Roadtrip Countdown.

With just under 9 weeks until we board our plane to Boston it is becoming completely real that this trip IS happening.

With all the important things so far dealt with; i.e flights, car rental and accommodation the conversation has turned to a completely new subject. What clothes are you taking? This has been the topic of our conversation so far today, because it’s never too early to start planning and I mean, just what do you take with you when you’re going to travel America for a month?? If I’m being completely honest though, I haven’t thought about it at all and probably won’t until about a week before we’re due to board our plane from Glasgow.

 

What I have been thinking about is the things that are next on our list. Now although all the main things have been booked there is still a few things we need to book (which we plan on doing in the next week or so) and they are things like, booking Alcatraz, escape games in Nashville etc. The little things we’re adding to our trip that we want to do and experience.

 

I just keep thinking ahead to this trip and what is waiting for us.

 

As some of you may know, it was my birthday about 2 weeks ago now and my best friends (that are coming on this trip) got me America related things. Dollars for a start and also a journal for our trip.

 

 

I’m so excited to get over there and start using it. It’s filled with pages full to record your trip details.

Things like:

• Who is travelling.
• What vehicle are you travelling in.
• Starting and ending points for that day.
• Your mileage start/finish.
• How many miles you’ve travelled that day and throughout the whole trip.
• Your stops. (Which city. Whether it is for food, gas or a sight).
• Any souvenirs bought or any other costs.
• Amount spent that day and throughout the whole trip.
• Which states have been visited that day and throughout whole trip.
• Licence plates seen that day.
• Best part of the day.
• Daily notes or pictures.

The thought of being in America, driving through the states with my best friends making some incredible memories. It makes me want this trip to hurry up something awful, but at the same time I’m seeing how quickly it is coming around and I know it’s going to have been and gone in no time at all.

 

 

For me, this trip is going to be one of the most incredible experiences of my life. Shared with some of the most amazing people in my life.

Have you been on an epic road trip or adventure with your friends? Leave me a comment and tell me all about your experiences.

They say when you road trip

They say when you road trip that there are certain things you should or should not do. 90% of the time we have listened maybe just the first one we haven’t, that’s what happens when you’re friend is slightly obsessed with knowing every detail of everything though.

Do plan, but don’t over plan.

Well.. I’m not particularly one to over plan I’m more of a ‘I’ll see what happens when I get there’ type of person. One of my best friends however, weeeellllllllll she’s very much a plan every small detail type of person. She’s in her final year at uni and had finished her dissertation for the first week in January. She’s very much a think ahead kind of person. Needless to say every small detail of our trip has been pretty much planned out but that’s who she is. We’re all used to it and for us it will work.

Don’t choose driving partners on a whim.

Even choosing on a whim to go with these 3 gals on a road trip it definitely wouldn’t be a poor choice. For the past 18 years we’ve been friends and I couldn’t ask for a better bunch of lads. The longest we’ve been around each other before is 2 weeks and now we’re doubling that time which shouldn’t be a problem. Although every holiday we usually seem to lose a friend and not in the they’ll find they’re way back more of a, “they done my head in why was I friends with them?” kind of thing.

Don’t wait until the last minute to do research.

Well if you’ve paid any attention you’ll have realised my friend would not let that happen. This road trip has been in the planning for 2+ years, we have well and truly researched the shit out of it.

Do decide beforehand how you will divide costs.

This has well and truly been discussed and we have already divided some costs. All motels have been split 4 ways and we will be doing the same with gas etc.

Do consider alternatives to pricey hotels.

Well we’re definitely not staying in pricey hotels (apart from in Las Vegas), it will be all motels along the way apart from that so we’ve definitely saved a whole bunch of money doing that.

Do take a cooler.

Top of the list of what to buy when we get to America. I’m part of the walmart family (asda) so as sad as it is I’m really excited to use my discount card in America.

Do relax and have fun.

This, I believe we can follow this one.

Our road trip is fast approaching and we are all more than excited. I just keep reading posts from people’s experiences and get so excited when they are about somewhere we are going check my previous post on where we plan or road tripping and leave me a comment and link me to your road trip posts.

Yasmin x

Double digits

The countdown is on.

With 99 days to go we’ve raced through the trebles and have hit the doubles.

Some of you may be sat there thinking, “what is she talking about?” Well, if you’ve read just a few of my previous posts you’ll have realised that I’m going on a road trip across America this coming May and well, there’s only 99 days until I go.

Our route: Boston to San Francisco

That ⬆ is our route (roughly).
Picking our car up in Boston and driving to San Francisco via:
• New York
• Philadelphia
• Washington D.C
• Abingdon
• Nashville
• New Orleans
• Ennis
• Amarillo
• Grand Canyon
• Las Vegas
• Los Angeles
• San Simeon

4 Glaswegians spending a month travelling America, it’s sure to be a fun-filled trip.

Flights are booked.
Car is booked.
Hotels are booked.
Excursions are getting booked in the next coming weeks.

It’s mainly just a waiting game now. Counting down the days until it’s time to get on our first plane to Amsterdam for our stopover before we finally land in Boston.

I shall be making sure to keep this up to date and post regular posts while I’m in America (when I’m not behind the wheel and it’s one of my friends there’s no reason not to).

Feel free to leave me a comment whether you’ve been on a similar trip, currently on yours or are in the planning process. Let me know! Or just drop by and say hello.

Yasmin x

Monthly road trip meetings

For the past 2 years we’ve had this American road trip in the pipe line, since it became the four of us going we’ve had monthly road trips just to discuss everything and start to plan our trip out properly.

Planning our trip

Firstly we had to decide on when we were going, and we realised the best time to suit everyone was from mid May onwards. Our trip originally started as a two and a half week trip and we were visiting Boston, New York, Washington D.C, Chicago, Nashville, Miami, New Orleans, Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco.. We quickly realised this was pretty unrealistic for what we were wanting to achieve on this trip. We changed our route and slowly started adding days on. We got to 29 days and I was the one who piped up saying, “you know, I’m really not a fan of odd numbers.. I think we should just make it 30” we then ended up adding another on for my friend as she wanted an extra day in San Francisco. So really I lost out with that odd number appearing again with 31 days but we couldn’t add any more as my friend has a dog and couldn’t keep asking people to watch her.

 

Our monthly road trip meetings soon started to draw out a route for our trip and then it was time to decide on what we wanted to do in each place.

If I’m completely honest we’ve probably known exactly what we were wanting to be doing for a long time now and we just have our monthly meetings still to say, “Wow! America is getting so close now.” Although we do have a few things still to do and they’ll be completed at a road trip meeting later this month; we have to book our car and start booking a few excursions.

 

Our past few road trip meetings have resulted in us making up brief daily itineraries so we can get a rough idea of what we are able to do in each place and just how to spend our time. 

We have so much we all want to do it would be a struggle to decide when we’re over there what we do have time for without a little bit of forward planning. We’ve been on one trip where we had no planning involved beforehand, no planning at all. And it was a nightmare! We’re definitely the planning type, don’t get me wrong it’s not as if we won’t be spontaneous and just go with the flow and do whatever we feel like at the time, but sometimes it’s just nice to have a plan in place of what we are going to do.

 

We’ll be booking our car that we’ll be driving across America in, did someone say exciting??! Until our next road trip meeting..

 

 

Leave me a comment on how you plan your trips.

Yasmin x