20 States so far

I have started looking into all the states we want to go to and so far we have chosen 20 states (all listed in Research). It's not an easy task to research each one without getting the same old places, cities, tourist attractions suggested by Wikipedia, Lonely Planet and many travel books available on the net and bookstores.

Travel books

I would love to be able to talk to people who have been to these states or even live/lived in one of them to give me tips that could make my journey different from the rest. I know it's a big thing to ask but it would make such a difference. I'm interested in off the beaten track cities, restaurants, motels/hotels and anything else that can add to my trip. It will help me set the time we are staying in the USA and how long we will spend in each place too.

I will be listing each state individually in the next posts and would love to get your input as we go along. Feel free to add comments in English, Portuguese or French. Or email me on lilian_sugarhood@yahoo.co.uk

Voyajo

Voyajo plan

I have started researching trips to the USA and I found out that many people have already done the kind of road trip we want to do. It's been very useful reading about everyone's experiences and tips but one of the best tools I have found so far is called Voyajo. As they say on their website "Voyajo represents a simple, easy & yet powerful free trip planner allowing you to plan trip itineraries on map around the world".  I gave it a go and was quite pleased with the result. I will have to read through their detailed trip summary but it looks pretty good so far. I can say that I have a better idea now of the distances and time it will take us to cross the USA.

If you are planning any trip anywhere in the world check out their website it's very nice and user-friendly - http://www.voyajo.com - and I hope it's useful too.

Research

First draft

This week I have started my research into all the states that we would like to visit. I don't know if we will have time to go to all the places I marked on our map but it does make me very excited!

We are planning on flying to Seattle from London and start our journey there heading east. With the help of our map I have written down all the states we would like to go to and jotted down a few cities in each one as starting points. I have used Wikipedia and I few books I have about the USA to help me choose where to go. I know this is not ideal but it helps me get my bearing and hopefully understand a bit more about the vast geography and diversity of this amazing country.

The states I have listed are: Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Washington DC, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Maine.

I do hope we have time and money to go to all these places. Now I need to work on the distances and try to work out how long it would take to drive through all these places and also allocate time in each city to get to know a little bit about each one of them.

I still have more than a year to gather all the information I need. I will be doing a lot of research and reading a lot of travel books on the USA to help me plan this trip. Now that I started I can't wait!

Where to start

Wall map with marked cities

I have been working as a project manager for the last 3 years so I decided to put my skills to good use. I have created a spreadsheet with a timeline and also an initial project cost as that will determine how long we can travel for. I also bought a full wall map of the USA with states, cities and roads clearly marked on it. I mounted it on a board and fixed it to the wall. I marked the cities that we initially would like to go to. I think that will help us understand the country's geography and also distances between states and cities.

I have now started to research each state to learn a bit more about each one. What there is to see and do in each city so I can start narrowing it down to possible places to go. I will need to check distances and travelling times as we don't want to spend all our trip driving.

I hope friends will help me with tips and all suggestions are welcome. It will take time to plan it well but I'm really excited as I have already got a good response from the blog.

I'm also looking at perhaps getting some "sponsors" for this trip. I know some people in the industry that might be interested in helping me out. But that's something that I will discuss later as I need to have a better idea of what we are going to do during our stay in the USA. However, if you think you can help me please feel free to send me a message or write in the comments box below.

Why the USA?

Hello, my name is Lilian Sugarhood and I'm starting this blog to help me prepare for my road trip to the USA in 2014.

The idea of driving across the USA started 4 years ago when my husband Paul started a PhD in Occupational Therapy. It was a part time course that would take 5 years to complete. It's a very time consuming project involving hours of study, research, reading and writing. It meant that we had to sacrifice our time off together so he could work and study. Many times he had doubts if he was ever going to finish it but I didn't want him to give up as it was an opportunity of a lifetime. His boss was willing to give him time off work to attend classes and even gave him some study days so he could prepare his thesis.

One evening we decided that if he finished his doctorate in five years we would take a couple of months off to drive across the USA as a reward for both of us! Of course that was something that we both wanted to do for a long time but always thought it would never happen.

Last year Paul got a job as a senior researcher with a 2 year contract expiring at the end of 2013. I lost my job last June when the design agency I worked for decided to close shop.  It seemed the right moment to rekindle that idea. With a lot of time on my hands I decided to start planning our trip to the USA and see if we could make it happen.

I have been doing a lot of research and can tell you that planning a trip to a vast and diverse country like the USA is not an easy task. I wish we had at least 6 months to travel as there are so many places to visit that 2 or 3 months won't be enough to do everything we would like to but I will try to plan as much as possible leaving some time to improvise as we go along. I will try to use this blog to get tips from friends and people who have done this before. We would like to do it on a budget and try to go to places that are off the beaten track as much as possible.

I will be sharing my plans and preparations with you and would love your input. See you soon.