Skip Missouri if you can, it blows outside of the cities. Colorado is awesome. I've heard great things about Idaho but I took a more southerly route (in order to end in LA) so I dipped down through Utah and Nevada and went across the desert to head home (with a slight, and regrettable, detour to see the Grand Canyon, AKA big hole in the group masked by 50,000 annoying little kids in front of you). I do not recommend going near Nevada or southern Utah, unless you are specifically going to go through one of the National Parks (Kings or Bryce, can't remember which is down there... Arches?). I have always wanted to visit Yosemite and Montana, personally.

We drove from Chicago to LA a few month ago, and let me say this: western Colorado, Utah and Nevada are like a combined 12 hours of nothing. NOTHING. They're pretty, for sure... for about the first hour. The only good thing about driving through desert wasteland (specifically Utah) is that all the cars were cruising at a minimum of 90 mph. Didn't see a cop until we hit Las Vegas. But oh God, what a horribly boring area to drive through.

.mm

I think you have the right idea about staying off the interstate. Sure, there are wide open spaces in the west but if you are off the interstate you actually get to see the country. Visit those towns. Talk to the locals. It can really show you how truly vast and diverse the USA really is.

That said you've got a ton of miles to travel. Unless you have all year or more you've gotta make priority what you want to see. Some states or areas it might be best to get on the freeway and zip past 500 miles without much looking back.

Save money by camping, at least in the western states. State parks, KOA, or whatever is always cheaper than a hotel. I've camped my way through the Dakotas, Montana, Idaho and Oregon. Also check out hostels. Not sure how available they are in rural areas though.

As long as you've got the car I suggest you see, at least architecturally, those things that are more rural. Things like Louis Sullivan's bank buildings in MN, IA, IL, etc. As an example they are all in small towns that you'll probably never have a reason to visit again. Sure, big cities have a lot to offer, but they will cost you more and they are easier to get to via air travel, so take adavantage of the vehicle while you've got it.

try to hit spiral jetty--
also, a good source for small/local places to eat with good food:
www.roadfood.com

pack your own food and/or shop at grocery stories instead of buying that damn fast food! hahahaha

go to san francisco if you can =) there are ghost gold towns in california worth seeing like Bodie

Yosemite is awesome

was anyone who drove through Utah able to find a radio station that was not morman preaching or country music!

Good call...unless you have XM or really enjoy country music, bring plenty of music with you.

Turell's Roden Crater?
Santa Ynez/Santa Barbara wine country...get faded

I second the "stay off the interstate" plan, too. I drove Oregon-Michigan six times and it is so much better on the little roads. Especially across the plains. Those states are so boring and unpopulated - along the state roads - that you only pass another car every ten minutes or so - and all the drivers wave at each other, acknowledgement of another human in that vast open space!

A highlight for me was carhenge (Alliance, Nebraska) at dawn:



and Craters of the Moon National Monument (Arco, Idaho) on a blistering hot afternoon:



Also I second the suggestion to buy food at grocery stores and eat it - get a little plastic 6-pac sized cooler and make yourself sandwiches every morning. Saves a ton of money, plus you'll actually eat some fresh fruit and whatnot rather than subsisting on eggs and fries. Of course it's also fun to eat in the little diners etc. you'll find on those back roads - and talk to the people there. Always look cheerful when you enter those places - if you look too hipster the locals might not warm to you!

Get a good atlas that shows state and even county roads. You might end up buying maps of individual states rather than a single atlas.

Have a blast - it is an amazing journey, the American road trip.

I've been working on a similar trip via motorcycle. Interstate and freeways are no joke when all you have between you and the pavement is denim, leather, and plastic.

ditto all the camping, grocery, anything local. The best experiences will be had talking to people.

suggest this book. They've done a lot of the dirty work for you, and you can stray whenever you please for that sense of exploration and adventure.

second what LB said about being cheerful, and get scruffy. If you need some authentic duds; and be sure to roll around in the mud some with them.

This is also a great excuse to visit far flung friends and family with empty couches and maybe even some beloved archinecters.

A primer, and another.

Carhenge. liberty bell you wonderful woman, it is so rare Nebraska is mentioned here.

And I thought I was the only archinecter who would've ever been to Carhenge. It is the only highlight of Nebraska's panhandle region.

If passing through North Dakota you might want to skip the Enchanted Highway



But they might have something good here.

whoops, I meant Yellowstone, not Yosemite... know Yosemite quite well and love it too of course, but have always wanted to visit YELLOWSTONE.

Also, if you drive through Craters of the Moon then into Portland, Oregon via the Columbia River Gorge, you get to see the extremes of climate/growth. Craters is so bleak, basically stone instead of earth, that pic I posted shows a very lush portion of the park, in spring. Then the Gorge is the so fertile, wet, overgrown, green....I highly recommend driving through the Gorge and seeing the many many waterfalls and gorges you can hike back into.

