Please Help Plan My Cross-Country Trip

[jasoncw]

Hi everyone,

I am planning a trip for my family from Detroit, MI to the Fresno, CA area. This is a long-range plan; we are not going to take the trip until around June 2015. I am trying to do as much planning up front, as we would like to see several sights along the way. We are a family of 5, and the kids will be 11, 8 and 8 when we go.

I am thinking of doing a northern route on the way out there, and possibly a southern route on the way back. Here are a list of the places I would like to see, but I am looking for several more suggestions. Obviously we don't want them to be scattered across the country, as that would not be feasible.

On the northern route, I planned to stop at places like Mount Rushmore NP, Yellowstone NP, and the salt flats. While in CA, I am thinking San Francisco, Yosemite NP and Sequoia NP. On a southern route, Grand Canyon NP, Hoover Dam, maybe Las Vegas, and the Gateway Arch.

None of these are set in stone yet. This will likely be a once in a lifetime trip with the family, so I want to hit as many "must see" places without going overboard. We are likely going to have to cover this in about 3 weeks, which doesn't leave us a whole lot of time.

Thanks for any input and advice for the trip.

Jason

[MarkTwain]

X2

Fickmen,
Great idea for saving days for sight seeing as opposed to the marathon RV trip Jason is planning----fly to Fresno:)

[fickman]

This is a real off-the-wall crazy / creative idea.

Any way to stash your TV / TT in Fresno a few weeks ahead of time?

Spend a long weekend towing it out there on your own and find a place to keep it. Fly home. Then, for your trip, fly your family to Fresno and start from there.

You'll start much closer to everything you want to see and the most precious limited resource in the type of trip you're planning is time.

It sounds a pricier, but for a "once in a lifetime" vacation, you might get to see a lot more.

You can either drive all the way home on vacation or repeat the earlier process to get it home a couple of weeks later. The first saves you one direction of long haul towing for your trip, the latter saves you both directions but costs a little more.

There are ways to do it. If you did this, maybe skip the Black Hills as that location is more accessible to you from your home and you could do another trip. Maybe even a 2014 trip to the Black Hills followed by the mother of all trips in 2015.

Definitely keep us posted!

[jasoncw]

Thanks for the advice so far everyone. Please keep it coming. The attraction to Fresno is my Aunt and Uncle. We plan to visit them for a couple of days. I have a tendency to think that we will only be visiting a handful of places along the way. I probably won't be able to take off more than 3 straight weeks from work unfortunately.

[4runnerguy]

IMHO, you are planning way too much travel for three weeks time. Esp. with 2 8 y.o. kids. After the third or fourth day of six to eight hours in the back seat, they will be at each others throat. Plus when you get somewhere, you'll have precious little time to see anything. For instance, the speed limits in Yellowstone are generally 35 mph, and with traffic, often much slower. Just to drive the various roads is a couple of days, and if you want to get out and see the geysers, bison, canyon, etc. you have to plan for more. Same can be said for the Black Hills, Yosemite, SF, Grand Canyon, etc. If I were you, I'd figure someway to get another week or more. Otherwise, cut back on your trip. I'm guessing there's some draw to Fresno. Otherwise, you and your kids will get a lot more out of the trip if you only go as far as Yellowstone, south to the Grand Canyon, and return home, seeing the Black Hills and some of the National Parks along the way (this will still seem quite rushed).

Another option: fly to Las Vegas (or wherever) and rent a vehicle. You can either rent an RV and do the camping thing, or rent a car and motel it. This will save you over 3000 miles of driving (that's five or more days for vacation spots rather than looking at your windshield).

[Dick_B]

Do a Google search for `______ tourism' and put the State or area in the blank and read what the experts suggest for their part of the world.

[fickman]

I'll defer to others on specific sites and roads, but offer one piece of advice.

