So, here's the story. This year my dad turned 50 years old and had a great big party. Next year my mom will be 50 and since they had this big party this year me, dad and my brother are thinking of taking mom on a vacation on her birthday instead. We're considering different options and one option is to drive Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles. Dad's been to Dallas but other than that we have no experience of the US. We would be four people; me, dad, mom and my brother. We found this package where you have all the hotels pre-booked, which means you have to follow a schedule. The idea is that you rent a car which you drive through all of this. The general schedule is like this: Day 1: Arrival in Chicago by plane Day 2: Chicago to Springfield, Illinois Day 3: Springfield to St. Louis Day 4: St. Louis to Springfield, Missouri Day 5: Springfield to Oklahoma City Day 6: Oklahoma City to Amarillo Day 7: Amarillo to Tucumcari Day 8: Tucumcari to Santa Fe to Albuquerque Day 9: Albuquerque to Acoma Pueblo to Holbrook Day 10: Holbrook to Grand Canyon Day 11: Grand Canyon to Las Vegas Day 12: Spent in Las Vegas Day 13: Las Vegas to Los Angeles Day 14: Los Angeles and flight back to Stockholm Anyone who has any experience of this stuff? Is this a complete waste of time or do you think it's a memorable trip? Anyone has any places you recommend to go and see? Other tips? My fear is that this would turn into some kind of Chevy Chase/Griswolds vacation. This trip would be planned in August next year, since we need to be away over my mom's birthday (to avoid demands on them throwing a new party). Edit: Moved back Springfield to Missouri from where I wrongfully stole it to give it to Montana.
Does this schedule give you any time to stop and visit places on route (my knowledge of the distances involved is non-existant) or will it involve almost constant driving to keep to the schedule. Bearing in mind that it looks as if you'll be going though some hot and dry places in the middle of summer. (I'm sure the car will have air-conditioning but you have to get out sometime.) It looks as though you'd get to see a lot of the country but not to experience much of it.
I think it involves 4-6 hours of driving every day. Since hotels probably permits late night check-ins I think you get time for sightseeing and relaxation every day, but of course, it's only a very shallow view of the culture and scenery. I have been led to believe they've smeared all the Route 66 with lots of "The World's Largest ...", like "The World's Largest Non Stick Coating Frying Pan" and "The World's Largest Ball of Yarn". This appeals to me in some kind of weird way.
I'd say it depends on what you're hoping to see in America, KK. The country is very big and very diverse. If it were me, I'd want to see New England and more of the southeast - but those are both very different from each other and also very different from the sort of countryside you'd be driving through on the proposed trip. What kind of thing is your mum interested in? A walking holiday is different from a sightseeing holiday and different again from an activity holiday.
I know my mum have appreciated seeing places like Paris and Rome. I think it's seeing new things, new culture and new environments that appeals to her.
Then perhaps she would prefer visiting some of the landmark cultural cities of America? The two obvious ones are San Francisco and New York, on opposite sides of the country. The itinerary you've given there looks like it would make a pleasant holiday, but you wouldn't get much time for absorbing culture, as it were.
Ive Driven trucks for a living and even i think 4-6 hours a day in a car wouldnt leave you enough time to have much fun. Its a fantastic Idea and Id like to do it myself, but Im thinkin a car full of people , close family or not are gonna start to get a bit ...angsty cooped up in a car for that amount of time everyday for a fortnight. Id try make less stops for longer periods if I were you. Maybe 3 or 4 days of longer drives then a few days in each place if you follow my meaning. ie travel for a full day then spend 3 days in a location then travel a day 3 days in a location...etc etc. Of course you know what your family would enjoy more than a stranger...
It is Springfield, Missouri. not Montana and that town is close to both Mansfield ( of Laura Ingalls Wilder fame) and Branson, Missouri (of tossing rolls and country music fame). We only went to a big Bass Pro Shop when we visited Springfield. It was like a zoo of stuffed animals and it has live ducks swimming in ponds and artificial streams all over the store. One of my cousins lives there, I could ask her to send me some other advice. Missouri is a very scenic state and is getting back into the wine business again, before Prohibition the wine grown in Missouri was some of the best in the world. Days 5,6,and7 are going to be mostly miles and miles of miles and miles, but they are pretty amazing. I just thought of something, try tracing the route on the Members map using the combined satellite picture and map. That would give you some idea of the amount of driving you would be doing. I haven't spent much time on the actual Route 66, They built Interstate 40 to replace most of the historic road. In fact they considered using nuclear bombs to blast the way through the moutains when they planned that highway, thankfully they reconsidered. I think the trip has a lot to recommend it and with the way cars are these days you would probably have a very comfortable trip, I would go for a big car or SUV, though.
