Driving Across country

Details Of My Route

I managed this trip while pulling a U-haul with my small Jeep. I remembered at one point driving on the windy bends of the Sequoia National Forest and thinking about how cool it was that everything I own was on this adventure with me. Driving a trailer was also easier than I expected (albeit hard on the gas, as I had to fill up frequently). I made it up and down mountains, around curvy bends, and through cities.

I planned my stops around major landmarks or cities:

• Sequoia National Forest
• Grand Canyon (and Sedona)
• Santa Fe
• Oklahoma City
• Cincinnati (Home)

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TIP #1 – USE PINTEREST AS A RESEARCH TOOL

Pinterest is my favorite tool to use when traveling, as many people share their personal experiences and show off all of the beautiful spaces to discover.

For this trip, I researched different areas where I could possibly stop and then saved places where I wanted to stay or things I wanted to see. Eventually, I chose my destinations and then booked two nights at each stop (Visalia, Flagstaff, and Santa Fe). This allowed me to spend one full day in each spot!

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TIP #2 RESEARCH NEARBY FOOD + COFFEE

It was helpful to have a list of recommended local spots so that I could make easy decisions on the fly. I ended up finding some really great food. The way that I set this up is by saving locations to the “Guides” section in my Apple Maps. You can label each Guide by the city and see them on the map with colored indicators. I personally wanted to find great lattes and great tacos in each city, so I filtered my research that way.

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TIP #3 PACK THE CAR SMARTLY

I recommend a test run for packing your car where you sit in the driver’s seat and map out where to place your coolers, trash, paper towels, and anything else you want to be able to reach. Place them and test out how well you can reach inside of bags or coolers or boxes in a way that is safest while driving. There were many times on the road when I spilled something and needed to grab towels quickly, as well as the trash for the mess, or discovered that I could reach the top of the cooler but couldn’t reach the bottom for the bottles. Testing out the placement of the various items helped me solve all these issues BEFORE I was on the road.

Another thing to consider is the type of containers you pack for food and drink. It is tricky to open wrappers and bottle tops while driving. Though obvious once you really think about it, it is not something I initially considered when choosing what to eat and drink. I found that tubs and containers where I could lift and snap the lid closed were the easiest.

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