How I traveled the whole U.S.A for 2 months!

Wow! Is this blog overdue, or what? I mean, I did my road trip around the United States more than a year ago. Which is absolutely crazy to me. Living on the road has ALWAYS been a dream of mine and I'm just so grateful I got to do that at least once in my life. However, I'm already craving that adventure times ten.

So, let's get right into it: How did I travel the United States for 60 days straight?

There are a lot of factors and planning that goes into living "on the road" for a long period of time. Of course, you have to save up money, have a car (preferred), be able to quit your job (or take a long leave of absence), make sure you're safe & plan ahead. Now, I have not really planned out exactly how I'm going to do this blog, so the list I present is not least to greatest or anything. All things should be taken into account when road tripping the United States or anywhere, for a long period of time.

1. MONEY!!!!!!! It's a drag. (Pink Floyd reference).

You need to save up a substantial amount of money. However, the amount of money you save depends on the type of spender you are. I'm a pretty cheap person, when it comes to spending on food, clothes, activities, ect. But when it came to hotels, I did not want to stay in the WORST of the worst. I always wanted to feel safe. Now, how do you save up all the money you need? Well, if you're living on your own it's definitely going to be harder, and if you're going on this trip alone, that will also make it a challenge. I went on this trip with my boyfriend of 8 years, so we split everything 50/50.

Luckily for us, after a year of living on our own, we asked his mother if we could live with her for a year, FOR FREE, while we "save up for a house to buy". This didn't happen, as I presented Avner, with a plan to travel the United States instead. We could buy a house anytime, right?.....hopefully. But we are young and why not take this opportunity to enjoy nature, and forget about society and its rules for a little while. We had no idea, how long we were going to do this trip and we had no idea how much money we were going to need. But we told each other to save at least 5k each. Because we weren't paying for any bills, aside from our own expenses like groceries & Avner's car payment which is around $430, it was not that hard for us. Again, I'm so grateful and blessed for that opportunity. Although, his mom did not know about the trip and I'm assuming if we didn't tell her 10 days before going she would have not approved. By the time we left for our trip I had saved almost 10k and Avner about 6k or less. Definitely could have put a down payment on a house, haha.

Our trip costed us about 2,500 each. Might have been a little more. We calculated it to have been about $100 a day. Yes, that does seem like a lot of money. But this is because we did not sleep in the car the entire trip. Out of the 60 days that we were gone, we slept in the car about 4 or 5 times. Even though, I told Avner, it would be cheap cause we would sleep in the car the whole way. Well, I didn't consider misquotes and heat. With that being said, we had FRIENDS + FAMILY to stay with along the way. I'm shocked that we had so many people to stay with. Whenever I see youtube videos on people traveling the U.S, I don't know how they know people from all over. But it actually worked out in a way. We stayed a GOOD amount in friends houses. 5 days in a cabin in NC (people I babysat for, their vacation house), 7 days in Michigan (my friend), 5 days in San Fran (mom's friend), 5 days in LA (Avner's mom's friend) & Las Vegas (my uncle). So, IF YOU KNOW ANYONE WHO WOULD LET YOU COUCH SURF, DO IT. I hate asking people for favors, but some people, if you're kind enough don't mind letting you stay, and they'll enjoy your traveling stories. I'll speak more about money again.

2. PLAN: HAVE A PLAN!

Before my road trip I didn't even know what states were next to each other. I mean, not completely. Buy a big map from Office Depot and draw a line around every state you wanna hit. We did NOT do every state. Eventually that year and through other trips, I have almost done the whole U.S, with 9 states left including Alaska + Hawaii. Anyway, plan. You need to plan the stops you want to make on the trip and figure out what is important to you. I knew that certain National Parks (NP) were important to me, so that is what I focused on. Michigan was not in my original plan, but when I was in NC, my friend Brittany texted me and we figured it was about a 300-600 mile difference if I went to Michigan and saw her. We were planning on going straight to South Dakota after NC, but the unexpected 7 days in Michigan were some of my top favorite memories. And thank you Bree, for everything.

