side by side), then we took a southern route, visited the big heads, saw the bad lands, wall drug store or whatever that thing is called, stayed with some relatives in Illinois and then home. We covered 11 states in 10 days and we all had a blast. We made up a lot of songs, told stories played games, at night we watched movies. We had some long hauls were we drove 14 plus hours straight, but it was fun. One thing is after being cooped up in a car for hours when we stop, you tend to get a little nutty. That generally makes for more fun. (For example we convinced some people that a certain marker at the end of the trail was where the explorers where standing when they discovered the big heads out in the South Dakota wilderness, then we tried to convince some people to jump around yell and wave and try to get the big heads to turn and look our way (they did not fall for that one). Everyone still talks about that trip.
One year my older daughters and I drove out to Long Island to pick up an antique stove I bought on E-bay. We stopped in New York, went to a Broadway show (Phantom), visited the natural history museum (where we befriended a guard supervisor who had a different guard escort us on a quick tour because we arrived just before closing, rode the subway around and explored a bit and met some really cool and kind of bizzarre people. Due to a navigator glitch, we ended up lost in Manhattan at rush hour with a huge 1928 Magic Chef 1000 stove in the back. Since we were mostly just sitting there waiting, quite a few people came up and asked us about the stove (not something you seen in Manhattan every day)
Another year my daughters and an exchange student from Taiwan flew out to California and met me there (I was working and drove my car back to Michigan (a Z28 - a bit crammed for four plus luggage). We visited las vegas, hoover dam,grand canyon, an Indian reservation open market (and a canyon with great echos), some ancient pueblos with a weird place that hot air comes out of the ground in winter and cool air during summer (call breath of god or something), petrified forest, painted desert, (broke down in Gallup New Mexico and had dinner with some friends from Tennessee who happened to be passing through at the time), through Texas, up to Tennessee to stay with friends, then mammoth caves (stayed in a wig wam motel from the route 66 days) and then finally up to Michigan - 7 days.
For shorter trips we do things like drive down to Texas for thanksgiving (we drove straight through I think it was 28 hours) and then on the way back stopped in Tennessee to visit the same friends. We often drive out to Boston (14 hours if we go non stop). Sometimes we stop in Niagara falls, or we might swing over to New York City. Once we stopped at a huge garage sale in Pennsylvania (it was near a gas station where we needed gas) and we had a lot of fun and bought some neat and funny things.
This year we will probably make a trip to Charleston SC and to Boston. We might go out to Philadelphia and/or Washington DC if we have time. We also hope to go up to the Mackinac bridge for the annual walk across on memorial day weekend. We will also go to a family reunion in Illinois (7-9 hours each way) and maybe a weekend in Chicago. We may also go down to Texas again to Thanksgiving if ti works out.
When we travel we spend very little money on lodging. We just stay in Crummy motor lodge hotels (which can be an adventure), sleep in the van, or even on the ground. We bring a lot of food we can eat along the way to minimize dining costs, but then we splurge at a neat destination. We have a good sized inverter int he van (2400 watts continuous) so we can plug in a lot of stuff the teen age and older kids need, plus a TV and VCR to watch movies at night. I often work while we travel using a computer and 4g/3g wireless.
Next time we can manage a big trip I want to go down the east coast stop in Charleston, Beaufort, Savannah and then down to Florida. Probably make a mandatory stop and the Disney cluster, and eventually to Key west, then back up the Florida west coast, visit some friends, and check out the Alabama beaches, over to New Orleans and back up to Tennessee to visit the same friends. We were told not to do this trip in the summer, so we may try it during Christmas break - probably not this year, most likely next year.
Then I will only have Alaska Oregon and Hawaii. I hope to fly to Oregon, buy a car, drive it up to Alaska and then sell it and fly home. Hawaii is not conducive to a road trip, so I may never get out there.
Was thinking about taking a week off this summer and just hitting the open road. Obviously in a week, I'm not thinking of going cross-country or anything but maybe a trip up the California coast heading to San Fran then maybe hit Seattle and traverse the Pacific Northwest winding down through Las Vegas and back to Phoenix. Might be a fun adventure.
Does anyone else on the forum take roadtrips anymore? What's the best roadtrip you've ever taken?
I went from SLC to the Grand Canyon and Phoenix last year, going to Las Vegas and LA fairly soon this year. I love road trips!!!
Was thinking about taking a week off this summer and just hitting the open road.
I used to do this. Come home from work and exclaim "Road Trip, get in the car" My wife woudl ask where are we gong? how long? where will we stop? when and where will we eat? where will we sleep? " To which I would reply "North, or maybe East; until we get tired of it; wherever we see something that looks interesting; we will eat when we get hungry wherever we see someplace that sells food; we will sleep wherever we are when we get tired. Let's go"
I did not get away with that for too long. My idea of a nice vacation is to pick a direction and go. Her idea is to have a plan for every 15 minutes of the trip. After a while we balanced each other out. Now we remember to bring some pillows, water and snacks and maybe choose a specific destination or two. We bring a computer and just look up things that are neat in the areas we go through instead of driving around looking for them at random.
Years ago, in our van, we drove from The East Coast to the West Coast, with 3 kids under the age of 7. You can do it. Make frequent stops. Play road games. The adult not driving can get in the back and read to them. Do you have a movie player in the back?
If your kids don't get along with each other, it could a leetle 'problematic'. :-) But it still can be done. Just don't lose your temper. :-) Kids are kids.
Will have to think about doing a Southbound trip. Maybe going up to Vegas first then through the Pacific NW to Seattle then hitting Northern California/San Fran and heading south through Los Angeles then San Diego and heading back to Phoenix. Would like to spend at least a day in each city (Las Vegas, Seattle, San Fran, L.A. and San Diego) but with travel times, I might have to cut L.A.
Don't plan on taking a passenger at this point, just myself and the 'Vette on the open road.
I take it you're retired? That's one helluva roadtrip!
Depending on when you do this trip check out Cruising the Coast. It is several automobile enthuasists that gather and "cruise the coast" in a region of the country. Some are in California. There was one back in October for the Gulf Coast. Usually they have meets along the way and concerts.
Parents did a road trip in the Pacific NW and loved that area in the summer.
Was thinking about taking a week off this summer and just hitting the open road. Obviously in a week, I'm not thinking of going cross-country or anything but maybe a trip up the California coast heading to San Fran then maybe hit Seattle and traverse the Pacific Northwest winding down through Las Vegas and back to Phoenix. Might be a fun adventure.
Does anyone else on the forum take roadtrips anymore? What's the best roadtrip you've ever taken?
We take road trips several times each summer. We visit our son and his family to keep up with the grand children since they grow so very fast from year to year.
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