Grassroots Road Tripping?

I need some advice from the hive.

My lovely wife is (finally) finishing grad school. We're taking the opportunity to go on a road trip, something that we've been talking about doing since before she started over 5 years ago.

Here's where it gets difficult - Timing and the budget. We really only have from about December 30-January 17 to do something. That's about a 2 week road trip, and we'd like to spend some time actually doing fun things, and not just driving. We have to spend under ~$3k, unless we're buying a car and selling another(option 2 below)

The way I see it, we have a few options:

1 - Drive one of our cars from Boston. We can probably make it to Kentucky-ish without going insane driving.

Advantages - Cheap, easiest logistics

Disadvantages - Less exciting potential destinations, destinations that are probably easier to get to in the future. December New England weather to deal with. Less epic

2 - Fly somewhere, buy a car, drive it back. I have my eye on the Sunburst Yellow Miata for sale in North Carolina. Fly in, pick up the car, drive to Key West, drive back to Boston

Advantages - End up with a car! Cost could end up being lower, especially if we buy right and sell the car when we're done. Still get to go on a "big trip". Most adventurous! - this is a big one for me.

Disadvantages - Much higher potential for disaster if the car doesn't work out well. More drive time, less fun activity time. Higher upfront cost due to buying a car. While the wife is very patient and supportive of my hobbies, her idea of a vacation doesn't involve fixing a car on the side of a highway in a rainstorm.

3 - Fly somewhere, rent a car, fly home. We've thrown around the idea of the PCH for this one - we have friends conveniently strewn up the coast to stay with. Fly into San Diego, drive to Portland.

Advantages - Classic road trip up some amazing driving roads, unlikely to be able to do this in the future. Change of scenery in the crappy in-between season that is December in New England. Destinations that we've talked about wanting to see for a long time.

Disadvantages - COST. I found reasonable flights, and we'd be able to camp or stay with friends for most of it. BUT renting a car is going to be expensive, especially one way. Dealing with air travel around the holidays.

So what would you do?

Fly and drive. Fun, adventurous, new car. win, Win, WIN!

Fly and drive OR find a cheap rental and fly to that. If you can find a cheap flight to the keys they will practically pay you to drive it north.

Fly to Florida, rent car, hang out in the Keys a couple of days, and drive home via wherever is interesting. They are so desperate to get cars out of Florida, they will almost pay you to take it. $10 gets you just about anything you want.

When myself and the girlfriend of the time graduated from university we had a week and the two weekends before we had to start career jobs. We jumped in my 72 MGB and headed west with no destination in mind. We ended up going from London Ontario thru Vegas, LA, San Fran and Salt Lake City in a big loop. Nine days later we arrived home, one of the greatest road trips I have taken. Do something wild and crazy, you only go thru once.

My boys and I did Texas to Glacier National park and back to Michigan in a week. This was with just me as the driver. We had fun. I also did Michigan to Alaska and Michigan to Puerto Vallarta Mexico. I'm a fan of huuuuuge epic road trips.

If it were just up to me, we'd probably just set off with a "WESTWARD!" and see where we ended up.

But she's a planner, albeit flexible about sticking to the plan once we have one, so here I am, making a plan while she writes her thesis.

Flying to Florida sounds like a decent deal, but I'm not seeing the cheap one way rentals. More digging required.

Depends if your both expected back at a job or not.

When we drove west for my new job in Arizona from Pennsylvania, we both wish we would have had about 1-2 weeks more (3 weeks total). There are a few ways we could have saved money, but because we did it in 5 days, we worried about time rather than money.

To me, a road trip is more than just seeing someplace and moving on, it's about experiencing someplace. There were quite a few places I didn't get to experience, mostly the nice looking cities of the midwest.

I have a good job, and vacation time to burn. They're being very flexible about this whole thing, which is great, but I'm carrying a bunch of vacation time into the new year to use. Hence the time limitation.

My wife doesn't have a job yet, which is a big part of us deciding to do this now. I'm open to moving and turning this into a sightseeing move as well, but that's probably not going to happen in this time frame.

Anybody want to hire a PhD Inorganic Chemist?

We did this trip in two weeks easily. Actual mileage ended up about 3700. We did a little camping, a little visiting family, a lot of tourist stuff, and a lot of fun. 5 of us in a F350 with a truck camper in the back. My middle son just asked me if we could do it again next summer.

You can cover a lot of ground in two weeks without spending more than 5 hours a day in the car.

I like to lead by example. This Christmas, SWMBO and I are driving my Miata to Maryland and leaving it at my parents' in exchange for an E36 BMW 325is that I prepared a couple years ago for NASA GTS1 and never got to take on track (because I moved down here right after getting it pieced together.) We'll either head straight back down after a couple days or attempt to add Pittsburgh to the route to see her family.

So about the E36. Has it ever run in its current form for more than 20 minutes at a time? No.

Does it have an interior? None. But I told the wife I'll throw a passenger seat in before departure.

Is it bloody loud with the exhaust exit just below the passenger door? You bet.

Windows? Not on the doors. You don't need those in December, do you?

Heat? BYOB (bring your own blanket)

Headlights? YES! I have some of those!

Have I ever checked to see if the headlights work? Oh...

