Cross Country Road Trip

Well, I just bought my one way ticket to SFO for June with the ambition of driving back to Chicago. My search of other forumites who had made a similar sojourn turned up Arethusa's gem (http://www.styleforum.net/showthread.php?t=16905), but I'm trying to do exactly the opposite in many more ways than one. First I'm going West to East. As a result, my playlist does not include any Michael Smith (for edification: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_West_Young_Man). Second, I'm traveling with a life partner and I'm setting out with the ambition of not being raped in either a figurative or literal sense. In case you were wondering, I'm not gay, it's my fiancee, who is of the womanly persuasion. Third, I want this to be fun. It's a vacation. The plan is currently Berkeley (where I will take possession of one of my parents cars) -> Tahoe. Eat at Evan's American Gourmet Cafe. Gamble, sleep. -> Carson City. Visit their Nevada history museum that used to have a cool mine and a room full of guns. -> Reno, pass through, throw $20 on the table in hopes of paying for gas. -> SLC. Visit our gambling, drinking mormon friends. -> Moab. Get in touch with Nature. -> Grand Junction (check out Colorado wine country, maybe). -> Vail. Sleep, hike, etc. -> Denver/Boulder. I want to check out the craft beer scene in Boulder, but it's kind of out of the way. -> Get on 80 and high tail it to Omaha. Visit Berkshire, eat some Sees candy, move on. -> Eyes wide shut through Iowa, arrive back in Chicago. I've been doing a fair amount of independent research on places to see, routes to take, etc, but I was hoping to pull on the immense knowledge of SF's to fill in gaps. We haven't settled on that being the route, although we do need to go through SLC to visit our gambling, drinking mormons. Route 66 was an option, but since we're only taking 7 days to do this, we figured SLC + Denver was a better option than Amarillo and Tulsa. I've resigned myself to the fact that the last 1,000 miles is going to be utterly boring. By way of information, we're taking a (very) small car that won't have any off-road capabilities, and the small trunk will be filled with wine and clothes. We're not planning on taking anything else. I'm having a mechanic go over the car, put new tires on, etc to ensure that it will make the trip. SO, 1. Any recommendations for things to see along this route? 2. Anyone done this route, just following Route 90, not 80? 3. Is there any good way of getting iphone music to play through the CD/Cassette player without having one of those silly cassette machines attached to my phone? I'm currently planning on burning CD's, but avoiding that might be nice. 4. Tips? Anything from anecodotes of similar trips to suggestions of roadside cafes would be much appreciated!

I have done this four times. It's been a while but your route sounds all wrong to me. You are taking a lot of N-S detours. Which is fine if that's what you want to do.

Huh. I thought 80 was the standard? Did you do 66 or 90?

Originally Posted by dhc905

Click to expand...

Huh. I thought 80 was the standard? Did you do 66 or 90?

I did a different route every time.

90 is way, way north of where you are talking about going. 80 does not go through Colorado. 66 starts in SoCal. Etc. That's what I mean. All over the map.

Originally Posted by dhc905

Click to expand...

3. Is there any good way of getting iphone music to play through the CD/Cassette player without having one of those silly cassette machines attached to my phone? I'm currently planning on burning CD's, but avoiding that might be nice.

I've had an iPod since....well they first came out. ( the first model). Surprisingly, short of a stereo with an actual mp3 jack, a cassette tape adapter offers the best sounding option for playing an iPod in a car. I've got an older jeep with a tape deck and my iPod sounds through that than my newer car. There are devices that transmit the iPod through an FM signal to your car radio, but they sound really, really, ******. And I've tried five different brands. All sound like absolute crap unless you're in the middle of nowhere. To my knowledge, there is no way to play it through the cd player.

You're right, I'd be taking a right turn at SLC to head down to 70 for the Moab/Vail/Denver part of the trip, and then rejoining 80 in Nebraska. If I took 80 all the way, SLC appears to be the last civilized spot before Chicago. I have time to zigzag a little, and have to, considering SLC and Denver aren't directly connected.

Originally Posted by Manton

Click to expand...

I did a different route every time.

90 is way, way north of where you are talking about going. 80 does not go through Colorado. 66 starts in SoCal. Etc. That's what I mean. All over the map.

I haven't had a car in 7 years and last time I tried was using the FM signal things you mentioned and they sucked. Maybe it'll be a fun throwback to burn CD's.

