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Next fall I want to do a reverse trip and go from Washington to Arizona taking the Pacific Coast Highway again. But I'll have to figure out how to get through or around Idaho because the signs said chains were required to be put on from October 1 and that mountain was scary enough with just a little rain. I can't imagine driving over them with snow.
I think the Pacific drive would be even more spectacular going by the ocean side.
I've got until October to figure out a route as I don't leave Minnesota until my October check arrives. Then I plan on going back through Texas and maybe even hitting up Florida on the way to Minnesota.
Did you catch 26 off I-90 from Ellensburg? If so , you went through part of Cascades & you likely saw Mt. Rainier. You missed so much of Washington & Oregon, maybe do more advance research. If you belong to AAA, they can help you plan a route.
It's been rainy and cold for quite some time. Not much fun exploring and camping when the weather is lousy so no, haven't done much exploring.
The weather, along with gas prices, has hindered my travel choices.
Hopefully both of these will improve by fall.
Another hindrance is the fact that I have a limited budget, as does anyone living on social security. The astronomical increase in gas and food prices has caused many people to change their plans.
Neither Oregon or Washington are going anywhere. Hopefully by fall things will improve and I can do more. If not I'll be revising my plans yet again.
I wish I had been able to do this trip last year but the fires prevented that. Actually I wish I had done this instead of moving to Sierra Vista but I didn't even know nomad life existed. And I would have been too scared. It took a couple of years of watching utube videos before I gathered my courage to try it.
I still have a lot to learn. I didn't even know how to use Google maps before Carolyn of Carolyn's RV Life did a video for the RTR classes.
I talked to people, mostly women, at the van build and learned even more. We all exchanged ideas and information. It was a wonderful experience.
Now I have even more to contemplate. Do I want to purchase land and strive for a tiny house type situation? That may mean giving up the goal of a larger vehicle.
As it is, I took some saved money and put it towards this trip. I may be able to put some back but I won't know until the end of the month if I'll have extra.
One of the things the people I keep in contact with all have in common, except that we all live out of our vehicles, is that we're going to have to travel less during these trying times. We're all striving to keep a decent amount of money in our emergency funds and being frugal.
I may miss seeing things until this all gets better and if it doesn't, I'll be traveling even less. I'll always spend the winters in Arizona and thankfully I've met enough people now that I can boondock with and stay on BLM land so won't even pay for the LTVA.
What scares me is what happened during the recession, when I lost everything. If I have to become even more frugal, I will. It does mean that I won't be doing some things I planned on doing.
I was planning on doing a lot of camping around Minnesota. There are so many beautiful spots to visit in my own backyard, so to speak. But I may put that on hold until we know what the economy is going to be like. If it doesn't get better I'll spend the summer on the farm, as I did last year.
That's certainly not a hardship, just a disruption.
It's certainly not a hardship as it's a beautiful spot. It just disrupts what I had planned.
Excellent ideas and plans! I haven't left the Othello area so I'm going to try this.
Thanks for the tips.
I've been following 26 and not sure what mountains I went through but it was pretty hairy drive. I love the look of the mountains but not driving on them so much.
Yes.
Definitely do what Happygrrl is suggesting.
You won't regret it.
I did a version of the opposite......leaving Great Falls, MT...driving through the Indian reservation to St.Mary, MT.....then through Glacier National Park over the Going-to-the-Sun highway and over to Kalispell. Stayed in Kalispell. Then to Polson, Lolo (to visit friends), etc.
Then Missoula and over to Coeur d'Alene. Stayed in Coeur d'Alene. Then to Spokane and down to Lewiston, ID (to stay with friends for a week...also visited Pullman and Moscow during that time) and back to California.
Next fall I want to do a reverse trip and go from Washington to Arizona taking the Pacific Coast Highway again. But I'll have to figure out how to get through or around Idaho because the signs said chains were required to be put on from October 1 and that mountain was scary enough with just a little rain. I can't imagine driving over them with snow.
I think the Pacific drive would be even more spectacular going by the ocean side.
I've got until October to figure out a route as I don't leave Minnesota until my October check arrives. Then I plan on going back through Texas and maybe even hitting up Florida on the way to Minnesota.
Yeah, I wouldn't want to drive those roads in the winter either.
I once drove from Los Angeles to Eugene, OR and it started to snow just before the last pass near the CA/OR border.
A friend of mine from Scotland was was with me, and I let him drive the rest of the way.
It's been rainy and cold for quite some time. Not much fun when the weather is lousy so no, haven't done much exploring.
Yeah, I get it. This has been a wet, cool year so far. And last year we had a scorching heat wave, & the whole world is an uncertain mess...so it's hard to plan anything.
The higher costs of everything & so much instability has made everything harder, for sure.
Yeah, I wouldn't want to drive those roads in the winter either.
I once drove from Los Angeles to Eugene, OR and it started to snow just before the last pass near the CA/OR border.
A friend of mine from Scotland was was with me, and I let him drive the rest of the way.
You were lucky to have a person familiar with snow along. Even though I lived in snow country most of my life, I still don't want to drive in it.
I'll go around. After all, the whole point is to see the country. I'm keeping in touch with fellow travelers and won't be finalizing anything until fall. We should know more by then how the economy is going.
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