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In about 12 hours my wife and I will depart on a five week long cross country (USA) car trip. It has been a long time since I have done a car trip that was longer than two days. Actually, I haven't done once since buying my Goldwing in 2010. This is a bucket list trip that includes visiting family that my wife and I haven't seen in awhile, and to visit some national parks and other areas of the country that we have yearned to see. I don't have a clue how many miles we can comfortably run in a day nor whether I will crave getting off the interstate highways (I don't ride them unless absolutely necessary). It is going to be interesting to see what our daily routine evolves into. One thing I am wondering as I sit here looking at the pile ready to be loaded into my Subaru Outback is whether it's big enough, not the pile, the car. Yup, it's going to be interesting!!!

I'll be figuring out whether navigation by phone or car system is preferred. My XT is coming along as navigation backup (no mount for it in the car). Yup, it's going to be interesting!!! No. Wait. It's going to be FUN!!!

We tend to stay with the interstates until we reach the Mississippi River. Population density and traffic congestion make the eastern roads too stressful for long distance driving on most back roads. I can sit in traffic at home.

Crossing the plains, the two lane U.S. highways are much more interesting and only slightly slower than the interstates. Passing though many of the towns just means slowing to 45 mph for a mile or two, with no stops required. Just keep gas in the tank, gas stations can be hours apart.

We don't usually have a detailed plan, but I do try to reserve hotel rooms or camp sites the night before we need them. It can have a big effect on the day's destination and I enjoy the day more if I know I have a place to sleep. We allow plenty of time to stop and explore, but 300-350 miles/day is a decent number to aim for, covering ground without being exhausting.

We've also done Portland, OR to Columbus, OH (2500 miles) in four days because we HAD to get back- that was no fun at all.

Have a safe trip!

Just finished day 2. Day one was 428 miles, day 2 was 552. Day 1 wasn't bad, fatigued but not concerningly so. day 2 was tough, although the driving was easier due to less traffic. I now know that my sweet spot is in the 350-400 range. Now to stop drinking craft beer and eating dinner every night like we're on vacation. That will get hard on the body and the wallet real fast.

Take it steady @Peobody - have fun, but remember that you are not starting every day from fresh. Beware of the tiredness building up day on day.

jfheath wrote: ↑Sat Sep 07, 2024 11:12 am Take it steady @Peobody - have fun, but remember that you are not starting every day from fresh. Beware of the tiredness building up day on day.

Thanks. The overall trip plan is such that we hopefully never have more that three consecutive full days off driving. That should help.

My trip is done. My wife and I were gone for 31 days, driving on 25 of them for a total of 8364 miles (13461 km). It went by way too fast. Primary navigation was with the car satnav. Fine navigation (food, fuel, lodging, POI stops) were done with Google Maps on a phone. Google Maps couldn't be relied on for daily navigation due to signal issues, but it was used regularly to look at options for getting to the next destination. This allowed me to change the route plotted by the car satnav by turning onto a different road and letting it recalculate to the destination.

A limitation of the car satnav was that it would only route to a single destination. My XT was used once when I wanted to create a multi-point route instead of using the car satnav and having to stop at each point to enter the next one. It was frustrating that a new destination could not be entered while the car was moving. My wife could have safely done that from the passenger seat had the car allowed her to.

It was a great trip. Many national and state parks were visited, wine and beer were tasted, and we spent some time with a number of family members who we hadn't seen in years.

Peobody wrote: ↑Mon Oct 14, 2024 2:33 pm My trip is done. My wife and I were gone for 31 days, driving on 25 of them for a total of 8364 miles (
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It was a great trip. Many national and state parks were visited, wine and beer were tasted, and we spent some time with a number of family members who we hadn't seen in years.

And it doesn't get much better than that. Welcome back @Peobody .