In November 2006 I won a R. E. B. Teaching Excellence Award and was given $8,000 to pursue an educational dream. I chose to go “off road” and see America as John Steinbeck did in his non-fiction book TRAVELS WITH CHARLEY. In the summer of 2007 I did Part I of this adventure, driving 4,372 miles… in 10 days…with my best friend Pam and my son, Austin from Seattle, WA to Chicago, IL. I am splitting the traveling over two summers and this coming summer we will be traveling from Seattle to Albuquerque, NM over a three week period.
Planning for a trip of this size takes a lot of time, and the first lesson I learned was DON’T WAIT UNTIL TWO WEEKS BEFORE TO GET TO THE LITTLE DETAILS! I had the airline tickets and rental car taken care of in January, but I didn’t get around to really doing the day to day stuff until about 10 days before we left. Mistake! Not because I had difficulty booking things; my mistake was that when I finally had it all done, I was exhausted! Not the way you want to start a big vacation! Sooo...first thing….Plan over time!
Planning the Trip
1) Research on the Internet and get books and find out what interesting things there are to see in each place. In my case, I wanted to see funky, wacky, off-the-wall eccentric things, and I did! There is a book, ECCENTRIC AMERICA by Jan Friedman which is a beginner's bible. I also cut out articles from magazines or newspapers when I ran across them (we had an article on Missoula from our local paper). But the best place and the most fun place is on the Internet at roadsideamerica.com. People write about off the wall, crazy stuff, like Chatty Belle, the World's Largest Talking Cow in Neillsville, Wisconsin.. Finding these off the road places and having your picture taken there is just fun and silly! I also made great use of Readers Digests’ THE MOST SCENIC DRIVES IN AMERICA (120 road trips). We Xeroxed off several of them and were not disappointed.
Books can be expensive, so check them out from the library if you can and Xeroxed pages that you might use. When I couldn’t find certain books, I ordered used copies from Amazon.com. This kept down on the expense of the books.
The Fodor’s and Frommer’s guidebooks to specific locations (especially large cities) are a good purchase if you want suggestions for food, lodging, entertainment, transportation and general knowledge about the city. Be sure to get the most up to date versions. Both usually have a detachable street map in them.
Planning for a trip of this size takes a lot of time, and the first lesson I learned was DON’T WAIT UNTIL TWO WEEKS BEFORE TO GET TO THE LITTLE DETAILS! I had the airline tickets and rental car taken care of in January, but I didn’t get around to really doing the day to day stuff until about 10 days before we left. Mistake! Not because I had difficulty booking things; my mistake was that when I finally had it all done, I was exhausted! Not the way you want to start a big vacation! Sooo...first thing….Plan over time!
Planning the Trip
1) Research on the Internet and get books and find out what interesting things there are to see in each place. In my case, I wanted to see funky, wacky, off-the-wall eccentric things, and I did! There is a book, ECCENTRIC AMERICA by Jan Friedman which is a beginner's bible. I also cut out articles from magazines or newspapers when I ran across them (we had an article on Missoula from our local paper). But the best place and the most fun place is on the Internet at roadsideamerica.com. People write about off the wall, crazy stuff, like Chatty Belle, the World's Largest Talking Cow in Neillsville, Wisconsin.. Finding these off the road places and having your picture taken there is just fun and silly! I also made great use of Readers Digests’ THE MOST SCENIC DRIVES IN AMERICA (120 road trips). We Xeroxed off several of them and were not disappointed.
Books can be expensive, so check them out from the library if you can and Xeroxed pages that you might use. When I couldn’t find certain books, I ordered used copies from Amazon.com. This kept down on the expense of the books.
The Fodor’s and Frommer’s guidebooks to specific locations (especially large cities) are a good purchase if you want suggestions for food, lodging, entertainment, transportation and general knowledge about the city. Be sure to get the most up to date versions. Both usually have a detachable street map in them.
2) Write to the state tourism departments and local chambers of commerce for maps and travel information. In a lot of states, we really didn't know much, and the guides helped us decide where to go and what to do. I also asked for state maps from the actual states, and they were much more detailed than the Rand McNally Road.
