As you may have seen from my previous posts about our cross-country roadtrip, me, my husband, and our two dogs Linkin and Story spent 16 days in the car as we made our move from Florida to Oregon.
Let me start by saying that everyone should do a cross-country roadtrip at some point in their life! You don’t have to follow the same route from Florida to Oregon, but just take any roadtrip across the United States.
There are so many beautiful places to see and experiences to have!
I know what you may be thinking…”I can’t take that much time off work”, “the kids can’t be away from school”, “we don’t have the money” etc. etc. But, i’m telling you, you can make it happen!
We both left our well-paying jobs to make it happen.
Are we irresponsible? No. Did we lose our minds? I don’t think so.
We came up with a plan and made a budget to do something we have always wanted to do. I think if you asked anyone who knows us personally, they would tell you that we are very responsible people.
And as far as having kids goes…no, we don’t have kids, but we have two dogs that came with us on this journey and I will dare to say that traveling with two dogs may be just as much of a challenge as traveling with two kids.
And to top it all off…I get car sick.
On winding roads, I feel horrible, and i’m pretty sure our dog Story does as well!
So I say all this to say…you can do it! If I can do it, you can!
Did everything go perfectly on our trip? No.
But, it was an amazing experience that I will never forget. Hopefully you can take some of the lessons I learned to plan your trip! We have already started planning our next one.
Lesson #1 All your unhealthy eating habits rise back to the surface.
Our parents were nice enough to load us up with tons of snacks for the trip. We had cheese and crackers, granola bars, protein bars, fruit, PB and J sandwiches, and a whole cooler full of bottled water.
We started off the first few days doing pretty well eating the snacks, but then we lost it.
Gas station fill-ups turned into candy, chips, and soda stops. We were constantly tempted to stop and eat fast food instead of making a sandwich.
I don’t know what it is about roadtrips, but they seem to bring out the worst food habits.
I have always been a candy lover so that bad habit came back out of me on the trip. Skittles and snickers and starbursts were tempting me at each fill-up and I caved a few times. OK, more than a few times.
I have to say that I did stay strong with the soda. I decided to give up soda for 2015 and so far I am on track. But, I have to say that this roadtrip was the most tempting time I’ve had so far. With all the gas station and fast food stops, I wanted a soda so bad!
Lesson #2 Be prepared to put on some pounds and don’t beat yourself up about it.
Along the same lines as lesson #1, unless you stick to your healthy eating habits (unlikely) and take the time to exercise during your breaks from the car (even more unlikely), you are going to gain some weight. I did!
But, I decided not to let it bother me. It’s kinda expected after sitting in the car for 16 days. We even did a lot of walking and hiking during our trip, but it doesn’t make up for the amount of sitting and eating we did!
Lesson #3 Bring an outfit for every season
When traveling across the country, the weather from one city to the next will vary so much! I was so shocked that we were bundled up in coats in New Mexico, only to be wearing tank tops in California!
Make sure you bring a wide range of clothing types.
Keep in mind that I’m not saying bring A LOT of clothes, just a lot of variation in clothing, which brings me to the next lesson…
Lesson #4 Pack your bag of clothes with what you think you’ll need and then remove 2/3 of what you packed.
I packed waaaay too much for the trip and it ended up being a big hassle. I wore about 1/3 of the clothes I actually packed, and we only did laundry one time in the 16 days.
Having my bag so full meant I had to lug it into the hotel room and back out to the car every.single.day.
Do yourself a favor and pack less!
Lesson #5 Don’t be afraid to “wing it”.
We had a plan of where we wanted to go and what we wanted to see, but we definitely didn’t stick to it 100%.
Along the way we would discover other places we wanted to visit and hear about some things we decided to skip.
For example, we thought driving West along Route 66 would be epic, but we quickly discovered that it is just a much slower road without much excitement. There were a few stops along Route 66 that we made sure to hit (like Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, TX), but otherwise we opted for interstate travel to get to the places we REALLY wanted to go quicker.
Lesson #6 Prepare some entertainment
Podcasts, games, trivia, downloaded music. Those are some of the things we used to keep us entertained. Don’t rely on the radio because it can be very hard to find a good station along some of those American rural roads! That static noise will drive ya nuts!
Lesson #7 Don’t try to spend your whole day driving
I think the longest we drove in a day was about 8 hours.
Try to leave yourself plenty of time to get to your final destination so that you actually have time to stop where you want to stop and enjoy the ride!
We did not arrange our hotels until the very day we were checking in so we had the flexibility to stay wherever we wanted instead of having to make it to the next town.
Lesson #8 Get an awesome air freshener
With two people and two dogs in a small space for 16 days, things can get smelly! We showered of course, but it doesn’t matter!
Before we left, we bought a linen fresh air freshener called Citrus Magic and put it under the seat. I have to tell you that thing worked wonders!
Our car smelled like linen freshness the whole way!
Lesson #9 Get your car checked out before you start your trip
Before we left for the trip, we took the car in to get all new tires, an oil change, and a general check-up.
