Blog: How to Plan a Road Trip in 2 Weeks

How I Planned a Road Trip in 2 Weeks

Planning the perfect vacation or the ultimate 21st birthday party for one of your best friends is great when you have a lot of time to prepare - but some of the best plans happen in a spur-of-the-moment decision. That's exactly how my friend and I planned and executed our ultimate road trip in 2014 - in only 2 weeks! Here's how we did it, so you can too:

How it Started

It all started with a map... and a dream.

With no notion of a cross-country extravaganza on our minds, my good friend - we'll call him George - and I were at a party one day and decided to stay over after a long night of shenanigans.

The next morning, we got up and made our way downstairs, wondering if everyone else had gone home because the house seemed to be empty. But alas, we passed through the kitchen into an adjacent room where we found our host and her cousin, who happened to be in town for a while. The two of them were huddled together over a table, faces almost an inch apart, discussing something with great excitement in their voices.

It was like the scene in the diamond heist movies where the criminal masterminds lay out the blueprint and plot their robbery, so of course we were intrigued. But it wasn't a blueprint of a Vegas casino or the Carlton International Hotel and they weren't scheming to steal anything - it was a road map of the United States, and they were planning a road trip.

The longer we watched and listened to them excitedly discuss details and grow excited about the places they wanted to visit, the more curious George and I became. Within minutes, the moment hit us and we looked at each other with a mutual understanding - we should do this. We are going to do this. There was no months-long planning. No "next year" or "one day" sentiments about it. Pure impulse. The beginnings of something spontaneous, magical, and absolutely thrilling. And we got right to work.

Step 1: Plan the Route

• Start by marking the POIs you know you want to visit.

• Next think about where you might have friends/relatives that can offer you a place to stay. If they say yes, mark them on your map.

• Finally with a good idea of your route, research some final POIs to add along the way, especially in areas like the midwest where you'll need some places to take a break from the long drive.

The first thing we did was take a trip to Walmart and pick up some roadmaps. We were completely obsessed with the trip; it consumed every waking hour of our lives from that point forward and so we already had a rough idea of some of the places we wanted to include on our journey. We laid out one of the maps on a living-room table, just as our friend and her cousin did, and began a first draft of our excursion.

We knew some of the more obvious places we wanted to visit - the Grand Canyon (that's me at the South Rim pictured above!), Las Vegas, Los Angeles, etc.. 

Then we thought about where we might have friends who could let us crash for a night or two. This was key - it helped us narrow down our route and was a big money-saver. 

Next we used Google and Roadtrippers to find POIs and events that fell somewhere along our general route, which we knew would change several times before we left and along the way as new ideas and information surfaced. 

But with a solid set of points, we connected the dots and felt accomplished checking "draw a route" off of our checklist. Up next: make money.

Step 2: Come up with the Cash and Budget Smart

• If you don't have the funds set aside already, find an odd job like landscaping for a friend or neighbor to make some quick cash.

• Start budgeting and be thorough. Be sure to account for things like car repair/maintenance and unforeseen surprise expenses or random events or places you end up wanting to check out.

• When you figure out how much you think you're going to need, all expenses included, double that figure. That is how much you'll really need to have some amount of comfort on your trip.

At the time, neither of us were making much money. But I had a plan.

My brother got me in contact with a kind woman he had done some work for a few years prior. Now she needed some landscaping done around her house and was willing to pay a decent wage to my compadre and me for the next couple weeks leading up to our trip. Score. 

I spent the entire two weeks leading up to departure for the big trip waking up early, picking up my pal and heading over to her house for long days of mulching, moving heavy rocks, removing old landscaping fabric - you name it, we did it. 

We nearly had heart attacks when we ripped up a section of fabric to find a family of snakes sticking their tongues out at us, particularly George who has an intense fear of the slithering reptiles. Yikes!

But we showed up every day to work and each night we assessed our funds and budgeted for everything we would need. We accounted for everything: gas, supplies, tolls, hotels, restaurants, car maintenance - all of it and then some to make sure we were well within our means.

You would think doing manual labor for two weeks straight would feel like a long time. But I guess the excitement of what we were doing it for, coupled with the spontaneity of the whole thing, made it fly by. And before we knew it, we had enough dough. On to the next order of business, supplies.

Step 3: Stock Up and Hit the Road

• Head to your nearest Walmart or Costco with your budget in hand - AND STICK TO IT!

• Focus on essentials and food that will sustain you. Remember: the less you spend on snacks and candy and things you don't need, the more you can spend on fun things you encounter on the way. Plus, you'll be better prepared for surprise expenses.

• (Try to) Get a good night's sleep the day before you leave to get off to a good start and set the tone for your amazing adventure!

Riding the high of the incredible feat we had just accomplished, we wanted to keep things rolling. So we headed back to Walmart with a proper shopping list 24 hours before the big day. We stocked up on food and drinks, mainly Clif Bars and Gatorade, and anything we could think of that we might need otherwise, like a phone mount for the car and microfiber towels. And queso dip. You just gotta have queso dip. If you don't have queso dip, just, what are you even doing?