3) Research eating possibilities. When in Rome, do as the Romans do! Find out what specialty foods are native to the areas you are going to be traveling in and eat local! we tried to eat local specialties or things we hadn't eaten before and likely wouldn't get a chance to eat again (pasties in Michigan, bison burgers in Montana, etc.) I went to a great Internet spot, roadfood.com, for tips about interesting eating spots across America. There is also a book by Jane and Michael Stern, EAT YOUR WAY ACROSS THE U.S.A. that gives some good restaurant suggestions. Doing this research has allowed me to eat in some great places with great food that I wouldn't have ordinarily known about! When it came time to eat, we had choices.
4) Car Picnic! Buy a cheap syrofoam cooler and packing stuff in it and eat roadside. It saves money and can be a nice switch from dining in a restaurant for every meal. We found ourselves only eating two meals a day, generally in the mid-afternoon and later at night. We bought some interesting snack stuff at Trader Joe's in Seattle and literally ate it across America!
4) Join AAA. I got a lot of really useful maps from them, and I also got discounts on some hotels and other things. It was nice to know that if the rental car broke down, I would be able to call someone to help us out. Besides, you can use it all year long.
5) Pay for everything you can up front and save yourself a lot of time! This makes it really, really easy to check out from a hotel if you do this, and you don't have to pull out the credit card. I never had any hold up, and a lot of times just turned in the door card keys and left.
6) Anything that involves a ticket, buy ahead of time. In all of the cases where I bought the tickets ahead of time, we just showed up with the receipt/online ticket and flashed it and got on. It was really less stressful knowing we didn't have to wait in line, didn't have to risk not going when we needed to go time wise, and I didn't have to dig for the credit card. Things to book ahead of time? I bought my ferry tickets (Port Angeles, WA/Victoria B.C., Mackinaw Island, MI, and Edmonton/Kingston WA), my parking space (in Seattle at Safeco Field) as well as my baseball tickets, and my tours (Chicago Architectural River Tour and Butchart Gardens in Victoria).
6) Going to National Parks? Buy a National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Annual Pass! The price is $80 a year and if you go into a couple of parks in a year, you will have paid for the pass! It admits 4 people to a national park, not including children 15 and under. Having the pass saved time, as we went to a special kiosk when entering the parks and didn't have to wait in the lines to get in.
3) Research eating possibilities. When in Rome, do as the Romans do! Find out what specialty foods are native to the areas you are going to be traveling in and eat local! we tried to eat local specialties or things we hadn't eaten before and likely wouldn't get a chance to eat again (pasties in Michigan, bison burgers in Montana, etc.) I went to a great Internet spot, roadfood.com, for tips about interesting eating spots across America. There is also a book by Jane and Michael Stern, EAT YOUR WAY ACROSS THE U.S.A. that gives some good restaurant suggestions. Doing this research has allowed me to eat in some great places with great food that I wouldn't have ordinarily known about! When it came time to eat, we had choices.
4) Car Picnic! Buy a cheap syrofoam cooler and packing stuff in it and eat roadside. It saves money and can be a nice switch from dining in a restaurant for every meal. We found ourselves only eating two meals a day, generally in the mid-afternoon and later at night. We bought some interesting snack stuff at Trader Joe's in Seattle and literally ate it across America!
4) Join AAA. I got a lot of really useful maps from them, and I also got discounts on some hotels and other things. It was nice to know that if the rental car broke down, I would be able to call someone to help us out. Besides, you can use it all year long.
5) Pay for everything you can up front and save yourself a lot of time! This makes it really, really easy to check out from a hotel if you do this, and you don't have to pull out the credit card. I never had any hold up, and a lot of times just turned in the door card keys and left.
6) Anything that involves a ticket, buy ahead of time. In all of the cases where I bought the tickets ahead of time, we just showed up with the receipt/online ticket and flashed it and got on. It was really less stressful knowing we didn't have to wait in line, didn't have to risk not going when we needed to go time wise, and I didn't have to dig for the credit card. Things to book ahead of time? I bought my ferry tickets (Port Angeles, WA/Victoria B.C., Mackinaw Island, MI, and Edmonton/Kingston WA), my parking space (in Seattle at Safeco Field) as well as my baseball tickets, and my tours (Chicago Architectural River Tour and Butchart Gardens in Victoria).
6) Going to National Parks? Buy a National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Annual Pass! The price is $80 a year and if you go into a couple of parks in a year, you will have paid for the pass! It admits 4 people to a national park, not including children 15 and under. Having the pass saved time, as we went to a special kiosk when entering the parks and didn't have to wait in the lines to get in.
