Road Trip Tips

What to Bring:

• Lonely Planet USA. Seriously. It was my bible.
  
• A road atlas of the entire US. Mine was a Rand McNally atlas from 2000, with a map of the whole US as well as maps of each state. Very, very helpful.
  
• Lots of music. We were in the car for more than 48 hours, and music definitely helps pass the time. Ask your friends to make you mixed CDs before you leave.
  
• A laptop or DVD player with a way to connect it to the car speakers. We watched 3 movies in the car, and just hearing the movie while driving is a good way to stay awake.
  
• A box to keep all your stuff in. I picked one up from the Container Store before leaving and it was a great way to keep my car from turning into a disaster area.
  
• M&M’s, water bottles, Crystal Light, gum, cookies, cherries, etc. You’ll want to snack, and chewing on stuff is another good way to stay alert on the road.
  
• Kleenex, plastic trash bags, wet wipes… You’re going to be stuck in a car for hours. Trust me, you’ll want it to stay clean.
  
• First aid kit. It doesn’t have to be fancy, but I sliced my finger open on my trunk and Fraser sliced his on some barbed wire. It’s nice to have around just in case.
  
• Shampoo. Cheap hotels don’t have great toiletries.
  
• A camera with a huge memory card. There’s a lot of weird stuff that you’ll want to take pictures of, and when you’re bored it’s a good way to pass the time.
  
• A credit card. We charged mostly everything and still ran out of cash, and many hotels won’t let you check in if you’re under 21 and don’t have a card.
  

 

Some other tips:

• Be flexible. We randomly decided to go to San Francisco, which was the best decision we made on the trip. Try not to give yourself a time limit. We expected the trip to take 6 or 7 days, and it took 11. Some days you’ll want to stop after a few hours or you’ll find some crazy roadside attractions. One day we decided to stop after finding out Dramamine causes drowsiness. It’ll be less stressful, more fun, and more safe if you’re flexible and open to anything.
  
• Know that you’re not the only person in the car. Respect everyone else’s space, and if someone wants to stop somewhere, then stop. You’ll get along much better if you respect each other.
  
• Keep the car clean. It gets very frustrating as it gets more cluttered. I tried to clean it out every morning, and I got a car wash after about a week. You should wash your windshield off at least once a day, if not every time you get gas.
  
• WATCH YOUR SPEED. Our speeding tickets totaled over $300. It’s not worth it. Pay attention especially when you’re driving through small towns. The speed limit drops quickly and they don’t post the limits frequently. You might even want to invest in a radar detector!
  
• Try to eat healthy. You don’t have to eat cheeseburgers every day to save money. Being in a car for hours makes you feel disgusting enough; you don’t need to add to it by eating tons of fast food. 
  
• HAVE FUN!! This trip is your personal adventure. Make the most of it, and make it last. It will go by faster than you think!

Reflection of This Journey

I seriously advise everyone to take a road trip at some point in your lives. It’s an incredible experience that will teach you what you’re capable of as a traveler and will show you what the rest of the country is like. I was nervous that I wouldn’t be able to handle life on the road or that something would happen that I wouldn’t be prepared for. Luckily, I had the security blanket of a credit card, cell phone, and GPS system, but I still was glad to see that I could handle everything that was thrown at me. I got along well with my car-mates, even if I did get a little pissed at my brother from time to time. We had no major disputes, which was nice. The driving really wasn’t as bad as a thought it would be. Even if I ended up driving 7 hours in a day, it wasn’t that bad. I loved seeing how the scenery changed as we headed west, and seeing all the quirky weird things along the way. I loved the independence that I had, and I loved spending time with Hunter and Fraser. We laughed so much during our many hours together, and we’re never going to forget this trip. 

Next Steps...

We left my grandparents’ house in Bremerton for Port Townsend, where my dad’s parents live and where we have a cabin on the beach. Hunter and I stayed until Sunday, when he went to an art camp and I went back to Bremerton. I’m working on finding a job in Seattle, and I’ll be living either with my mom’s parents or with my mom’s sister. I also have to get a bank account, register my car, get a Washington driver's license... Pain in the neck. I go to orientation in July, and at the end of August I’ll move onto campus and begin school!

Day 11 - Corvallis to WASHINGTON

We had breakfast at my aunt’s house and left around noon for Washington. It was weird passing into the Evergreen State knowing that this is my new home. Fraser wanted to see his friend’s new apartment, so we stopped by her place in Seattle. Passing through the city was such a great feeling. I’ve been through it so many times, going along I-5 and seeing the Space Needle in the distance. But this time was different. This time I’m going to be here for good. What a strange, awesome feeling. Anyway, after seeing Fraser’s friend we made our way over to Gold Bar, where Fraser lives and works. After having a car full of three people for 11 days, it was strange to have only one other person in the car. I plugged in my grandparents’ address into my GPS, avoiding the ferry. Unfortunately, my GPS is completely stupid and took us through the ghetto of Seattle. I missed a turn and it took like 20 minutes to recalculate, so I pulled into a random gas station, where a guy came up to our car trying to sell us a rap CD. Oh my god. I finally just decided to navigate to the highway and found my way from there. We didn’t end up getting to my grandparents’ apartment until almost midnight. We ended up just passing out, exhausted from the trip that we had taken over the last week and a half.