Oops, thanks for pointing that out. I only had the two letter abbreviation of the state and took a (mis)calculated guess. Wineries are great visits, but on the other hand you don't want a car of four hung over Swedes bouncing up the road, so I guess some pacing will be required. Whoa! Landscaping-by-nuclear-bombing sounds like a very bad idea! Here are the distances driven each day with this schedule: Day 1: No driving Day 2: 320 km Day 3: 163 km Day 4: 344 km Day 5: 448 km Day 6: 413 km Day 7: 379 km Day 8: 375 km Day 9: 379 km Day 10: 317 km Day 11: 475 km Day 12: No driving Day 13: 458 km I don't know what speed limit you guys have there but with the usual swedish speed limits for highways and country roads, 70 km/h, 90 km/h or 110 km/h, no day should involve more than five or six hours of driving. Also, I guess the whole idea is that you stop regularly to check out the places you pass by. You do have a good point there Rebel about people locked up in a closed space easily get annoyed at eachother.
Speed limits vary from 55mph on most two lane highways to 60 to 70 mph on interstate four lanes. In towns the speed limit on four lane freeways is 55, and the limit on surface roads is lower still. You can really put on distance when you get to 60 or 70 mph. I guess I could checkmy speedometer to make the conversion to metric but it is too dang cold outside.
Buzz is right, KK. The US is a pretty large and varied country. I, of course, would recommend the East coast, what with our liberty bells, Smithsonians, Cheersesses, and crawfishes (sorry Clay, I couldn't think of anything else cool from the South). Although your initial route will take you through quite a bit of the nation...
Hey! The south has other stuff too, like...... Ok, maybe crawfish (crawdads) are all that we have. Oh, there's cotton too. And peanuts. And the south has the alligators. Then there's all kinds of gumbo in Louisiana. Best of all, we have true southern hospitality and a genteel charm. The food here is great. We have fried chicken, fried squash, fried okra (even a school mascot called "the Fighting Okra" at Delta State University), fried ham, fried green tomatos, fried shrimp, fried fish. Just in case you didn't notice we fry a lot of our foods. I'm headed off to breakfst now. I've made myself hungry. Gonna get me some fried eggs, over easy, and bacon with a big fluffy biscuit and grits on the side. Don't eat yankee grits, they put sugar in 'em. Here's a website I came across this morning about Mississippi.
Fried everything? I'd say it sounds like a lot of Scots settled there but I discount the theory on two facts 1) It's too warm there 2) It all sounds rather good, unlike deep fried pizza and mars bars.
... deep-fried Mars bars? ::tries to imagine it, faints:: And I thought that the local specialty of deep-fried macaroni-and-cheese was the depth of deep-fried decadence!
Oh it's quite a delicacy amongst my people. Invented in a little seaside town about 10 miles from where I grew up and now a national phenomenon (how many of you are now singing along to the muppets?)
KaptenKaries, that route takes you right thru my city, Albuquerque! If you do decide to make a trip and have some spare time, it would be cool to put a face with the name! (although I understand that this would be a family trip, and you would be strapped on time) I have heard of other people doing a similar trip to what you are looking at and loved it. Motels are pretty relaxed about check in times, so if you were running late, you would be alright. 4 or 5 hours in the car isnt too bad, depending on how well you get along with your family. (My family does a trip to Nebraska about once a year; a total of 12 hours in the car together and by the end we get kind of silly, but always manage to get along fine) As for my area of the country..well its desert. There are some really neat geological stuff to look at and the Native American culture seems to be a pretty popular stop for tourists, but I have to warn you there is a lot of space between cities. I have some pictures of the surrounding area. If You like I can try to find them and send them to you. jarmara, mmmm deep fried chocolate. That has to be one of the best idea's ever.