Flying the Friendly Skies
What I learned about booking airline flights is that the sooner, the better, and you better look around. I went through the various discount Internet sites until I found the one that could book me cheapest and at the times I wanted to fly.
1) Times and flight offerings can differ a great deal from site to site, so be careful.
2) Booking via the Internet isn’t always the best choice. I decided at the last minute to keep my son with me on the trip, so I obviously had to book him home with us. I couldn’t do it on any of the Internet sites. However, when I called the airline directly, I got a seat. Granted, I paid more for it, but I would have done that anyway as we were booking a flight under two weeks in advance.
3) Print off your boarding passes/tickets and MAKE COPIES OF THEM. There are no lines to stand in and you don’t have to get a seat assignment.
4) Check in to the flight via the Internet before you fly. Some of the airlines allow you to do so 24 hours in advance of the flight, and this again expedites the boarding process.
5) USAIR boards by ZONES. Most airlines board by rows, but USAIR has invented a ZONE system. Your zone number (1-5) will be printed on the bottom of your ticket. However, if you don’t know this, you may spend a lot of time waiting for your row to be called (because it won’t be if you are in rows six and beyond). There is no explanation about this, so you are left to guess at it on your own.
Hotels/Motels
1) Using the “on-line travel agencies” like Expedia.com, Hotels.com, Travelocity.com , Orbitz.com and Priceline can be a boon or a bust. Unquestionably, using these sources saved me both time and money. However, you have to know where to go and where the hidden pitfalls are.
Priceline is the place to go if you don’t care exactly where you stay and just care about the price. Once your offer is accepted and you have paid for your room, only then you will find out where you are staying. If you do not care about location, this is fine. However, once it is done, you are stuck with it. Some sites, such as Travelocity and Orbitz, charge you a “processing service fee” which is cleverly folded into to the taxes and other fees. Generally that fee is $10.00 and non-refundable. Expedia does not charge this fee. Compare and contrast these sites. There is generally a lot of duplication of offerings and one site may have a hotel listed whereas the others do not. However, the prices can vary. Therefore, once you settle on a specific lodging, you need to check it on all of the sites to see where you can get the best deal. Also be aware that sometimes you can get a better deal by making a reservation directly with the hotel.
2) Read the hotel reviews on the booking sites and pay attention to what people have to say about them. The reviews are written by people who have stayed in these actual hotels and they record their pluses and minuses about that hotel. I found this to be very helpful because the little details mentioned made the difference in making my choices. The most expensive isn't necessarily the best. As a result of doing your homework, you likely won't book into a fleabag motel. Every one of the places we stayed in was clean and nice.
3) Make sure that there isn't anything major going on where you are going. I spent over two hours researching and trying to find a hotel/motel around Rapid City, SD. What I DIDN'T know was that the 67th annual Sturgis Bike Rally was that week. Hence I was fighting for hotel room reservations with 700,000 of my closest motorcycle riding friends...had I known that up front, I would have just skipped Rapid City and moved on to another location.
4) Smaller, non chain motels are often better than the chains. We stayed in the Super 8 three times, and while clean, they were not exactly super. The best place we stayed was the Travelodge in Spokane, which, while it is a chain, isn't a huge one. Several times we stayed in places that were mom/pop run, or smaller/lesser known chains. Those places were more likely to have nicer continental breakfasts and easier Internet access than the chains. Go figure. They also were better kept up. My assumption is that most of us gravitate to the known entity. As a result, everyone goes there, and they get run down faster.
5) make sure that when making reservations, you give special instructions. Include information such as that you will be checking in really late (in case you do), that you definitely want two beds, and if you have problems with walking up stairs, that you request a ground floor room. I did this, and never had a single problem and was always accommodated.
6) Save money: look for the place that serves some sort of breakfast. They ranged in quality from place to place. The Super 8 in Austin, MN had a toaster, some bread and bagels, orange juice and coffee. The Travelodge in Spokane had a waffle iron and lots of choices. Depending on what you want, it varies, but again, it is part of the deal, and saves you time and money.
7) Laundry facilities in the hotel? Some hotels have them in house and this can be a godsend. Ask ahead of time. If you are traveling to a different place each night, approximate the location where you might need to do laundry and find a motel/hotel that has facilities in house in case you need the option. This beats having to find a laundry mat in a strange town and sitting in it for hours.