Day 10 - Eureka to Corvallis, OR

We woke up on Sunday on our last morning spent in a hotel. The continental breakfast at the Super 8 consisted of donuts, coffee, and orange juice. I immediately regretted eating the pastries. I felt disgusting. We found a place in Eureka called Los Bagels Co. and filled up on iced tea and bagels. If you’ve never had a bagel with plain cream cheese and jam, try it. It’s delicious. We hit the road for Corvallis, which was a pretty uneventful drive. I felt pretty nauseous the whole way from the donuts and curvy roads, so Fraser drove all day. We arrived at my aunt’s gorgeous house in Corvallis around 7:30, where we had dinner and chatted. Fraser and I both took some sleep aids since we were both feeling pretty crummy, and passed out soon after starting a movie.

How to know when sleep aids have kicked in:

Me: "What other movie is that guy in?"

Fraser: "He's in a doctor show."

Me: "Yes, in this movie he's on a doctor show but what else?" 

Fraser: "He's in a car. In a doctor show."

Me: *slaps forehead*

Day 9 - San Francisco to Eureka, CA

We still hadn’t had enough of San Francisco, so we drove back over the Bay Bridge and sat in traffic until we made it to the Golden Gate Bridge. We spent a little bit of time in a park and on the dock before leaving. I think I might have gone through a toll on the bridge without paying, but I was a little confused when I was driving so I think I just missed it. Oops. We got onto Highway 1, which runs along the California coast. It was a fun, gorgeous drive but the curves got to be a bit nauseating after a while. Plus, the gasoline along the coast is friggin expensive. We had to pay $3.15 a gallon! Awful. We eventually made it to Highway 101, which wasn’t much better. By the time we got to the Super 8 in Eureka, I was definitely ready to be out of the car. 

Day 8 - San Francisco

We got up this morning and quickly planned our day around San Francisco. We checked out and found a parking garage then walked up the street to buy all day public transportation passes. We stopped at this one restaurant called the Hollywood Café for breakfast. Wow. None of us expected how amazing the food would be. Seriously, if you’re looking for a cheap breakfast in SF, check this place out. Anyway so we picked up our passes and began our journey by hopping on a cable car. We stopped in Chinatown and did some exploring. While it was a cool area, all the stores are pretty much exactly the same and they all sell the same lame stuff. No worries, though. We then deciphered the bus schedule and jumped on a bus to Haight and Ashbury. What an interesting district. If you’ve never been there, Haight and Ashbury is an area of SF that’s stuck in the 60’s, full of head shops, hippies, and homeless people. We walked into a few stores then went up to Golden Gate park, where we passed more hippies and vagrants, many of whom were toking up as we passed them. Not really my favorite area of town. Hippies bug me.

We decided to get on another bus to check out a place called the Cliff House. Unfortunately, we got on the wrong bus and ended up in some fancy neighborhood on the west side of town. We got off and waited for another bus. We made it to the Cliff House to find that the camera obscura there had closed hours ago. Boo. No worries, though. We climbed down to the beach and checked out a cool cave, then climbed back up and checked out some weird old concrete buildings that were all broken down and whatnot. We got to see the sun set over the water and once it got dark we got on once last bus. We had some issues figuring out connecting buses so we decided to make a huge walk to the cable car route. After waiting for a while, we got on a cable car and made it to the parking garage. We then headed to Berkeley where we stayed for the night.

A note about public transportation:

I’ve never really used a bus system on my own before, so I was pretty proud of my ability to (almost) successfully maneuver through the city. But let me tell you…you meet some pretty friggin interesting people on the buses. For example: at one point I felt a poke at my side to see a lovely little homeless man sitting 2 seats down from me. He then began to rant, telling me to never touch him again. He then said “you aren’t even that hot. You’re no Miss America you know.” And then proceeded to scold me for never serving in Iraq. He rambled about how he was a Vietnam vet then changed his mind and said he was an Iraq vet. I just ignored him and, needless to say, I was pretty relieved when he got off the bus.

We met some more interesting people on the last bus. When we got on the bus, it was almost completely empty. By the end of the ride, it was packed. Across from Fraser and I was an old lady who got really mad that we didn’t all get up when an elderly man had to sit down. She kept ranting to herself that there was a sign that said we needed to let elderly people sit down. After the guy had sat down in an empty seat next to us. She then got mad when we weren’t getting off the bus, and yelled at us to hurry up. The doors hadn’t opened yet. Crazy lady. Anyway, the old guy that sat down next to us was also mumbling to himself. God knows what he was saying.