Me, the open road, and ADVENTURE!!

May 27, 2011 12:05 PM

Any tips/places to see for a first solo road trip? (Los Angeles - New Orleans -- maybe a bit of the blues trail as well)

Hi all. I'm in the early stages of planning for a solo road trip from LA to New Orleans (I-10 route most likely), and maybe going up through Mississippi or Tennessee (doing a loop) before heading back home to Cali.

I just need some time to clear my head and sort things out before returning to uni in the fall, so my plans are pretty loose and flexible. This is the first solo trip anywhere for me, but I have driven 6+ hours in a day (LA to SF) and could do more if needed.

Questions:

1) What do I need to know/do for safety on this trip? Other than not picking up hitchhikers or whatever. My mom's completely "OMG no!" because she thinks I'm pedo bait or something (female, 4'11 and look perpetually 13 -- I'm 20!), so I'm trying to take all precautions to ease her mind while I'm away.

2) Any must see/odd places you can recommend on this route? Any back roads I should take, if ever?

3) What's the best way to handle accommodations? I sort of like the idea of bumming around in my car, but I know it's not wise or practical. Is it recommended that I book a room in advance?

4) Anything else? Tips would be fantastic!

posted by quirkychowder to Travel & Transportation (10 answers total)

How much time do you have? Are you able to spend some money or do you need to be very conservative with spending?

My general road trip advice is to plan for about 300 miles a day and to stay off the interstates. LA to New Orleans is awesome, I suggest spending as much time as you can in the national parks along the way. Southern Utah is particularly amazing, Bryce and Zion and Canyonlands are all fantastic parks. Don't go to the Grand Canyon unless you plan to spend a couple of days and go to the bottom.

Don't book rooms in advance: that pins you down too much. I've always done fine just walking in to a hotel at sunset and getting a room. With a cell phone you can call ahead a couple of hours, too, once you know where you'll be. I advise sticking to chain hotels like Super 8, Travelodge, Best Western, etc. They guarantee a certain minimum level of quality and you can easily get maps / guides that show you where they all are.
posted by Nelson at 12:17 PM on May 27, 2011

Go for it. Here are two itineraries that might give you some inspiration:

Los Angeles > Anza Borrego > Tonto > White Sands > Roswell > Austin > New Orleans

Los Angeles > Death Valley > Bryce Canyon > Paria Canyon (The Wave) > White Sands > Austin > New Orleans

Neither of these rely heavily on I-10, but staying on I-10 will cause you to bypass untold awesomeness.
posted by the jam at 12:30 PM on May 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

I recommend, if possible, going off I-10 in West Texas to visit Marfa, Texas, and near(ish) towns of Valentine, Ft. Davis, Marathon, etc., if you'd like. I find West Texas to be rather conducive to head clearing.

Also recommend Avery Island, Louisiana (home of Tabasco).

I-10 will not take you up to Bryce/Zion/Canyonlands, but if you wanted to go up there instead, I agree about their awesomeness. Also WAY conducive to head clearing, but it will be touristy in the summertime.

Check out roadsideamerica.com for more suggestions along your route (they have maps of attractions by state so you can see what's near the road).
posted by pupstocks at 12:30 PM on May 27, 2011

Study the routes on the Road Trip USA site (you can also get the book). I used that book for my own solo trip 10 years ago, and it was absolutely the perfect balance between kitsch and serious-stuff. He focuses on 9 or 10 coast-to-coast, two-lane highways, and lots of them cross and intersect, so you can hop from one to the other. The author does a good job of letting you know where hotels and restaurants are as well as attractions, and also tips you off to "this spot here is all strip malls for the next 30 miles so just blow past it" or "if you're just sick of driving you can cheat and get onto the interstate here".

Especially look at the Route 66 route to St. Louis, and then the Mississippi route to New Orleans. I think he even follows Route 66 backwards (California to Chicago) as well.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:34 PM on May 27, 2011

Especially look at the Route 66 route to St. Louis, and then the Mississippi route to New Orleans. I think he even follows Route 66 backwards (California to Chicago) as well.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:34 PM on May 27 [+] [!]

My advice almost exactly. Hopefully you will have the time to take 66 to St. Louis, and Hwy. 61 down to NOLA. If not, perhaps 66 to Amarillo, then continue to NOLA from there through Bayou Country. I have driven 66 and 61 both, end to end a couple of times. If you want to get all Amazony about it, look for my name.

Just use common sense re personal safety and you should be fine, however DO make sure you have gas/good tires/a charged cell phone/plenty of water and the like. Regardless of interstate of two-lane running, you will be going to bitching desert, freezing cold, and long stretches of pretty much nothing. Plan ahead.
posted by timsteil at 12:59 PM on May 27, 2011

For question 2), this exact route has come up before.
posted by caek at 1:58 PM on May 27, 2011

Three years ago I took a road trip where I drove from Fort Worth, TX to Washington, DC, down to Orlando, FL, and back to Fort Worth over the course of about 10 days. That was somewhere on the order of 3000 miles.