Rental Cars
1) Priceline is the way to go if you are not doing a one way trip. I have put in some of the most ridiculously low prices for rental cars and gotten them. However, they don’t do one way rentals.
2) It is about $200-300 cheaper to rent a car going WEST TO EAST vs. east to west. I presume this is because everyone is going west, but no one seems to be going east. If you have the flexibility of doing this, obviously it will save you money.
3) Once you have gotten a rental car, find out what your car options are. The rental agencies will give you a list of possible rental car models. However, you will have to pick from the options they have available on the lot, and some of the options may not be available at that time. Point: research your car choices and ask for the specific one you want. If you know about gas mileage and size of the various choices of cars, you can pick wisely. I found out that the Toyota Corolla LE averaged 36 MPG, and good gas mileage was my top priority. In my case, there was only one Toyota Corolla on the lot, and I got it, but I did have a second choice just in case.
4) Consider trunk room when selecting your car. If you are traveling for a week or more as I did, you will likely need it. I found that the economy cars didn't have quite the room I thought I would need. Considering we added my son to the trip at the last moment, I am glad I went with a midsized car. Basically, we got the gas mileage and the size without paying significantly more.
ORGANIZE YOURSELF!
1) ORGANIZE EACH DAY. No one has ever used the word "anal" to describe me, but Pam did when it came to the planning of the trip. What I ended up doing was buying little cheap report folders that had the inside pockets and 3 hole binder things inside. I had several different colors, and put white labels on the outside of each folder. On the label I put the day of the week as well as the date, and the starting destination and the final day destination. Inside each daily packet I put the map of the day in the left pocket, and then I put Xeroxes of all information sheets that I had on the places we were going IN ORDER THAT THEY WERE TO BE VISITED, with the last Xerox being the one with info on the hotel reservations, including directions to the hotel. I put seven days worth of folders in one plastic shopping bag, and kept the following week in a separate bag in the bottom of a suitcase. That way I only had one week at a time to deal with. At the end of each day, we put the gathering of brochures, information, ticket stubs, etc. inside the file folder and put it away. Each morning, after I reorganized the car, I handed Pam the packet for the day for her to look over and to use to give out information as the day progressed.2) Get the directions to EVERYWHERE before you leave. I went on Mapquest and got directions to every hotel and those were printed on the back of the reservation confirmations. I also got directions to all of the places we were going. This is especially important in the cities. In Seattle I actually plotted out the route from the airport to the parking deck (where I had already purchased a place and paid for it ahead of time) and then from the parking deck to our host's house. Because I had done this, I was able to improvise, as the traffic was rerouted and streets were closed as a result of the ballgame. We had to go to plan B, and having already perused plan A, I knew pretty much where we were going. We never had any difficulty finding a hotel or getting to a location, and by doing this before we went, it saved us a lot of possible difficulties later on. This is an especially great thing to do when you are showing up at 11 p.m. to a hotel. No one wants to be trying to figure this stuff out when you are tired.
3) Run off copies of everything you need...TWICE. Give one copy to whomever you are traveling with and keep one for yourself. I had duplicate copies of the ferry boat tickets, airline reservations and every night’s hotel reservations.
4) Pack outfits for each day. I put underclothes, a top and shorts together. Then I roll them up really tightly with the edges of the outfit clear on the end so I know what the whole outfit looks like. I then line them up in the suitcase really closely. This method also makes dressing in the bathroom a snap, because you have it all rolled up together. Plus, if you iron ahead of time, it more or less keeps your stuff from getting balled up and really wrinkled. And, Boy does this save space in the suitcase! It also saves me time (I am not hunting for underwear or trying to color coordinate an outfit) and it saves me the frustration of trying to decide what I am wearing that day. Also pack more outfits than you need. That way you don't have to wear Wednesday's outfit if it just doesn't suit your mood. It also makes not having to go to a Laundromat an option.
5) Take an extra suitcase, even if you don't think you will need it. You will, especially if you are gathering junk as you travel. I found the best combination is to have one large suitcase which has a handle and can be wheeled, and have another large roll/zippered Duffel type bag with a strap. The second bag is good because you can stuff lots of stuff in there, sit on it and squish it! You can also sometimes roll up the soft bag and put it into the actual stuffed suitcase when you are packing to go on your trip.