Cool Somethingclever, would be great to see some pictures! I think Albuquerque is one of the places where we would be staying the night, so I think there would be enough time to meet up. Cool to have someone local to point out the places to see in town. :-D
You got it!! Try Here for some pictures. (under NM Views) This is mostly just a 160 miles strech of road trip between here and up north where my parents still live, and its not complete ( just about every 5 miles the geology changes ranging from red rocks, to grey 'elephant bum' looking rocks, to small, but deep canyons), but gives you a good idea of what my home looks like. (I hope your not put off at all the brown, I believe it was autumn when I took most of these) When you know when/if your making the trip, just let me know and we can work out the details of a meet up. Yay!
It has spread through Australia to and is a common feature in many a fish and chip shop I have been to.
So, the trip has finally been booked. We decided not to go Chicago -> LA, and instead just see a bit of California. We'll land in San Fransisco the 24:th of August and stay for two weeks. I think there'll be like a general plan where we'll stay the night each day. I'll post it here once I have it. I'd love getting suggestions on stuff to see (except for the obvious: Ba's moustache) and do. :biggrin:
I went to Philadelphia last summer, I really enjoyed it, there's a nice zoo, a big bell (broken, but nevermind) and I went to a baseball game which was great fun even though it took me several innings to work out what was going on. Not entirely understanding the game at the time (though I'm getting into it a bit more now) was balanced out by the great atmosphere, the random songs which many people danced to for some reason and "lite beer"....in fact lite "beer" might be more accurate, though the poor quality beer was improved by the thrill of getting away with underage drinking, not only at a baseball game but in a restaraunt to the amazement of some Americans I was with. I also went to New York, no need to describe that trip really as it was what everyone does: big buildings, museums, a statue, etc. Washington DC was nice. Well, a few blocks of it were. The government buildings and museums where I saw the declaration of independence were interesting. As was a tour of the theatre where Lincoln was shot. Other areas of Washington looked like they would increase my own chances of getting shot, so I avoided them. I also went to Amish country and met the world's smallest woman. Seriously. She was in a stall. I felt terrible. There was a stall for the world's smallest horse too, but either it wasn't there or it was REALLY small. Anyway, they're the only places I've been but it was a great trip considering it only took two weeks. Although it probably doesn't help you too much if you're looking at totally different parts of the US!
Where you inspired to go there after watching the movie of the same name featuring Tom Hanks... with AIDS?
No, I was hoping to speak to a local person who introduced themselves by saying: "In West Philadelphia born and raised, on a playground is where I spent most of my days, chillin out, maxin', relaxin' all cool, an' all shootin some B-ball outside of the school..." etc. Nobody did unfortunately.
There's a Far Side cartoon I've just got one step closer to understanding. KK, sounds like it'll be a great trip. San Francisco is in my top ten places to visit. And I'd love to see Ba's 'tache and a Viking in the same picture.
"...When a couple of guys who were up to no good started makin' trouble in my neighborhood. I got in one little fight and my mom got scared and said 'You're moving with your auntie and uncle in Bel Air'..." Now I will have that song stuck in my head.
Yeah, complain why don't you, we still get the re-runs of Fresh prince almost all day long on some channels...
So, tomorrow I take off for California. The plan is different to what we originally thought. We'll fly to San Fransisco, stay there a couple of days, take a couple of days to drive to Los Angeles, stay there for a while, then off to Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, back to Vegas and then to San Diego. This is spaced out over 14 days, but I don't know the exact details. If anyone lives anywhere along the route and feel like meeting up, send me a mess. I'll try to check internet cafés regularly. And Lipi has my mail too. Hope everyone is fine and that you'll have a great end of August!
I don't live very close to anywhere you're going to be, but I'll be happy to send you a mess. My apartment needs cleaning anyway. Hope you have a great time
San Franscisco is big and beautiful. People here are very kind and helpful. My only problem so far is finding a good proper (healthy) breakfast. Perhaps I am looking in the wrong places. Yesterday we went down to the piers and strolled along the obligatory tourist paths. Today I think we're gonna check out Chinatown. What strikes me is the enterprise all around. If there is business to be made somewhere, there is someone there making business. This is so different from Sweden, where laws and culture almost works against businesses, and entrepreneurs are sparse. On the other hand, the difference in social security is obvious. I see many more broken people here than I do at home. Now I'm gonna try to get some more sleep, it's only five in the morning here. My body clock is not perfectly adjusted yet.