#3 - I never booked a motel room more than a day or so in advance. In the morning, I usually looked at where I wanted to get to by that night, & booked the cheapest room I could in that town.

#4 - Bring an iPod with a shitload of music (especially if you can connect that to your car's stereo). If you're looking at doing 6 hours of driving a day, that's roughly 90 songs a day you'll plow through. If you're finicky like me & abhor the thought of listening to one album on infinite loop, make sure you have a fairly sizeable music library with you.

Also, don't be surprised if you find yourself filling up your gas tank twice a day.

It wouldn't be a bad idea to try incorporating some hypermiling techniques in your driving on this trip, so you won't spend so much damned money on gas. On my trip, my car (which normally gets 28-29 mpg) averaged in the 38-39 mpg range, with several tanks of fuel in the 40+ mpg range.

Don't be afraid to pull off the road if you're having trouble staying alert. Drink a soda or two if need be. Do some pushups or jumping jacks to get the blood flowing again. You're much better off looking a little silly than wrapping your car around a tree because you fell asleep.

Get an oil change before you leave, and get another one when you get back.

Bring a digital camera so you can take pictures. You might never again have the spare time, disposable income, and opportunity to do a trip like this.

Don't eat at chain restaurants that you can visit back home.

When you get home after you're done, expect to be friggin' tired.

Good luck & have fun :-D
posted by AMSBoethius at 4:05 PM on May 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

I don't have any recommendations on specifically where to go, as I haven't been on that route before. However, I do know of Big Bear Lake, in LA... you may have gone there before, but if not, I suggest making that your last destination. Tall pine trees, a beautiful blue lake in a valley of tall snow-capped mountains (well, probably not as snow-capped in the summer, anyway)... it's truly a beauty there.

However, I do have a few useful apps/websites. If you have an iPhone (like I do, obviously!), that would be perfect. Here's the app suggestions I have:

*Gasbuddy - easily finds the cheapest gas near to you. Saved me at least 10 cents, many times.

*Yelp - finds local restaurants, with reviews (many foodies too!)

*Hotels.com - finds the nearest cheap hotels

*ParkFinder - finds nearby local/state/national parks, with reviews and attraction types (waterfalls? hiking? camping? etc)

Even if you don't have an iPhone, if your phone allows apps to be installed, give these apps a try. They have helped me with my countless road trips within California (I noticed you mentioned LA-SF; I did the other way around, on Route 1...beautiful view!), and saved me time/money/hassles.

Hope this helps somewhat... and BTW, I'm new here, so go easy on me! ;)
posted by dubious_dude at 3:20 AM on May 28, 2011 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks everyone for your very helpful responses! I'm rethinking parts of my route now and considering stops I might not have made otherwise. West Texas seems very interesting, especially!

@Nelson I'm planning to leave mid June and then be home by mid-late July, so it's about a 3-4 week time frame round trip. As for budget, I'm definitely trying to keep things conservative which is why I was considering bunking in my car for a night or two. I think I will stick to the Best Westerns and Super 8s mostly though, thanks.

@EmpressCalipygos @timsteil Just ordered the Road Trip USA book and that will arrive in a day or two. I really love the suggestion of taking Route 66 and then down through Mississippi to New Orleans. I'm not sure how that might work time wise though. Hopefully I can pass through parts of it-- I did so while on a trip to the Grand Canyon a few years back.
posted by quirkychowder at 12:39 PM on May 28, 2011

I really love the suggestion of taking Route 66 and then down through Mississippi to New Orleans. I'm not sure how that might work time wise though.

I took a different, but similar, route from NYC to Vegas (I also used 2-lane highways), and it only took me ten days to reach Vegas -- and that was including a daily "I just saw something interesting I want to stop and check out" stop, and a half a day's layover in Dodge City because "I DO NOT WANT TO DRIVE FOR ONE MORE MINUTE TODAY SO HELP ME GOD". I wouldn't try to do it in three days, say, but if you're giving yourself a couple weeks you'll be just fine.

Oh, that's another point -- don't worry at all if, at some point during your trip, you hit a low point emotionally. Being the only driver can get tedious and tiring after a while, but that is absolutely no reason to not do it solo. Just be prepared to stop over in some place for a day or so to decompress and just lay by a hotel pool and recharge, and then resume the drive the next day and you should be fine.

...In fact, that may be one of your favorite travel stories from your trip later on -- one of my favorite moments from my own trip was having a big panic attack in the middle of this chicken restaurant in a tiny town in Kansas because I was tired and realized it would be at least two hours before I could get to a hotel, and I rushed out to their lobby and called a friend collect in New York to sob into the phone to him so he could give me a pep talk -- and then when I hung up, I turned around and saw that two waitresses and a trucker were looking at me all concerned and asked, "Hon, you need directions'r'somethin'?" And then I lost it again and they all gave me their own pep talk and the trucker told me about a hotel in Witchita where I could stay, and told me which of the CD's I had would make the best driving music, and I still have the map that one of the waitresses drew on the back of her order pad with directions for how to get back on the highway.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:22 AM on June 9, 2011 [1 favorite]