Route planning advice - TT 6 month trip
My wife, two kids, dog and I are planning an extended trip, it will be our first TT trip. I have pulled trailers since I was a teen, so that is not an issue, we have camped and done a little bit of Mo...
Forum Discussion
You can do an east-west crossing of the U.S. along any route from US-2 near the northern border to US-90 (and 98) along the Gulf Coast and southern border. The Interstates mostly don't run as close to the edges, are fewer in number, but often closely follow older routes, just bypassing the towns and smaller cities. A lot of the interesting places are thus missed by the Interstates, but they can get you across the country in a third the time, sometimes.
As you work your way west toward the Rockies, then the high desert, the possible routes become less numerous, merging to take you either to southern California, central California, or the Pacific Northwest. To see more than a few points on the West Coast, you'll need a north-south trip.
All of these routes have many points of interest, it is a lifetime of travel crossing back and forth on the different routes, so it can be helpful to have some key points of interest, start tying them together with highways, then look for what is near those routes, or near alternates 50-200 miles parallel.
If you want to see only a few big cities, moving quickly between them, this purpose is best served using the Interstate highways that connect the cities and bypass what is between. There has been a trend, past 40 years, to build commercial attractions (amusement parks, theme parks, giga-malls, outlet shopping centers) along these routes. But most of our historical sites and natural wonders are also bypassed.
I do my "connect the key places and look for what else" planning using Microsoft Streets and Trips, but there are other tools. For 30+ years I've been planning trips from NE Oklahoma to connect with family in Michigan, Chicago,Iowa, Florida, south Texas, N Carolina, and the Gulf Coast, 20 years before that from the Carolinas, Virginia, and Florida to SE Michigan. No two trips need be the same, there are always alternative routes without much difference in travel time, offering different scenery, culture, and places to stop.Then if I can turn a two day trip into four days or a week, there are either more places to stop or the opportunity to make a bigger loop, like going from Tulsa to Detroit through Wisconsin and the UP of Michigan, or through Tennessee and Kentucky, rather than the shorter quicker routes through Missouri, Illinois and Indiana.
Just trying to broaden your way of approaching a trip plan. I-10 is a good fast way of crossing the southern edge of this country without seeing much of anything. I've followed it from Jacksonville to beyond Phoenix, when in a hurry. It gives you access to the Gulf Coast, New Orleans, Houston (which I consider worth visiting frequently), San Antonio, El Paso, Tucson and Phoenix, before you have to decide which way and where you want to go in California. It also goes through a lot of empty space, not just in West Texas, where there are places to visit, some peoples' "must sees" within a hundred miles or so, or 200 as you go west, to the north or south on parallel routes.
I suggest ordering the free visitor or travel guides, from the tourist departments of the states you anticipate to cross, to see what there is that you might want to see, if only you knew it was there.
As you work your way west toward the Rockies, then the high desert, the possible routes become less numerous, merging to take you either to southern California, central California, or the Pacific Northwest. To see more than a few points on the West Coast, you'll need a north-south trip.
All of these routes have many points of interest, it is a lifetime of travel crossing back and forth on the different routes, so it can be helpful to have some key points of interest, start tying them together with highways, then look for what is near those routes, or near alternates 50-200 miles parallel.
If you want to see only a few big cities, moving quickly between them, this purpose is best served using the Interstate highways that connect the cities and bypass what is between. There has been a trend, past 40 years, to build commercial attractions (amusement parks, theme parks, giga-malls, outlet shopping centers) along these routes. But most of our historical sites and natural wonders are also bypassed.
I do my "connect the key places and look for what else" planning using Microsoft Streets and Trips, but there are other tools. For 30+ years I've been planning trips from NE Oklahoma to connect with family in Michigan, Chicago,Iowa, Florida, south Texas, N Carolina, and the Gulf Coast, 20 years before that from the Carolinas, Virginia, and Florida to SE Michigan. No two trips need be the same, there are always alternative routes without much difference in travel time, offering different scenery, culture, and places to stop.Then if I can turn a two day trip into four days or a week, there are either more places to stop or the opportunity to make a bigger loop, like going from Tulsa to Detroit through Wisconsin and the UP of Michigan, or through Tennessee and Kentucky, rather than the shorter quicker routes through Missouri, Illinois and Indiana.
Just trying to broaden your way of approaching a trip plan. I-10 is a good fast way of crossing the southern edge of this country without seeing much of anything. I've followed it from Jacksonville to beyond Phoenix, when in a hurry. It gives you access to the Gulf Coast, New Orleans, Houston (which I consider worth visiting frequently), San Antonio, El Paso, Tucson and Phoenix, before you have to decide which way and where you want to go in California. It also goes through a lot of empty space, not just in West Texas, where there are places to visit, some peoples' "must sees" within a hundred miles or so, or 200 as you go west, to the north or south on parallel routes.
I suggest ordering the free visitor or travel guides, from the tourist departments of the states you anticipate to cross, to see what there is that you might want to see, if only you knew it was there.
