The Great American Roadtrip

As the kids are getting older, I can see a time when they head out and start their own lives. In preparation for this, Tiger Mom has gotten it in her head that we should take all 4 kids (16F, 15M, 14F, and 12F currently) west, seeing all the sights along the way until we run into Portland. Head south down the coast and come back through the southwest. Easy driving, try to keep it to 500 miles a day or less and stopping often to see what is to be seen.

Likely take 2-3 weeks doing it.

The problem as I see it is that even being frugal I can't see how to do this trip for much less that $7,500 (McDonalds breakfast for 6 runs $50). And that the current family trickster is a '99 Suburban with 240,000 on the clock which has been well maintained but that still seems like a big ask of the old girl.

Any thoughts about such a trip? Tips, hints, advice. Timeline looks to be next summer....

How do your kids feel about being in very close proximity to each other for long periods of time? I mean it sounds great, and I am not a parent, but I was a teenager once. That seems like a lot of time to leave four of them stuffed in a car together.

As for frugality, I think saving costs may come at the expense of comfort and convenience. Camp instead of motels. Buy your food at Walmart instead of restaurants.

If I did this trip, I would rent a car. Forget putting all those miles on my own vehicle!

I agree with camping, you will see more of the country that way. Camping sites are cheaper than hotels (specially if you need two rooms), and some are free.

Cooking your own meals will save a good chunk.

I've done the rv rental twice and even in the summer high season it was cheaper than a motel plus car rental but not cheap. Low season was cheaper than motel but a good marging.

North of Portland check out the Olympic peninsula and San Juan islands.

Do it.

In reply to KyAllroad:

We took our 4 kids(similar ages at the time) on a similar trip 3-years ago. We rented a Town & Country that had ~700 miles on it when we picked it up, and put 4,101 miles on it in 7-days. Our loop was from IL to Denver, then to Vegas for 2-nights, then Williams, AZ for 2-nights, and Oklahoma City overnight on the way home - so our trip was a bit faster-paced & shorter than what you're planning.

We were about $1k for van rental & fuel, $1k for 6-nights of hotel rooms x2 per night, and about $1200 for meals/snacks/souvenirs/park fees/etc.

If you average $85/night per room, $8/meal per person, and 22mpg (for a minivan, YMMV) you'll be pretty close.

Have fun! For food, step out of the ordinary. Find that place with all the white trucks parked out front for breakfast. Bonus if you make a rule like finding a restaurant with a color, animal, mineral or veggy in the name for that day. Go ahead and get that piece of pie for dessert!

Post your route here and many will suggest sites of interest. You might luck into a festival or 2 that can be a hoot! Read the little handwritten signs to find a garage sale, FFA spaghetti dinner, car show that may be worth your while.

Bruce

That sounds like a great thing to do. I would love to do the same, only on a motorcycle and solo.

To kids that age, two or three weeks on a road trip may sound like a multi-year 19th-century sea voyage in terms of disconnection from friends and everything that's important. In order to avoid roaming charges equal to the value of your house, I would rent a vehicle with a mobile hot spot, then let them connect as much they want at defined times through the day. The rest of the time, they have to participate in The Trip. You might want to assign particular days or portions of days to individual kids for research purposes, or team them up if they want to. Be prepared for multiple sessions of world-class bitching and complaining, often involving stretching the word "Mom" or "Dad" into twelve syllables. Be prepared to be ganged up on by shifting factions of your offspring. Then be prepared for them to talk about The Trip for the next few decades. Bon Voyage!

(Oh, and I don't know what y'all do down there about health insurance while travelling, but make sure you do it.)

Rent a nice RV or van. Nice thing about an RV is you save on hotels, you can cook your own food easily and you don't have to stop to use the bathroom. Plan trip carefully to incorporate scenic locations, nice places to camp, have activities for while traveling.

Where are you starting?

In reply to Toebra: We'll be starting out of Kentucky.

The drawbacks to renting an RV are twofold: A. They suck to drive, I know having owned two. B. Renting one big enough for 6 people would cost as much 3-4 sets of Hoosiers (my new measurement of cost). Additionally, gas to feed such a pig would require selling my body (or at least parts thereof).

I read an article about a guy traveling the country for a couple hundred via amtrak. Ive never been on one so i cant speak for it but he seemed to really enjoy it. It would give everyone a chance to get away from each other for a little bit when they need a little space, and keep from all that driving. It would be hard driving 10 hrs one day just to get back in and do it again tomorrow. It probably wouldn work with your stop and check everything out plan.

My Grandfather took me west to all the states I hadn't been to for a Senior present. I was 17 at the time. I had all the states east of the Mississippi so it was a bunch to catch up on.

Alaska and Hawaii are the only two states I haven't been to now.

We had a Suburban and an Avion Travel Trailer. I never will forget that trip. I saw Mt. Rushmore, the Badlands, Grand Tetons, the Rockies (loved Durango and Silverton), Seattle, rode down from Washington, through Oregon on the coast down to the Redwood National Forest.

We peed on the tallest tree in the forest at the time.

Went to Vegas, the Grand Canyon, saw the Cadillac Ranch in Texas. I watched a Buffalo run down the side of the mountain and along the side of the car for a mile. I could have smacked him on the ass, but thought better of it. The vehicle thundered. I could write a novel about this trip.

We planned a month and that was 2 1/2 weeks. So we went to the outer banks to fish to finish up the Summer.

The day we arrived we saw in the newspaper that the tall tree we peed on fell. Granny never let us live that down.