6) ) pack a small little bag and put 3/4 days worth of outfits, toiletries, and any other things you would want in the hotel room in this bag. You won't have to lug a suitcase into the hotel room at night. I put dirty clothes in a plastic bag, which was transferred eventually to a larger trash bag and then to a suitcase in the trunk.
7) Pack for the car. I packed various sizes of Ziploc bags, two large trash bags (for dirty laundry), a plastic fork, spoon, and my Leatherman knife with all of the tools in might need in case of some sort of mechanical need (I got an off brand at Home Depot for under $10 and I packed it in the checked in luggage.) I took a plastic lidded drink cup and a bunch of powdered drink one packets. We picked up some condiment packs (sugar, sweet n low, salt, pepper, etc.) as well as napkins when we got there. I also packed some plastic shopping bags for garbage collection in the car and general use. I bought a half gallon of iced tea when I first got to Seattle, and then kept the container to put water in to use during the trip.
8) What you forget, need or lose, Wal-Mart has! I was amazed at the fact that there seems to be one everywhere you go, and that turned out to be a comfort! We always seem to need something, and Wal-Mart covered everything from food to digital cameras (we actually ended up buying two of them, as we managed to break the ones we brought!)
Electronics/Gadgets and Mechanical Stuff
1) Buy all the in-car electronic gadgets you think you will need BEFORE you leave. What I ended up buying, AND USING, were the following:*ipod converter for the car. This saved me from having to haul a ton of CDs with me. I recorded a ton of music on the Ipod and when I wanted to listen to it, especially when we were in places that had virtually no music, we used it. I got converter from the Internet and surfed around to do it. It worked fine.*cell phone charger. You would be amazed how fast the batteries on the cell phone wear out when you are in the middle of the boonies. We found out that you could charge the phone while sleeping or driving, and someone always had a charged phone.*AC/DC converter. I didn't think I would need this, but I did to charge the digital cameras. It worked great. It also could be used to charge the cell phones as well. Well worth the purchase and with one of these, you may not need a separate in-the-cigarette-lighter cell phone charger.I kept all of these electronic devices in a plastic shopping bag in the glove box, or I kept the device most likely to be used in the recesses in the dash or ashtray, out of sight.
2) Internet connections: make sure you computer is properly set up to use on various wireless networks. Test drive your laptop BEFORE you go on your trip and make sure it is set up to pick up wireless from a variety of sources. One of the criteria that I had in choosing a hotel was to pick ones that had an Internet connection. Some hotels don't have wireless because they are older, and you may have to go to plan B. The Valu-Inn in Missoula, MT gave us an Ethernet box and that made everything run fine. In some hotels we had to go to the lobby for access, but most often it was easily accessed from the room. Also be aware that some of the larger hotels charge for Internet connectivity. And be aware that when you are using free wireless like this, you are more vulnerable to having your financial information perused. Not a good time to charge things on your credit card via the Internet! 3) Keep the digital cameras charged! If you have the car hook up, you can easily do this while traveling. Don’t wait until the camera dies!
4) Pack jump drives and the attachments to transfer your pictures to your computer. We took a lot of pictures, and we actually filled up the memory cards with pictures. Once you've done this, you have no options other than buying another memory card or clearing the card. I moved the pictures to a folder on the hard drive of the laptop, and I backed it up by copying the same pictures to the jump drives. This way, you can save money on the memory cards and have a backup if something goes wrong. After I had copied the pictures to both the laptop and backed them up to the jump drive (and checked carefully to make sure they were really there), I deleted the pictures from the memory card and started using it again.
5) Make sure you have a backup memory card in case one fills up. I kept the extra memory card in the camera case. You can also option to buy a 2GB card which is more expensive, but holds approximately 800 pictures. You don't want to run out of space when the bison finally show up next to your car!6) Make sure before you leave that you have the software for your digital camera installed on the computer. Also note that some cameras don't need a Pict bridge to hook into the computer, and that if you have two cameras, you can use one camera to make the transfers and just exchange the memory cards. That way you also can just use one software program. Cameras don't care what kind of camera took the picture. They all use the same type memory cards. Also pack more than one jump drive if you have it, even if they have a lot of memory space. Pictures take up a lot of space, and the jump will fill up. You may find that if you don't have enough jumps, you won't be able to back up everything.
