Hi everyone,
We've made it to our 15th and penultimate country of the trip and are currently zooming round New York and trying to see everything in 3 and a half days before we pick up the car on Friday.
We thought that before we hit the road, we'd tell you about the route we're hoping to take so you can follow our progress or see if we get lost and end up in Mexico.
We're planning to drive from Stamford, Connecticut (just outside New York) to Los Angeles (via a bit of Canada) in four weeks. If we follow our intended route, then we'll cover just over 7,000 miles, which is about the same distance (in a straight line) from London to Buenos Aires or London to Singapore!
We worked out that we did just over 3,000 miles in New Zealand, so this is going to be much more of a road trip with less time for sight seeing and we reckon we'll need to drive an average of 4 and a half hours a day. Though no doubt we'll fit in some more of those 7 hour walks along the way somewhere...
If you're wondering why we're starting in Stamford, it's because New York City is just about the most expensive place in America to hire a car from. After a bit of hunting around, we found we could save a quite a bit of cash by jumping on the train for a 50 minute ride into Connecticut and pick up the car there. See, our budget traveller skills are still intact after all this time!
From Stamford we're heading straight up north to Canada (the last country of the trip!) and Montreal. From there, we'll go west to Toronto, via Ottawa, and then down to the Niagara Falls. From Niagara we'll need to re-trace our route back to Toronto before heading west again and drive round the northern side of the Great Lakes before dropping back down into the USA through the upper Michigan Peninsula.
Does anyone know any good car games...?
That will take us to Chicago and the beginning of the famous Route 66. Although it no longer bears that name and has largely been replaced by interstate highways, you can still drive the old route from Chicago to Los Angeles. Route 66 will take us from Chicago through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, which is where we'll come off it so we can visit the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas.
...can you recommend any good Hicksville radio stations?
From Vegas, we're hoping to have time to take a great big loop up to the north and the border with Canada, before driving back down the west coast to Los Angeles. The route will take us through Utah and Salt Lake City, Yellowstone Park and up to Glacier National Park in Montana. From there, we'll head west to Seattle and then down the west coast, via San Francisco, with a detour inland for Yosemite National Park.
Though if we run out of time, or lose all our money in a Vegas casino, then we have plan B up our sleeves and can cut the loop short or even just take a left at Vegas, go straight to LA, and save ourselves 3,000 miles (thanks for that suggestion Anna!).
...or have any good knitting patterns we can try out?
Phew! Quite a way to go then! We fly from Los Angeles to Boston on 14th August, so we have exactly four weeks on the road. We've got a few days in Boston for a final fling and a few cups of tea before flying home on the 18th.
So if all goes to plan, and we haven't taken a wrong turn and ended up in Alaska, we'll see you all in a few weeks. By then we'll probably be the size of houses having eaten our body weights in super size everythings with fries and cream on top, so please don't bring your cameras!
Can't wait to see everyone soon, but in the mean time, keep watching out for journal updates, and do let us know if you have any roadtrip tips or suggestions for places we might be passing through (thanks also for those already received!)
Love,
Phil and Sarah x x