Originally Posted by FLMountainMan

Click to expand...

I've had an iPod since....well they first came out. (

the first model). Surprisingly, short of a stereo with an actual mp3 jack, a cassette tape adapter offers the best sounding option for playing an iPod in a car. I've got an older jeep with a tape deck and my iPod sounds through that than my newer car. There are devices that transmit the iPod through an FM signal to your car radio, but they sound really, really, ******. And I've tried five different brands. All sound like absolute crap unless you're in the middle of nowhere. To my knowledge, there is no way to play it through the cd player.

If you go through rural Missouri you can buy legal fireworks that make the shelling on D-Day look like sparklers.

Originally Posted by dhc905

Click to expand...

I haven't had a car in 7 years and last time I tried was using the FM signal things you mentioned and they sucked. Maybe it'll be a fun throwback to burn CD's.

....or you could just use a tape deck adapter.....

Yeah use the tape adapter. I've got one in my old car and it sounds fine. Unless you have a really good sound system you won't be able to tell the difference between mp3>tape and just regular CD.


And that route is not the efficient way, but based on Google Maps it's surprisingly not that inefficient either. Since I-80 ends in SF and goes straight to Chi that is the obvious way. But if you look at a map it actually curves north and then back south pretty far in between SLC and Nebraska, to get around the Rockies, so by taking that southern detour you don't add as much as you might think. It looks like going waaay down to Moab and then taking I-70 through Colorado to Denver only adds like 175 miles. That's not that ridiculous for a 2100 mile trip.

Plus if you're driving THAT far out of your way you might as well stop by Boulder if you have any actual reason that you wanted to see it. Once you've already done that huge detour south to Moab/Grand Junction, you might as well add on like an extra 40 miles or whatever to go to Boulder.


From my experience with several fairly long road trips, be prepared to cut stuff toward the end of the trip because you may just be fatigued and not want to see any more scenery/tourist attractions/whatever, and instead just get to your end destination as fast as possible. That doesn't mean the trip isn't a success, it just gets to be a sort of sensory overload at a certain point.

Oh, a few more things. If you're trying to stop and actually see stuff instead of just roadside scenery or the experience of driving, then you might not like driving more than about 350-400 miles per day max. If you're just driving to get from place to place then yeah, you could do 700 in a day, but it's a vacation and you have plenty of time to make that distance.

For instance, if you planned Tahoe>SLC to be one day and you are also planning on stopping in Carson City plus a detour to Reno, that's a really long day. Even more so for Vail>Omaha, especially if you actually did stop in Boulder for beer.

Good points. Too add to e zigging and zagging, we might head south to Santa Barbara, then north to tahoe. Or skip thane altogether, and simple catch a place to pass out in Nevada between SB and SLC.

For the first couple of days, we're definitely not going to rush anything, assuming there's something fun to do, we're not going to rush, but after Denver/boulder there really isn't much to see.

I'm also going to try to avoid 700 mile days because recaro sport seats are not comfortable, and I'm going to want to stop at local places probably every 100-200 miles to get some blood back in my behind!

I've driven cross country, both ways, at least a dozen times. Last round trip was about a year ago.

Do not take the I 80 all the way across country. Very boring. I mean, really boring.

Think about heading down to the Grand Canyon. It's very much worth seeing. Then head down to Flagstaff AZ for a couple of days. More hiking and stuff (great Indian cliff dweller ruins). Then head across through Winslow and the Meteor Crater on I 40. You can chose to spend time in Santa Fe or not then head to Amarillo, TX and check out that place with the huge steaks (we have.) At OK city, pick up 44 and head through Tulsa. Stop in St. Louis. So much to do. Dinner boat theater is great, tour the brewery, go up the arches. From there pick up 55 and on to Chicago.

piob is right. i did chicago-sf on 80 when i moved out there and back. it is brutally boring, like “can i just abandon my car nd find the nearest airport before i kill myself” boring. also try to hit the grand canyon. not crazy far out of the way and gorgeous. aso the wine should not be in the trunk. middle of the country + june + wine in trunk = no bueno.

OK, maybe I just have a different definition of "far" but the Grand Canyon is pretty darn far south from your main route. I wasn't figuring you were planning to add that much distance.

it's definitely worth seeing, though. If you were coming from Salt Lake City you could easily see the less visited North Rim, too.