Then, about a week before we left our car started making funny noises. I took it in and they couldn’t find anything wrong with it. The noise kept coming and going throughout the week and I ended up taking it in 3 times before they found what was wrong…basically the brakes were failing! Yikes!!
I am so glad I didn’t ignore it before our trip! The very last thing you want on your trip is car trouble! I saw many many broken down cars along the road during our travels and I was just so thankful it wasn’t us!
Lesson #10 Don’t be afraid to take the scenic route
Some of the small highways of America are absolutely amazing (especially in California and Oregon)! Don’t miss out on some of them because you are in a hurry to get somewhere! It will be worth it.
We drove from San Francisco to Oregon via Highway 1 (Pacific Coast Highway). It was one of the most scenic drives I have ever been on and I’m so glad we didn’t skip it!
I hope these lessons I learned will help you when you plan your next roadtrip! Seriously, do it! Do. It.
And when you do, share it with me!
If you missed any of the Roadtrip Series, you can read them here:
What’s the longest roadtrip you’ve been on? Where did you go?
Love this post! Your doggies are so cute!
I agree with all healthy eating going out the window… I find that even if i’m going on a four hour trip, i’m already planning my chips and starbucks baked goods for snacks! It’s bad haha
Thanks Beverley! Our dogs are like our children!
I don’t know what it is about the car and junk-food! They just MUST go together! š
Lindsey I need you to give me some ideas of budgeting for on the road travel, Uncle Brent and I have finally been able to take the RV on the road for an undetermined amount of time but aim afraid that we r treating this more like a vacation than a possible way of life. Clue me in if you will! I know you learned a lot from your mom! So what ever advice you can give will help! Like Uncle Brent said ” do you have a place we can RV rent! As far as the eating “OMG I can feel the skin moving with each bite I take. I HATE THAT FEELING
The car sickness is what gets me! Haha didn’t you get sore from sitting all day too?! I love that you guys had such a great adventure though! So much fun š
Yes. Hate the woozy feeling in the car. I found that if I drive on the winding roads it’s not too bad as being the passenger! I didn’t get sore from sitting but when I got back into doing my “real” workouts when we settled in, I was so sore! Had to take it slow to ease back in.
I’ll treasure these lessons, after 16 days you must be a true expert! I get car sick too, agh…
This is one of the coolest things I’ve ever read! I love that you a) quit your jobs to follow a dream (jobs will come and go but goal-crushing is something you’ll never regret and b) that you didn’t beat yourself up things like not eating the best and maybe gaining a little bit of weight. I mean, you are SITTING a lot haha but you’re also exploring and stretching your mind. I need to add this to my goals — and it’s wonderful you found a life partner to do it with š
Aww thanks so much Lauren! That means a lot! I hope you get to do it!
Okay so this is weird, but instantly when I saw that cinnamon roll I felt a sense of recognition. Is that a cinnamon roll from The Frontier in Albuquerque??!! I know those plates and I know those cinnamon rolls.
It also made me super happy to see pictures from New Mexico and Amarillo, TX. My hometown is about 1hr from Amarillo only in New Mexico of course. You made some good points. I thought I would eat healthy on my two weeks out of town, but I definitely did not and I did put on a bit of weight. Like you said, I’m trying not to beat myself up for it.
Ahhh YES! It is a cinnamon roll from The Frontier Restaurant! That is sooo funny that you recognized it! Haha! It was so dang good, I almost went back for a second.
I absolutely loved New Mexico! I don’t know if you saw my other posts about our time in Amarillo and New Mexico but you will definitely see more pictures there! https://fitlifepursuits.com/the-beaches-to-mountains-roadtrip-series-day-six-and-seven/
https://fitlifepursuits.com/the-beaches-to-mountains-roadtrip-series-day-eight-and-nine/
I am going to have to go back to get one of those cinnamon rolls again sometime! š
I’ve traveled across the country 3 times, but all 3 were necessary, not for fun. Still, I love the tips, since I hope to do more road trips (for fun) in the future!!!
Wow! 3 times? I hope you get to take a fun one soon!
Hey Lindsey! Great tips, as I’m about to road trip from CA to TN for a big move with my partner and my dog. Do you have a list or recommendations for finding dog friendly hotels along the route? Or did you camp?
Alyssa,
That sounds so exciting! We primarily stayed at La Quinta because they are pet friendly, have laundry, and are generally pretty well kept. I’d actually recommend signing up for La Quinta Returns. It’s their rewards program that allows you to accrue points and put them towards free stays.
As a backup we sometimes stayed at Best Western. And in the rare event neither of those were available we used http://www.bringfido.com/
It was pretty cold when we traveled, so we ended up not camping (even though we packed our tent and sleeping bags). If the weather is nice, I’d definitely consider it, especially if I had a hotel booked the following night and knew I could get a shower if needed š
Hope that helps some, and be sure to let me know how your trip goes!