Road trippin with my two favourite allies...

Yeah have been thinking about it for ages. Ultimate dream USA related is to get a car in New York and trip it all the way across USA diagonally to the most south-westerly tip, i.e. San Diego - but that's a way off yet. So will have to stick to small scale for now.

Damn car rental is cheap, even with the extra charge for being under 25. Mustang soft top FTW!

I haven't got experience now,.. but by the end of March I will,.. 10 day road trip form SF to LA via San Diego ...

Great minds and all that, gizza shout who you book through and hotel advice and stuff would you?

Fankooo.

p.s. SD is south of LA

Go to your local library and borrow this:
www.roadtripusa.com

Fly over, buy some cheap 80s tank from the nearest used car lot, do the road trip and flog it to the last dealer you see before getting the plane back.

What could *possibly* go wrong?

Did someone call?

Doesn't sound like you need much help to be honest, you seem to doing fine already

But for what it's worth, here are a few ideas. I've only rented a few times over there and used whoever was cheapest at the time, so I can't really help with that one. On the upside I've never had a bad experience with any company and managed to barter between offices easily getting prices down. I once had two desks at LAX get into a bidding war, but just take out all the insurance they offer you...

I guess it depends on how long you plan to be there, but what about buying something? I guess you're looking at doing maybe 2000miles, what's that to a big old lump of American iron? Live the dream... It really does make all the difference, and it's the one thing I'd say to do if you can. Let me know your thoughts and I'll give you some advice if that's your way forward.

The only other prep you need is to set a date to go and one to come back, then make a list of all the events on in all the areas you might be in. So a full calender if you like, then make a list of all the places you'd all like to go, plus any others you stumble across whilst hunting out info. This might sound obvious, but there's so much stuff when you start looking, you'll be amazed.

The best way I've found to do this sort of thing is this, book your first nights motel and that's it. Land with a notepad full of places and things to see, sort your motor and just hit the road ;D

If you make a plan then it can go wrong. You will also potentially deny yourself the chance to see so much other stuff that you won't know about until you're on top of it.

Stay as time/place flexible as possible and you'll be fine. The great thing about an American road trip is there is so much to see and do. But if you're on a schedule to do a museum in the morning and a car show in the afternoon with a hotel booked a hundred miles further on, what happens to the 3000 car desert scrapyard you just drove past? And the old school diner next to it that serves the best burrito you might never taste... Real America isn't in any tour guides.

In the last ten years I've driven tens of thousands of miles like this, all over the world and it's never failed me yet. Travelling about like this has lead me to meet some of the most fascinating people and definitely see the most amazing things, but they'll be people you'll have never heard of and things you'll not see anywhere else. Don't be afraid to get off the highway either, otherwise you'll more than often just blast past something interesting. Gene Winfield's scrapyard/chopshop is on your proposed route somewhere...

Remember, it's a first world country. Take a credit card (very necessary) and a sense of adventure and you'll be fine.

Here's a couple of events I'd recommend if it works time wise for you. Bonneville Salt Flats/Speed week, saturday morning in Huntington Beach (just south of LA) Derelict Donuts meet up, Pomona swap meet, night racing at Vegas drag strip.

Right, enough of the advice. Start making a list of all the things you want to see and do... Just don't start putting dates next to them. Here's some pics for inspiration....

All of them were taken at unplanned events or stop offs.

*Begins to get excited already

Hotel wise the guys are such damn squares - insisting on pre-booking, I'm feeling the whole 'stumble across a motel and crash' vibe. Which is pretty much what i did on a roadtrip round cornwall/dorset/somerset.

I'll win them over yet.

Think I'll get onto some 'Mericun auto forums (the hot rod type) and check out what's-a-happenin around that time. Anyone got any decent ones they know of?

Make sure you do, in getting on for 20K miles I've driven around the States it's never been a problem finding a (decent ) motel at anytime of day and night.

Schedules suck big time...

This seems to be a common objective.

I have only one word to say: CONVOY!!!

My plan for a few years has been to do the Trans Canada Highway. 4857 miles from StJohn's to Victoria and one of the great road trips of the world. I've evaluated quite a few possible cars and bikes, this is just one of them:



One day it will happen. Whether using a Herald, Roller, Enfield Bullet or milkfloat.