Man I would absolutely love to do this trip over again with enough time to actually see stuff. Your pics are inspiring, lib bell!

i am the king of road trips. bet i've logged more x-country miles than anyone on this forum in the USofA, traveling, moving, going to school and screwing around. i mean, not to be arrogant, because honestly son, i envy you. i just want to feel that road again. i will live vicariously through you. freedom. we are blood brothers.

haha, le bossman. let's make a deal then.. you can live vicariously through me traveling the open road in search of places unseen (by myself), the northern California coast that I've dreamt about (as the idealic bohemian promised land I've come to imagine it to be) and as I watch the sun set over the ocean for the first time, so long as I can vicariously take advantage of your wisdom and knowledge on the road.

please, mr. flm. camp at point mugu north of LA on the pacific coast highway. relive those times for me. then have a burrito on the beach in santa monica, and go see the salk institute as the sun is setting, before you get drunk in san diego and jump into the pacific ocean at night with your jeans on, and wake up hungover on your friends ex-girlfriends living room floor with sand in your clothes.

just as i have.

When I drove thru Utah, I thought to myself, "every artist should visit Utah."
It is beautiful. The colors of the earth are orange, black, ivory, red, green, gray and amber in one view. The vegetation is twisted and spotty, sometimes it is lush around a river. The mountains are eroding at different rates and you can see the various stages of hills fading and plateaus forming.
There are not people, but that is what is so cool about the west, there are cities, and then there is the great american landscape.

strawbeary,

I'm gonna read that again when i'm stoned...sounds nice...

bossman, with due respect, I have to call you on your boast (mostly because I want to know more about how much/where you've travelled). I've driven across country west coast to midwest 8 times, coast to coast twice, SW to NW four. That's about 30,000 miles, granted, it's over the course of 20 years...

Let's hear your stats - roughly.

I'm planning my own roadtrip from RI to SF this summer. Here's some sites I found that are helpful,
rand McNally
and
Road Trip USA

Find them through google.

yeah, San Fransisco is one of the places I'd like to check out. Big Sur always sticks out in my mind even though I know almost nothing about it. I think I saw something about the coast there or some hermits or hippies or some group of people (guess that excludes hermits then) living out there, but I was about 10 or 12 and that has stuck with me. I also just took "On the Road" out from the library today. I started into it this summer, but just didn't have the time, so it should be good to hold me over for the next few months. I really hope to do this.

northern arizona is very nice! also you can "stand on a corner in winslow arizona".

I hate the f---ing Eagles, and by extension Winslow, AZ. I had car trouble there 3 days before Thanksgiving and the town and motels were over run with people waiting in anxious anticipation for...

...the Christmas parade.

Bizarre. And not a seedy non-chain motel to be found. If you must drive on 40 (and are headed for a little Ant Farm action in Amarillo) stay just down the road in Holbrook. Cute town, with friendly folks.

Utah is picturesque but the liquor laws are too restrictive to allow for one to visit for more than a day or two. 3.2 beer and IPAs are mutually exclusive. And that underwear!

And if you are looking for reading material, check out Steinbeck's "Travels with Charlie". No one can resist a road trip book about an alcoholic and his poodle.

FLM- when you get to your destination, Sea Ranch on the Mendo coast is my fav. if you plan ahead you might could stay in the Charles Moore cabin 9. Also check out http://www.postranchinn.com/ in big sur, which like most of norcal is mostly yuppies instead of hippies. But i do love livin in SF.

Second the camping suggestion. My fav link for roadtrips:roadside america

If you're going to Big Sur, stay at Ragged Point in the clifftop rooms; awesome mid-century motel perched at the edge of a cliff.

l.b....

i'm with you...i'd like le bossman's numbers on mileage...
personally i've driven, mostly solo, cross country meandering
wise...back from the tip of washington to nyc...every year from
boston to penn state for five years...from boston to grand
haven michigan three times.. and then there are all the
holidays, weddings, etc. etc...as well as a road trip across
parts of norway and a short one in italy.

i've also been to carhenge and have some really beautiful
pictures...the sky was crazy blue the day i was there...and it
was the best day of driving on the blue highways. also drove
through monument valley in the middle of the night with a
full moon...so quiet, still, and just sitting their awed at how
it was so beautiful and there was noone to share it with.

second and third to anyone recommended not staying in
hotels...and eating out of grocery stores and the like. the
best experiences are the impromptu picnics.

also flm,

crossing over the rockies for the first time is pretty amazing.