I'd schedule 2-3 night stays to break up every long day on the road if possible, even if it means skipping some sites or extending the vacation by another week somehow (if at all possible). In a pinch, one or two back-to-back long travel days could be pulled off, but I'd have to have a three night stay in one place to recover.

We just did a trip like this:
Day 1: 6 hour drive to campsite.
Camp three nights
Day 4: 2.5 hour drive
Camp two nights
Day 6: 6 hour drive
Camp three nights (took two different 2-hour one-way day trips without camper)
Day 9: 5.5 hour drive
Camp one night
Day 10: 2 hour drive home

So only one stop-and-go. It was very relaxing and the kids handled it very well. We got to see a ton of stuff. The day trips without the camper seemed like much easier days even though there was still a lot of time in the car.

[MarkTwain]

Jason,
Great trip! Just some overall big picture frame work to start from:
1. Total round trip =4784 miles
2. Driving 6 hrs. per day at 60 mph will = 360 miles per day (yes, you can drive more than 6hrs. per day but remember that you won't have a lot of opportunities to park and relax your butt and back:) based on your RV planned trip. Also remember that the continuous days of driving with only a short time to rest up will take a physical toll on you and the family)
3. It will take you approx. 13 days to drive to and from your home town to SF.
4. This leaves you approx. 8 days to set up and camp over night and sight see.
5. I would then set down with family and discuss the possible places you are planning to visit. Then I ask the family members which of the places really appeals to them. In my opinion, the 8 year olds might not be as interested in the same sights as you are as an adult. What is there to do for the 8 yr. olds at each of the sights? Will they have a short attention span and get restless at some sights??? For example, I found Rushmore interesting and enjoyed the historical significance BUT this is from an adults perspective as opposed to Yellow stone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam which allows the kids the opportunity to move around and see the sights. While Las Vegas is a fun place to visit as an adult, I am not sure what you would do with the kids if you and the wife wanted to go and do what most adults go to Vegas for, gambling, eating and drinking. So I think it is important to select the places you want to set up and sight see based on the total family's perspective. As far as visiting San Francisco, I would leave my trailer in the Fresno area and then drive to SF and stay in a motel/hotel overnight to allow time to visit SF. Driving a RV trailer anywhere within 50 miles of SF is not my idea of a fun trip. Can you drive your trailer to SF? absolutely, but be prepared for congestion and heavy traffic.:( I like to ride the Blue and White ferries to SF and then spend the day at Fisherman's Wharf and riding the cable cars. China town is also fun to walk around in. Personally when driving my RV I enjoy the central coast towns more, i.e. Pismo Beach, Santa Cruz, Morrow Bay and Santa Barbara. All have better weather and access to the ocean.
Finally, I would make reservations well in advance, 6 to 9 months, as you will be traveling at the peak of the busy season for RVers.
Email me privately if you want more specific details and information. Enjoy your trip as it will fill you and the family with many memories.

[Matt_Colie]

Jason,

Planning this far in the future can lead to an effective and enjoyable excursion....

Start by getting a friend's old copy of Strips and Treets or Street Alas. Set that up to plan travel days and basic routes. Then, start an account at AAA online TripTiks (free). Set up the routes for individual days there and then walk the route at level 7 or 8 and see what they recommend for things to see. This will take input from the family. Finally, several months before departure, buy the new S&T or SA and start running that only because some roads will have been changed.

When we traveled with kids, we always liked to get to the area of the attraction late and then have a quiet night. In the morning, we would run their little legs off and they could sleep until the next stop.

Matt - his kids are gone, but we may start with GK real soon

[rockhillmanor]

Hi everyone,
I am planning a trip for my family from Detroit, MI to the Fresno, CA area. This is a long-range plan; we are not going to take the trip until around June

2015

.

God love you for being a planner!

But 2 years in advance? You won't be able to make reservations that far in advance. CG's that might be here today might not be in 2 years. At the rate they are closing state facilities they might not be open either.

Heck we don't even know where this country is going to be next week. :B