Epic Road Trip 2018

The time is near.  Michelle and I began planning this trip around February 2017.  We had been bitten by the travel bug after returning from our cruise.  With my job, every 5 years I qualify for a 1 month sabbatical so we decided that we should do a cool trip during that time.  At first, we were talking about an international trip.  I mean, that sounded perfect since it is almost impossible to do a trip abroad with the traditional vacation time of 7-9 days.  We bounced ideas off of each other until we finally came to the conclusion that neither of us had seen enough of the U.S. yet.  So we then started looking at local trips.  One that stood out is the trip across the U.S. via railway.  You may have seen it.  It said something like “Travel the U.S. for $300”.  We were sold…for about 2 days.  Then we saw a post that said “What that train trip doesn’t tell you”.  It detailed how difficult it is to travel via train.  The hygiene, the sleeping arrangements, you don’t get to get off of the train to really see stuff…it started to sound miserable.  So in one of our conversations, we realized that I have a Ford F-150 Supercrew.  The back seat is the size of a day bed.  Why don’t we just road trip it?  We were geniuses.So we started talking.  Even though Michelle’s dad was in the Navy and she had seen much more of the world than I thought I would ever see, there were still many places that she wanted to visit: The Grand Canyon, Alcatraz, Seattle, etc.  I confided in her that I had always wanted to visit all 50 state capital buildings (I’m a bit of a nerd).  So the plan was: visit all 50 states, their capital buildings, and all of the cool stuff along the way.  So now that we had the basic plan, we needed to actually map it out and see what we could do on the first trip.The original plan was a little ambitious and had us gone for 3 weeks.  We were also originally set to take this trip September of 2017.  But life happened.  Michelle had some family issues and I was presented with an opportunity at work that required me to move 9 hours to Corpus Christi, TX.  So we decided to temporarily postpone our trip.  But here it is, July 2018, and we are ready to go.The trip is 11 days, 12 state capitals, lots of cool sights, and many unforgettable memories.  We leave Tuesday the 10th and return Friday the 20th.  Below is a screenshot from the Roadtrippers app.  If you’re looking to do a road trip, no matter how big or small, I would recommend this app.  It’s easy to use.  My favorite part is that I have edited the trip many times.  All I had to do was delete or add a stop and it would calculate it on the map for me.  Below are screenshots of the itinerary.  If you would like a printable version, click Epic Road Trip 2018.

A few things to note about our trip:

1. We only have hotel stay planned for one city and family/friend stay in two cities.  In the places that we will be “camping”, we will be sleeping in the truck.  I’ve done it several times and we decided that my truck was the safest and most comfortable.  Think about it, would you rather put up and take down a tent just to sleep on the ground and be vulnerable to bears and serial killers?  I would rather sleep in the truck.  Other times we will take turns driving and sleeping.
2. We are not seeing everything we could possibly see.  Some places just didn’t make the cut.  Some examples would be Yosemite, The Redwood Forest, and Canon Beach.  For some reason or another, these places just weren’t able to be done.  Usually it was because they were too far off of our route to make the detour.  We know we want to see some of these places, but that is what other trips are for.  We both have other family and friends that we like to do stuff with, so these places will be reserved for them.
3. Yes, we know you had fun on your 2 week trip along the Pacific Coast Highway, and we know YOU think we should spend more time in California, but the fact is, California is a big state.  We could spend the entire 11 days there and still not see everything.  The point is, if you have a recommendation, thank you.  If we have time, we will give it a try.  But what is important and a “must do” for one is not for another.  Michelle and I each put in our non-negotiables before we finalized this.
4. We will be safe.  I just purchased a newer truck with a warranty.  I have allowed some time to get an oil change halfway through if needed.  We have an emergency credit card should anything go wrong.  I have roadside assistance on my truck,  and I have a fancy roadside kit.  We both have health insurance that is accepted at most hospitals.  Michelle is bringing a lifetime supply of Benadryl.  We will be fully armed with several different types of weapons.  And lastly, we are not naive.  We know the dangers and we know there are evil people in the world.

You read that I mentioned that we each had some non-negotiables.  Here are most of them:Michelle

1. The Grand Canyon
2. Alcatraz
3. The Space Needle
4. JFK tour in Dallas

Laura

1. The Grand Canyon
2. The state capitals
3. Bus tour in L.A.
4. Multnomah Falls

We have both signed off on the final itinerary.  I’m pretty sure by the time it was done, Michelle was willing to agree to anything just to shut me up, lol.Some other cool mentionables:

1. We will not be buying souvenirs.  We will be taking a lot of pictures and, of course, posting on here along the way.  Souvenirs get expensive and take up room.
2. I’m working on making some signs to hold up in front of each of the capital buildings that include the city, population, etc.  We thought something like that would be fun.
3. We have small 1oz. apothecary bottles that we will be filling with dirt or sand from each state.  So when this is all over, we will each have 50 bottles.
4. We have this blog.  We decided on this space for sharing because we didn’t want to flood people’s timelines.  We wanted people to be able to see our fun on their time.  Also, unlike our Facebook pages, this is something that Michelle and I both can contribute to.  Please keep in mind though, we are not professional bloggers.  We have an app on our phones that we can post from and I will have my laptop, but I’m just going to go ahead and apologize for any mis–spellings or poor grammar.
5. We want to take a fun picture in each state, print a copy for each of us, cut that picture to the shape of that state, and glue it to a large map of the U.S.  We saw that idea on Facebook or Pinterest.  It looks fun and is way more memorable than a magnet on our fridge.

We are excited to share this adventure with our friends and family.  If you know someone that would like to follow us, please share this page with them.  You can comment on a post, send us a message on FB, or text us as most of you probably have our cell numbers. Laura