It does have a fire suppression system. So maybe that will come in handy.

I'l probably be adding GRM assist list members between Maryland and Florida to my phone contacts. Oh and SWMBO is awesome. Never even started to discourage the idea.

If you want to limit your driving and visit the keys, and pick up a car, you could link in the Amtrak auto train that brings you and your car from DC to Orlando. http://m.amtrak.com/mt/www.amtrak.com/auto-train

Ed Higginbotham wrote: Heat? BYOB (bring your own blanket) It does have a fire suppression system. So maybe that will come in handy.

You might want to let those fires burn.

I've always wanted to hop onto the back of a freight train car as they slowly leave canton with with loaded up duffel bag and military blanket, few gallons of water, protein bars and about 6 cell phone battery packs to see where it takes me to purchase a random sub 750 car via Craigslist to drive home without use of the interstate system

mazdeuce wrote: My boys and I did Texas to Glacier National park and back to Michigan in a week. This was with just me as the driver. We had fun. I also did Michigan to Alaska and Michigan to Puerto Vallarta Mexico. I'm a fan of huuuuuge epic road trips.

I knew I liked you for a reason.

About 4 years ago the wife and I did a 7 day, 6100 mile trip in the truck that meant spending 2 full days at the inlaws in Tucson. Drove from Indy to Amarillo, then to Tucson, two days later we headed up to the east side of the Grand CAnyon, then up through Bryce canyon, southwest colorado to RMNP, denver and east home. Left on a Saturday morning and arrived home the following sat afternoon.

The last two winters The Wife and I have gone from New York to Florida for two weeks. I do one long drive each way trying to make it to South Carolina southbound and past DC northbound. Otherwise it's been relaxing days hitting nice warm tourist attractions in Fla. We generally drive until we find somewhere we want to stop a and hit Priceline for a room. We stayed on some nice places for less then $100 a night. Aside from the beaches there are plenty of other beautiful parts of the state and its much warmer then up north. We stopped of at a bunch of parks, saw manatees, hit the Everglades, the Rolex 24, and the keys. Most days were easy drives with an inch of brief stops. In the keys we stayed on Islamerada and just drove out to Kew West once. The prices are a bit better and places are just as nice. I'm a bit disappointed I wont Be going down this year.

Just food for thought.. I looked into the amtrak auto train to Florida and it's more expensive than I thought it would be

92dxman wrote: Just food for thought.. I looked into the amtrak auto train to Florida and it's more expensive than I thought it would be

Just keep in mind that your fare is offsetting lodging, meals and gas. Not saying you're wrong - it is a lot of money - but how does it compare with just driving the 900 miles, staying in a hotel, and buying meals along the way?

There was a woman spec Miata racer here in Mass that was trying to relocate from here to Florida. She has a house there now just north of Daytona. She was looking for someone to take her truck, trailer and Spec Miata to Florida for her. You could probably work a deal where you drive the rig down, stay in her house for free, and then drive home in a nice clean CL score from Florida. She also has an MG Midget she wants brought down, but I don't think driving that is an option. Last time I saw it, it would not start.

As much fun as I have doing things like venturing off in a new to me beater car, it's not really good for a couples vacation.

As long as fly and rent is being considered, what about the west? Chilly time of year in the northern hemisphere, but some places are less cold than others.

But, fly and rent isn't exactly a road trip. If your car is good, you can be down in warmer climates in one day hard driving, two days leisurely driving. Pick up Skyline Drive outside of DC, and cruise down to Tennessee. Scenic, leisurely and calming. Catch the Dragon for no good reason. Take a look at a few of the other roads around there (Chataho or such?) Go further south. Go further west. Let the weather largely steer you.

The desert of California/Nevada/Arizona/New Mexico is amazing in the winter. I could easily spend a month lost among the cacti and never touch pavement.
Another good thing to do in winter is cave tours. Always the same temperature underground.

tr8todd wrote: There was a woman spec Miata racer here in Mass that was trying to relocate from here to Florida. She has a house there now just north of Daytona. She was looking for someone to take her truck, trailer and Spec Miata to Florida for her. You could probably work a deal where you drive the rig down, stay in her house for free, and then drive home in a nice clean CL score from Florida. She also has an MG Midget she wants brought down, but I don't think driving that is an option. Last time I saw it, it would not start.

I vote for this one. Good karma points available and fun to be had. Drive back from Florida any way BUT I-95. Mammoth Caves and National Corvette Museum here in Kentucky, then loop up through Niagra Falls which is pretty neat in the winter.

92dxman wrote: Just food for thought.. I looked into the amtrak auto train to Florida and it's more expensive than I thought it would be

How much?

Th problem with the auto train is that it you still have to drive on the E36 M3ty crowded Northeast roads. Once you hit Virginia the driving gets better.

Wow, lots of great ideas! Thanks everyone.

I'm leaning towards fly and rent in California, or fly and rent/buy in Florida. We're invited to a wedding New Year's Day (seriously who does that) in Florida that she would really like to go to, so that would fit in pretty well.

New game! What should I buy in Florida for challenge money and resell in MA? Subaru? I'd replace my Miata with a nicer one but I would have to wait until spring to sell it.