Make sure that you plan where you want to go and what you want to see. But also, where you are going to sleep. There is nothing wrong with sleeping in your car. We made a pretty great setup in our car. However, some nights were just so hot and that mixed with bugs, was just too much for my high maintenance butt to handle. When you get into colder states, like Wyoming or Montana, you won't have a problem sleeping in your car. It's cold in the mountains there, even in the summer. Make sure if you are going to a big city and you are staying in a hotel, you plan a few days in advance. For example, hotels in Seattle, San Francisco, Portland and any towns outside of major NP are expensive. So the further away you can book the hotels, do it.

Prepare for the unexpected. There were fires in Northern California when we were about to hit up Mount Shasta, so we had to stay in Oregon for 5 days instead of 2 or 3. That costs EXTRA money. Luckily, we were staying for free in California for the most part. But plan for the unexpected. Don't spend all your money on Starbucks drinks everyday (I heard a youtuber say he spend $500 for Starbucks on his road trip). There could be things like flat tires, oil changes (which we did), extra hotel nights, going out to eat, ect. Just make sure, you are careful with your money.

RELIABLE TRANSPORTATION:

This one is pretty obvious, right? Make sure you have a way to get around the USA. Avner had just bought his car about 5 months before we took it on the trip of it's lifetime. He's financing a Jeep Compass 2018. It's 2020 now and we have about 50k miles on the car. Just keep in mind, that whatever car you use is going to put in some work. With that being said, make sure your car is capable of driving that kind of drive. You can always get your car checked out by a mechanic before heading out. Remember to do frequent oil changes, based on your car (usually every 5k miles). If you're planning on doing a shorter trip, maybe you could rent a car. It is expensive, but you would have a reliable car and you wouldn't be putting miles on your own car. Make sure your A/C works, headlights and all that stuff that you need for a long road trip. You could always invest in roadside assistance. My mom allowed us to use her Good Sam roadside assistance, since she had an RV at the time.

Be Smart and have fun:

When traveling for long periods of times, there are so many risks and rewards. Luckily for us, we didn't run into any "bad" situations, aside from wildfires and being pulled over once in Kentucky, because they were definitely bored. No ticket though. With that being said, follow the rules and go the speed limit. Trust me, thats hard for me to say, especially after driving for 7 hours straight, I'd like to go 100 miles an hour to get to the hotel. However, paying for a ticket takes away from your adventure. Make sure you have your car insurance, registration and drivers license up to date.

BREAK INS! I've heard a bunch of horror stories about car break ins, which sucks no matter if you're traveling or not. But when you are traveling you have a bunch of valuable stuff in your car. So try to make sure you cover everything up and hide all your valuables, or leave them in the hotel if you have one. You will encounter a lot of sketchy places, like downtowns or large cities. Homelessness is definitely prevalent, which is sad but then comes crime. Be careful where you park, sleep and walk around. Always be aware of your surroundings.

Planning your trip is fun, but don't get too stressed out if you can't see everything. Also, take the little detours and enjoy them. Places like Sedona were so high on my list, and it ended up being a place that was okay to me. Random stop offs like Madison, Wisconsin or St.George in Utah. So, enjoy the little towns you stumble upon. If you happen to get a flat tire, know that it was for a reason and try to make the best of it.

EXTRA TIPS:

• We used our phone maps the entire trip. Be warned, you will lose service here and there, so try to follow the correct highway and make notes of which direction or what city you're supposed to hit next. But the maps on iPhone worked pretty good the entire way.

• Try not to spend too much money on food. Maybe set aside some money for certain activities/restaurants you want to go to. Other than that, stop at local grocery stores and get a salad or something healthy and cheap.

• Fast food will be the only option sometimes, as well as gas station food. There were times in Wyoming where we couldn't find anything but a gas station. So stock up when you go to a store.

• Walmarts and other 24/7 places are pretty good places to sleep at. We slept at 3 walmarts and one 24 hour grocery store in Montana.

• Get an America the Beautiful pass, its $80 but worth it if you are going to many national parks.

• Ask friends and friends of friends to sleepover! Definitely a little weird, but you make new friends and new connections. (obviously, be careful)

• Keep some cash on hand just in case.

• San Fran, Portland, Seattle, anywhere near national parks: hotels are expensive

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING! I know I'm missing so much info! But I've had this blog waiting to publish for so long. Please!!!!!!!! feel free to ask me any questions regarding trip planning, road tripping and anything else. I'm down to discuss finances and all that jazz.

If you enjoyed this blog, comment down below.

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