Road trip USA
 

"Cross-Country Adventures on America's Two-Lane Highways" is the name of a book I just bought in preparation for a 6-9 month trip to USA and Canada. Anyone with opinions about the quality of this book. I was thinking about the following trips (as they are named in the book).

1. "Coastal West Coast"
2. "The great Northern"
3."The Appalachian Trail"
4. "Southern Pacific

It is a very good book to travel by. My wife and I have taken many small sections of some of the routes listed. One year we did "The Loneliest Road" US-50 as outlined in that book. From Reno, NV going east to Maryland.
As a outline for a trip it works well but you should get road maps for the areas you are going through. many of the old 2 lane US routes are very congested in and around cities. We will go to the Interstates that have ring-routes around large urban areas.
It sounds like a good trip. Let us know the routes you are taking.
John

Hello,

Briefly - it is an excellent book. I'm using it now to guide my route from New Jersey to Mexico and have found it very useful. It isn't a backpackers guide, so you won't find every hostel and greasy spoon listed in it; rather it suggests what to see and how to get there, with exceptional features (shops, cafes, accomodation, parks etc.) highlighted.

James.

I travelled Jan - Sept, Dallas - LA - Inuvik - Alaska - Vancouver. Go for it. I was surprised at how interesting North America can be.

My policy on guidebooks is not to let them totally rule my route. Remember too, if camping that you can very well find cheap and sometimes free campsites that might not be in a guidebook. (Other times, like in California campsites might be in the $16-30 range !!) Also you can try camping for free by just kinda hiding a bit off the road. It's a bit spooky when you try it first, but confidence grows with practise.

I was travelling when it was still a bit cold even in the South West in January. A point to note is that elevation plays an important part in road conditions in NA. You might be all nice and warm one minute. The road then goes up to say 7,000 feet and stays on a high plateau for ages - any you might even be surrounded by snow! Some books may not have elevation info. Of course you might not need it in the summer.

If your route coincides with mine (outlined above) you might look at my site http://www.yourmanontheroad.com (it'll be going down though in a week or two - no money left!!! http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb/frown.gif

------------------
"Because I'm not young enough to know everything!" Oscar Wilde