Spent my days with a woman unkind,
Smoked my stuff and drank all my wine.
Made up my mind to make a new start,
Going to california with an aching in my heart.
Someone told me there’s a girl out there
With love in her eyes and flowers in her hair.
Took my chances on a big jet plane,
Never let them tell you that they’re all the same.
The sea was red and the sky was grey,
Wondered how tomorrow could ever follow today.
The mountains and the canyons started to tremble and shake
As the children of the sun began to awake.
Seems that the wrath of the gods
Got a punch on the nose and it started to flow;
I think I might be sinking.
Throw me a line if I reach it in time
I’ll meet you up there where the path
Runs straight and high.
To find a queen without a king;
They say she plays guitar and cries and sings.
La la la la
Ride a white mare in the footsteps of dawn
Tryin’ to find a woman who’s never, never, never been born.
Standing on a hill in my mountain of dreams,
Telling myself it’s not as hard, hard, hard as it seems.

news, glad you picked up on that. when I first started to really dream of a cross-country road trip, I was a big Led Zeppelin fan, so naturally "Going to California" would be the first song I'd listen to as I headed out, I decided. I think it's something I'd still like to do, just as I'd like to buy Lou Reed's "Berlin" album right before I (hopefully) spend a semester there in a year-and-a-half.

All this stuff sounds great. The full moon over Monument Valley is the sort of thing I dream of. I'm trying to decide if I'd like to go solo or with someone. It'd have to be someone I could stand for a few weeks, and someone who I'd be comfortable being a bit of a sap around, because I've got some pretty high hopes for this. Which reminds me, any idea how long this could possibly take? Is 2-3 weeks sufficient?

flm.

at the LEAST...four weeks.
just do the math...approximately 5000 miles to see a majority
of the country...that's driving from boston to san diego going
circuitously through the north..and then back again...via the
south...without meandering. you can comfortably drive probably
400 miles a day...that's about 6-7hrs (on major highways..you'll
need to add time on blue highways where the speed limit is lower)
...without stopping all that
much....that's 12 days of solid driving at the least.. without
stopping to stay anywhere more than a day. personally i'd do
it at basically a 5 hr a day pace..or so. 5 hrs is really comfy
and will get you, usually, between two places you want to see.
also giving yourself more time allows for happy accidents to
occur...and you'll find quite a few times that the nicest path is
not typically a straight line.

the middle of the country is truly vast. crossing nebraska takes
a day or so...that's one thing i discovered on my first trip...
just how much space the u.s. entails...and how little of it is
inhabited. there's a section of arizona? i recall where there
was a sign that said 'next exit 60 miles'..

as far as driving with someone...if there's someone you really
want to experience something with i'd go with someone else...
however i enjoyed the ease of travelling alone..the schedule is
entirely your own. also you don't have to worry about any
personality clashes between you and whomever you stay with..
or having to ask for a place for two vs. one..IF you're going to
do a lot of camping or hotelling, though, two will be more fun.
there's nothing more lonely than an empty hotel room/campsite.

lastly, i'd make sure your car is completely tuned up in the beginning
and change the oil halfway through...nothing is more a bummer than
having to hang out (someplace you don't want to be) for a day longer
than you intended because your car is in the shop.

Their is this freeky, green fiberglass facad by AVL on a gallery in the Jordan that I stumbled upoon once and could never find again.

If anyone knows where that is

sorry I that was supposed to be on the A-dam thread

well, i've driven from grand rapids, mi to colorado probably five times, ridden to florida four times, i've driven to seattle, and to arizona 3 times. also, i took a 9000 mile road trip a few years ago, started in phx and drove to houston, new orleans, charleston, dc, ny, boston, pa, ann arbor, chicago, colorado, sf, down to san diego and back to phx. i don't know how many miles overall. a lot, considering i'm only 25.

Good stats bossman. And really, it wasn't about competing, I just wanted to hear more about where your travels had taken you.

Southern united states (like down to Florida) is one part of the country I've not seen from a car - though I did do the Blue Ridge Parkway about five years ago, it was beautiful.

port authority terminal in manhattan to downtown los angeles. 2 full days and 3 nights on a greyhound. drivers change, bus doesn't.. strange to step on to the bus in new york that says los angeles on it.
towns start and terminate. at night, on the way out of san antonio, you see fewer and fewer lights. if you are on the window seat, you put your hand on the cold glass and see its print as you slowly enter another dream..

northern utah
yellowstone area
anywhere coastal and coast hills in ca, except long beach and the like. Similarly, probably any coastal oregon to alaska
so cal deserts, into nv/az. they're different.
http://www.google.com/search?q=desert+flower+|+Wildflower+watch
long views: mt tam, mt diablo. mt hamilton's nice, too