My Grandfather had a stroke 2 days later in his sleep. He was never the same after that. My Dad and Aunt came down. I helped him drive the rig back to Tennessee. My Aunt, Grandmother, and Granddad drove back in her car.

Enjoy it.

Watch Captain Fantastic take notes, and expect your trip to be nothing like that...

Remember what SWMBO stands for.

Spaghetti-Os in a can warm up wonderfully on a cooling engine block.

A nice waffle iron and ten pounds of waffle mix costs a lot less than your breakfast at McDonalds.

Buy large mouth bottles whenever possible.

Thus ends all the useful tips I have from over a decade of driving to bike races...

Been there done that when I was a kid. Your kids will hate life. They will not appreciate it later when they look back on it.

Regarding costs, you can certainly bring the costs down a lot, but in the end you are describing why road trips suck. Spend a lot of money and time going places, you don't get to see/do/experience as much as a on a more focused trip.

ProDarwin wrote: Been there done that when I was a kid. Your kids will hate life.

I think that probably depends a lot on the kids. Ours never gave us a problem, sure we were all weary from the 12-16 hour days on the road, but they also made it through a couple seasons of Big Bang Theory so they stayed pretty entertained.

Flight Service wrote: Alaska and Hawaii are the only two states I haven't been to now.

Me too, we should plan two trips together.

Anyway, 500mi per day is a lot of windshield time. If you want to spend that much time just sitting and talking, rent a cabin for three weeks. I'd pick some specific spots that you could stop for a few days and tie them together. Vail, Yellowstone, Teton, Mt. Rushmore, Seattle, fly home.

It depends if your kids are used to road trips but..... 500 miles a day isn't bad--- especially traveling out West where the spaces are open, and the traffic sparse. I'd also recommend camping when possible, as it's fun, cheap, and brings you closer to nature / family. I'd be sure to stay at decent campgrounds with showers etc. KOA is always a safe bet. (but not the cheapest)

Eating fruit, and heathy items on the road will help. Eating junk / chancy food is likely to cause unintended bathroom stops, and could lead to disaster if someone catches a bug, or gets food gone bad. Also sugar rushes (and withdrawals) can be brutal with kids---- especially in confined spaces.

I'd force the kids to ditch the "devices" for all but a couple hours of the day. They'll have plenty of time to use them when they get home, and if they put them down......they may actually SEE something! (imagine that!) Our family used to play word games on long road trips--- it was fun, passed the time, and helped us to improve our vocabularies. It also brought us closer as a family---- something a "device" won't do.

BTW, we used to drive non-stop from IL to MA each Summer and Winter--- 18+ hours, pee only when you get gas. We once packed all 5 of us in a Mk1 Scirocco to do this trip! If you set rules.....you won't have to stop every 30 minutes because someone has to go. Emergencies are one thing....... but setting a few guidelines can help you make much better time. It always blew my mind that my brother's kids need to stop 4-5 times on a 3 hour drive, when we were able to deal with 18 hours as kids with just stopping at gas breaks. It's all in the rules..... and how they are enforced.

If done right, it will be a great time. Sure, as kids we complained a bit, but I look back fondly on those road trips. (we once counted 18-wheelers--nearly drove my Dad nuts---- I think we stopped at 375 or so!) The things I learned from these trips have become invaluable for me as an adult.....when I need to make good time over long distances.

I wouldn't try to do 500 miles everyday for 2-3 weeks. One or two days of drive time followed by several days in one area. Find something halfway to Yellowstone and do a day there. 4 or 5 nights in Yellowstone then a day or two to get to the coast. Rinse and repeat.

pinchvalve wrote:

Flight Service wrote: Alaska and Hawaii are the only two states I haven't been to now.

Me too, we should plan two trips together

Always wanted to the Iron Butt extreme ends run. Key West to Alaska.

Instead of a bike maybe in something like a Locost....

Brian wrote: I wouldn't try to do 500 miles everyday for 2-3 weeks. One or two days of drive time followed by several days in one area. Find something halfway to Yellowstone and do a day there. 4 or 5 nights in Yellowstone then a day or two to get to the coast. Rinse and repeat.

I was going to say something like this. Spend time with the map, find a centrally located spot that will allow you to go a couple of hours out and back to different things for a few days, then move on to another hub.

Tone down the total distance, be prepared to stop at the worlds largest ball of twine, because fun, and think really hard about that motorhome idea.

We're taking a similar trip this summer (From KY too :) )

Originally I wanted to go all the way to the west coast and back but I don't have 2 weeks (or more).

We're still going to try to push it, stay a couple days in a few places, and do a lot of driving.

My route from KY is through OK city, Albuquerque, to the Grand Canyon, north to Denver, then back east through Kansas City on the way home.

Trying for 10 days.

We're renting a minivan. Kids are on board.

Read Blue Highways by William Least Heat Moon before you plan the trip.

Problem with the 500 miles/day is that unless you stick mostly to Interstates, you're probably looking at a minimum of 8-10 hours driving time per day. That seems to be a little much to me, and a lot of the interesting stuff tends to be off the Interstate. It's probably easier if you have two drivers though...

I think you may get a slightly more relaxed vacation if you would, say, fly to Denver and take a big loop around the various sights from there.

I loved these trips when I was young, my dad's idea of a vacation was to drive, explore and generally have fun until we only had enough money to get home then head home. My brothers and I loved it. When I was old enough to drive my mom took me on in her business which was hauling Amish around and as a consequence I've been in all 48 lower states and enjoyed it all. Do your kids like traveling? Two of mine do and one would rather die so I think knowing your audience and getting their buyin is pretty important to the trips success and your sanity. Sounds awesome though!