Planning an Epic Road Trip

Planning an Epic Road Trip

Lately all of my travel has been by air, but that is going to change this spring. You can read my air travel tips here. Once back in Canada in early April I am heading off on a pretty epic cross-country and cross-border adventure. I plan to be road tripping from mid-April until October.

It’s Not as Far as it Seems

Well, OK 11,000+ kilometres and back is far, but with a lot of stops along the way and lots of pre-planning it is not scary to me at all. Between visiting clients, multiple day stops to catch up on work that I can’t do when I’m driving, visiting family and friends in their hometowns and meeting others on various portions of the trip it is actually going to be one epic adventure!

Google Maps

I have mapped out the route with as few drives over four hours as possible. Only the stretches between Calgary and Winning going both ways and Toronto and Winnipeg require longer days because there is literally nowhere good to stop. So that means a four hour drive and a four hour work day is still doable on a mostly daily basis.

Travel Tip – I use Google Maps even though I’m an Apple user because I find it usually more accurate in terms of the travel times, radar alerts and re-routing for delays. I actually call the GPS Betty and get a little annoyed when Betty gives me a bad route.

Travel Tool – I have my iPhone plugged into the car GPS at all times, as well as a bracket that mounts my phone beside the in-car screen, so I can listen to texts that come in, reply by voice, make calls by voice and direct Siri to play specific music or podcasts as I go. I find this easier, and safer, than trying to use the car touch screen and drive at the same time.

Marriott

Most of the hotels along the route will be Marriotts. This is how I end up with so many Marriott points. Marriott encompasses so many brands at so many price points that staying at Springhill Suites, TownPlace Suites and Fairfield (I am not usually a big fan of the Courtyard Marriotts) allows me to collect points at lower priced hotels and then use them for more expensive locations over prime dates – like Downtown Montreal over the August long weekend coming up in 2024.

I will also be spending loner stretches of time staying with family and friends along the way.

States and Provinces

The biggest part of the planning is to cover the last six states that I have not seen. I will be finishing mine and Jeff’s goal to see all 50 states. I also decided to add in the rest of the provinces at the same time, because why not?!

Mom is meeting me in Halifax for a Newfoundland ferry and road trip adventure (more on that later) and a trip over the Confederation Bridge onto PEI. By mid-July 2024 I will have seen every US State and every Canadian Province (and it only counts if it’s an over night stay). Only the Canadian Territories and the rest of the big wide world will remain. 😉 🌎

You don’t have to be location independent to see the world. It just helps. Sometimes it is complicated and sometimes it’s not…but it is ALWAYS worth it!