:lol: what constitutes a healthy breakfast in Sweden?* * My idea of Swedish cousine... coussinne ... erm, cooking is derived mostly from Ikea and personal knowledge of what people in cold climates tend to eat. So I figured it would be some mad amount of carbohydrates plus lots of butter! Please, don't be offended - that's what we ate in Russia :smile: ** Also, Californians are famous for basing their diet on tofu and dandelions, so there goes another stereotype! :tongue:
Glad to hear you're enjoying yourself. I would like to visit San Francisco. It has a lot of history to it. By the way, have you gotten my first bag of dirty laundry yet? I'm still cleaning, so the rest of the mess is on its way. PS. How would one go about shipping soap-scum and mold?
Yoghurt and müsli, or perhaps sourmilk (like sourcream but less fatty) and müsli. Dark bread with some butter and cheese. A fruit. I would pay pretty much to get my hands on a pack of Wasa crispbread right now. Not saying this is my usual breakfast, but it's what I'd like now. :wink: The laundry pile seems to be growing alarmingly fast, so I'm sure some of it is yours, Redneck. Thanks! Mold is preferrably sent in crates, while soap scum should be dried, ground into a powder and packed in little gift bags tied with pink silk ribbons.
KK-If you had come to Minnesota you could get Wasa crisp bread at almost any grocery store, at least it is in all the stores in my town. I can get muesli, too. Look for whole foods stores and vegan restaurants, I know they have them in California. But if you have a chance to get Blueberry pancakes you should get them. Especially if they have blueberry syrup to go with them.
Thanks Tamyra, I finally managed to find some nice breakfast. Only took me five days to acclimatise. :wink: Minnesota sounds like a nice place though! :smile: In the US, everything is the home of a world famous thing. More on this later. This Saturday I saw the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen - we drove out to the southern rim of Grand Canyon and spent the night there. There was a thunderstorm in the horizon and the sun lit up the rain and clouds. I tried to take some photos but they won't do it justice. I'll upload the pictures once I get home again on Saturday. Los Angeles bored me - I couldn't figure out anything that I really wanted to see, so we ended up spending the day on the Santa Monica beach. It's been incredibly hot these days. The size of the city is impressive, it's huge! Las Vegas feels unreal, fake. Paris Casino - Home of the World Famous Eiffel Tower. Venetian - Home of the World Famous Colosseum. We stayed at Hilton - Home of the World Famous Star Trek Borg 4D Experience. Perhaps we should have went and seen one of the shows, that seems to be a defining feature of the city, but we never got around to do it. So far, I liked northern California the best. I took the little towns along Highway 1 to my heart immediately. But San Diego seems really nice so far, we just arrived earlier today. I'm really looking forward to San Diego Zoo and Seaworld. Hope everyone is doing good, I'll update once I get home again and can upload some photos. :smile: Take care!
Better obscene than never, I've heard. (this pun works better in swedish) A selection of pictures from our trip. San Fransisco Along Highway One Rain over Grand Canyon
I just love photos, (hate having to sort and put in an album, but worth while). Are you going to post some more? Enjoyed reading this thread and looking at the pics provided by Clever as well- very interesting. Oh if I had the money... round the world trip lasting as long as it needed to! What is Sweden like? (It's closer to home than the US).
Sweden is cold and dark this time of year. I'd recommend Stockholm in late spring or summer. We haven't had many of those sparkling white winter days yet this season - I hope they come soon. Thanks for your compliments, I won't flood this thread with more pics but there are more to be found in my online photo album.
Many thanks for sharing. I was sitting browsing saying 'wow' 'aww - so cute'. Some of your photos are breathtaking.
Some gorgeous photos there KK and nice to see you back Nice to see pics of you and Petra too, another cute couple made in Boardania.
I like the picture of the bridge, it's so rare to see photos of bridges in San Fransisco other than the one that spans the Golden Gate. And somehow, looking at that picture, I get a feeling in my stomach as if I'm being pulled there, like I really want to go there.
