L.A to NEW YORK

I've done San Diego to North Jersey in as little as three days and as much as three weeks. Depends on whether or not there are folks with small bladders and weak constitutions involved.

If you're going to iron-man it: The actual driving time across country is round about 48 hours, if you follow Rt 66 to St Louis, then 70 to the PA Pike, then up the Jersey Tpk. An 18 hour day was my maximum when I was young. Make sure to maximize your daylight driving -- no matter what you think or what someone who doesn't know what they're talking about tells you, it's easier to drive in the daytime. Get a sit-down dinner each night shortly after dusk, so your eyes don't have to make any adjustments in flight. And although you think you can make a shorter trip if you sleep in fits and starts, you'll wind up taking longer that way. Sleep on a bed each night between 11pm and 6am. Get up as early as humanly possible and get back on the road. By the time you get to the Big Apple, you'll be exhausted, but somehow disappointed that the trip is over.

If you're not going to iron-man it: Head up the 15 to I-70 and take that road all the way into PA. The trip through Colorado is something to behold, although the monotony of KS is the payment. Find a couple of neat stops along the way. Vegas is a good first night's stop. Then stop for the night as soon as you hit CO, as the beauty of the 70 starts right about there, and it's transcendently beautiful in the morning light. Make sure you cross the Mississippi in daylight -- it's an amazing body of water. Unless the Crew is playing, there's really not much to see until you hit civilization again, right around exit 24 (Downingtown, although I think they've changed the exit numbers for some odd reason) of the PA pike. For, although the first few hundred miles of farmland is breathtaking, the monotony is wearisome after awhile.

Either way, you'll simultaneously see why they call that part of the country (between the IE and the Delaware River) "fly-over country", and why you really can't understand this country until you've made that trek. Enjoy -- IMO, it's something that should be compulsory at about age 19, and should come with a government-issued set of the complete works of Jack Kerouac

 

Oh good lord, I didn't read January.

Scratch all of the above. DO NOT cross the Rockies in Winter or early Spring. That eliminates 40, 70 and 80 as east-west routes.

Take I-10 to where it hits I-20 in West TX. Take 20 to Atlanta, then up the 85 to where it hits the 95 somewhere in BFE Virginia. I've only ever done this route as an Ironman, so I have nothing to offer, except that the Motel 6 in Monroe, LA should be condemned. But the above bit about the experience itself still applies. You'll have a blast regardless.

 

It took me and my boyfriend four months to drive from Virginia to Portland, OR. We easily could have taken six months. Or we could have done it in five days. It just depends on how much time you have.