Tour the Country??

The family was just chatting about what should we do this summer. Few ideas tossed around and someone said lets drive coast to coast.

SO, I think our family is going to drive tour the country.

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM-how is COVID-19 going to impact this? Folks this is where I need your help, are there campgrounds open around the country? I don't need lots of tourist things to be open, they can't close the Grand Canyon, The Rockies still have roads to go over.

I have access to a pop up that I think can manage my wife, 16 year old son and 14 year old daughter and newly adopted 100 lbs pup. We camp every year a few times at least, so again campings not the issue.

Or do I rent an RV type thing and know I can at least park in a Walmart parking lot, and possible have a bathroom. But the money factor climbs. And this might cut down on the number of days out.


And what places are a must see?

 

There are far too many places to see around our great Country to list here.

What traveling related interests does your family have??

 

Don't count on walmart. More and more they are disallowing overnights, and its a terrible place to stay anyway.

Its going to be really hit or miss on whats open. You're gonna have to do a lot of calling ahead to make sure things are open, and relatively soon before you get to a location.

 

Lots of campsites are open. Public lands in the west. State parks in the east. Look up the website hipcamp.com. it's like the Airbnb of camping. Some great gems in there.

 

We just want to see the country. We don't expect tourist places. if we camp, then getting hiking spots in will be nice, seeing some rivers is a must. Like you said too many places. And I would have to try to meet a few folks along the way.

Give me ideas.. We may leave mid June

 

How much time do you have?

 

maybe 3 weeks
edit:

depends if we rent RV more expense means less time

 

@markus30 will be a great person to ask.

 

Is he the one that has been driving around the country. I remeber seeing a thread.

 

That's him. I met him in Moab. He's a hell of a guy that I now consider a friend.

 

I’d suggest a North to South trip. Trying to get out to the west coast you will spend all your time driving.

So North South. Drive down close to the coast. Back up farther west along the mountains.

 

we were thinkng, get down southish quicker, then head west and come back more northern part. But again we are about 3 hours into this thought.

 

Its about 2,800 miles from Maine to the Grand Canyon. If you drive for 8 hours a day and average 60 mph, you're going to spend roughly 12 days of your 21 days driving. That doesn't leave much time for dilly dally.

I'd suggest doing something more local to the east coast, or flying out and renting, if you dare.

 

We haven't really planned out anything yet, but we have 3 drivers, so spending a day or two driving hard to stay somewhere for a day or so works. We have the goal of going coast to coast. In fact, I think the current plan is the first couple days would be heavy driving days, trying to get away from the East coast.

 

If it were me id take the northern route out, Badlands to black hills, Yellowstone, Portland. Then drop down south for the way back. San Fran, Death Valley, north rim, South Colorado, Nashville, kitty hawk. To do that in just three weeks is possible, but it's a crap ton of windshield time.

Check out furkot.com. It's a great tool for building a road trip, and will actually suggest landmarks based on your interests and how much time you have in a given day.

 

And so much of that on the interstate. Yuk.

Furkot is awesome though, I was trying to remember the name of it earlier.

 

Thanks all, maybe we stretch it a little more than 3 weeks, that’s still up in the air.

thank you all for the suggestions. I’m going to put a few routes together and see what it looks like. Depending on how things are spaced out, it wouldn’t be a big deal to bust out a couple long 16 hours or so driving. Again, once I get the other 2 comfortable pulling a trailer, there should be 3 drivers.

keep the ideas and thoughts rolling.

 

Oh crap, I forgot a little detail that caught me by surprise last summer - the speed limit in California is capped at 55 if youre pulling a trailer. I wont say how fast I drove through with mine (I just cruised a a few hundred yards behind the average commercial trucker - let them catch the radar instead of me), but 55 is scary slow on some stretches. Other places, the troopers are making damn sure you stick to the limit. I'd take that into consideration when drawing a route.

 

I think we would hurry away from the east coast, and I am very concerned about the heat, I hate it. I am concerned about the inexperience driver part, hoping for less traffic compared to normal. I would be the primary driver anyways, as I hate hate hate being a passenger.

And the dog, mid March we didn’t have this issue, but due to Being at home and knowing we would be back to work in the school building for a while, it was the right time for the family to get another dog. Now, I have this idea and need to figure out the best plan. We don’t want to hit up cities, we want to camp. Oh, every summer I spend a week in a tent in New York, mid state. That’s hot as .... well, it’s freaking hot. We are currently talking about renting a full size truck\SUV maybe even just getting a used 4 runner.
Looking to take advantage of an opportunity that may never be again.