Since we’re on the topic of moving across the country and epic travels, let’s chat about how MM, Ollie and I plan to get ourselves from NYC to San Francisco. The answer: a 16-day cross country road trip. I am so pumped for this journey. I’ve been wanting to do a cross country road trip for years (it was even on my 30 before 30 list) and I was starting to lose hope that I’d have the opportunity. When we decided to make the move west, MM commented how much easier it would be to fly to California. Well, obviously. But this isn’t about ease, it’s about an amazing once-in-a-lifetime chance to take our time traveling across America; there was no way we were going to do it via plane.
After online research and talking with friends who have done similar trips, we’ve come up with our route. Initially I thought we’d book a few hotels and wing it the rest of the way, but once I looked into a few hotels in key locations, I realized we’d be traveling during prime summer vacation time (the first two weeks of June) and not all hotels would be dog friendly. To avoid the risk of sleeping in our car, we went ahead and booked hotels for all 16 days of our trip.
Here’s our basic plan, created with Roadtrippers.com, a super helpful site. 
New York City→Niagara Falls→Ann Arbor, MI→Madison, WI→Soiux Falls, SD→Mount Rushmore→Badlands, SD→Billings, MN→Yellowstone National Park, WY→Grand Teton National Park, WY→Jackson Hole, WY→Park City, UT→Bryce Canyon, UT→Zion National Park, UT→Las Vegas, NV→Los Angeles, CA→San Francisco, CA
When we decided we’d do a cross-country road trip, I thought you just sort of jump in your car and drive west. Delusional, right? A lot of planning is going into this trip and as I learn things along the way, I’ll pass those learnings on to you.
Some topics I plan to explore:
- How to pack for a road trip
- How to eat healthy on the road
- How to stay active and get exercise during the trip
- How to not go crazy and kill the other person in the car
- How to keep your dog happy during the journey
As this is my very first cross country road trip, I would love advice. If you’ve done a similar trip, what tips would you give? Leave them below and help us get prepped for our 4,170 mile adventure!
*photo via