Anyway, having gotten everything that we thought we needed, we checked out and headed home. We couldn't believe what we were doing - I can't describe to you the feeling of being on the verge of doing something so crazy, but I can tell you it just kept growing and getting better and better.

It didn't take much effort to get out of bed that next morning. Even after a night of giddiness and restless sleep, the sheer excitement of the endeavor was all the fuel we needed. Other than, you know, actual fuel... for the car.

After we packed the last few items into the car, made the last few checks that we had everything and said our last goodbyes to our loved ones, we opened the driver and passenger side doors, sat down, and took a simultaneous deep breath. This was it. I remember we both looked at each other at that moment, in a mix of disbelief, amazement, fear, and pure joy. 

Step 4: Expect the Unexpected

• It's important to try to be prepared for anything that can happen during your travels. But some of the best things that happen in life are complete surprises - be ready for those too!

• When things do go differently than you thought they would, embrace it - the nature of travel is spontaneity, and rolling with the changes is the best way to have a good time.

• You may be presented with a choice somewhere along your journey, a choice to go off the beaten path, to scrap the plans you made and take an entirely new direction. My advice? Go for it.

To think only fourteen days earlier this was barely an idea, a wishful thought to do something incredible and see this wonderful country, its various landscapes, cultures, cuisines, and the great friends, some old and some new, we would meet along the way - it's still so surreal that it actually happened. Many of my favorite memories to this day are from this trip.

And now, after weeks of physical hard labor and obsessive planning, we had made it a reality. I knew the moment I put the car in drive, our 6000+ mile journey to the west coast and back would begin. 

As we pulled out of the driveway, starting the GPS navigation to our first destination and putting on the road trip playlist my pal spent weeks perfecting, it started to hit us - We're really doing this. This is actually happening. Holy &%$#!

Since this blog is about everything leading up to the expedition and the planning that goes into it, I won't go into all the details of our trip. What I will tell you is it was an unforgettable experience, full of wonderful surprises, ups, downs, not to mention it was during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil which made it extra special! There is one more thing I do want to mention about this trip that I think you will find interesting, and perhaps it will help you if you are on the fence about going on a road trip of your own.

Our Final Destination

Towards the end of our journey, somewhere around Denver, CO, my travel partner and I came to a realization: our best friend's birthday was coming up in a few days. 

We knew he was throwing a party at his place, and we thought about how great it would be if we showed up unexpectedly. Everyone knew we were on the road trip, and we would have to scrap the rest of our plans between Denver and our home on the east coast and really hustle if we wanted to make it there in time, so it was a pretty significant decision. But not a tough one: we were doing it.

Our birthday buddy had a girlfriend at the time, and we arranged a surprise FaceTime call with her to wish our friend a happy birthday over the phone. Little did she or anyone know, this was just a decoy and part of our master plan to really pull one over on them and show up in person. 

So, we booked it as fast as we reasonably could, skipping out on some of the places we planned on visiting on our way back. We even gave the birthday boy a phone call on the road, giving him a false update on our location and how we wished we could be there to celebrate with him and the gang. Evil geniuses.

We pulled into a cul-de-sac around the corner from our friend's place where the party was getting started. We took a moment to take in what we had just done, bewildered by the accomplishment. We did it. We went coast-to-coast and back across the United States. Wow! But it wasn't over, we had one last thing to do. 

Like secret agents, we ducked down low and sneaked up to the end of the street behind a parked car to scope out the place, occasionally spotting familiar faces going between the house and the garage, where the party was taking place. 

Seizing our perfect moment, we sprinted to the front door, swung it open, and moved quickly through the living room, FBI style. We encountered two partygoers on our way and signaled them to keep quiet, despite the shock on their faces. A taste of what was to come. 

Finally we burst out the back of the house, pumped full of adrenaline, and swung the garage door open. The instance felt like it happened in slow-motion as we watched the realization set in on each of our friends' faces. 

I remember two things vividly from that moment:

1. The sound of surprise and joy in the birthday boy's mom's voice
2. The birthday boy himself, wide-eyed, jaw on the floor, and a tear in his eye as he approached us and we gave him a big hug. 

We joined in on the festivities, sharing some of the best stories and highlights of our wild journey, chuckling every time someone said they couldn't believe we had done what we did (we could hardly believe it ourselves!). 

Getting to do something special for a friend like that was the perfect ending to a perfect adventure. This remains one of the fondest memories I have. Needless to say, we definitely made the right call on the audible. 

The Lesson

The lesson that I hope you will take away from this is the power of impulse. 

 

In life, impulse can be a detriment, causing us to make rash decisions and leading us down a road of pain and hard times more often than not. But there are those moments, you know them when they come to you - like the opportunity to go on the trip of a lifetime, or in this case cutting one short to surprise a good friend - when impulse is everything. When that moment comes, I strongly advise you to take that leap, to do the rash thing, because you just never know where it might take you. 

 

Thank you for reading!