The starting location was Lake San Marcos, California (north of San Diego). What lay ahead was a coast-to-coast trip that had lots of "less-than-direct" routes.
This was TwoRed's first real trip. The odometer was only about 400 miles at the start.
The goals: visit friends, family, attend meetings, and to generally explore the country.
Check the blog www.twored-travels.com for notes on planning and observations from the trip. Alas, the driving and meetings filled the day and left no time to keep up the blog.
A map was used to monitor TwoRed's location during the expedition (Sept. 19 to Oct. 12 & Nov. 4 to 30). (Note: the map actually monitored Kim's cell phone, which is generally good enough.)
NOTES
The Coast-to-Coast Expedition (with a 2,000 mile side trip) is now complete. Whew.
I've analyzed the travel log and produced quite a few of the statistics for the trip.
A few big observations (December, 2010): - It was great meeting many colleagues, friends and family on this trip. They made the trip worthwhile!
- The US countryside is beautiful. Much better than I expected.
- The Interstate highway system is undergoing a much needed upgrade. There are now lots of nice, smooth roads.
- Billboards suck. There are only a few really bad stretches with billboards, generally near cities. Take 'em down, please. Exit signs which have a listing of relevant services (gas, food, hotels) are fine.
- Don't attempt a long drive without a cruise control and a navigating GPS. If you don't use these tools, you'll get tired, tickets and lost. Well, I got lost a few times, but it was my mistake.
- There are lots of good rest stops. Mostly, these are commercial places like gas stations. Never fear, a restroom is always near.
- There is way too much homogenization in the hotel and food services that are associated with the Interstate highway system.
- My daily drive limit (e.g., driving by myself) appears to be about 420 miles (assuming good weather and Interstate travel). I went over this "limit" five times.
- It is hard to find convenient places to take interesting pictures. It seems like you need to get off the well-traveled roads to do this.
- The GPS tracking worked quite well. There were a few spots without coverage. And the battery drain was faster than the recharge rate. In any case, it appears that people had fun watching me whiz down the highway. I did get comments when I was obviously lost. It also provided very useful support on several occasions when I needed a nearby place to eat or when I really was lost.
- A Smart car is a great way to do long-distance travel. It performed very well and was comfortable. Did I say "economical"?
- I'm not quite ready to attempt another long drive. Give me a few months and I'll be ready to hit the road again.
|
|
|
