Summary of the Lewis & Clark Road Trip

Late spring kayaking on a heavily overcast and stormy day on Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park, Montan

If you have been reading this blog lately, you know that three of my lifelong friends and I took a twice across this country road trip.  I left southeastern Virginia on May 6th drove to Seattle by way of the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery route (with several side trips of varying days), then drove all the way back to Virginia.

Here is a summary of the road trip to give you an idea of how to successfully take one of your own.

First, I recommend think your trip through thoroughly but at the same time minimize a timeline or being in specific places at specific times, if you can.  The flexibility of taking side trips, staying at a location longer than you thought and not having the stress of a timeline is well worth it.

Not planning adequately for emergencies, weather, or other anomalies, can ruin your trip.

If you are traveling with other, everyone must agree before you leave how expenses will be handled.  Everyone can split everything equally if you are renting a car or the gas can be paid by those who are just riding in someone elses' car, with the owner contributing through the use of his/her car as well as wear and tear on the car.

Change your oil, transmission fluid and coolant before you go it you think the time will expire in miles before you return.  Also, rotate your tires before you go if you haven't done that for quite a while.  Check your fluids and tire pressure and examine the condition of your tires carefully for any visible defects or uneven tread wear.

About 4 in the afternoon, figure out where you think you will be at the end of the day and start looking for hotels.  I used TripAdvisor and have not yet gone wrong using the app as a guide.  If you have anyone on board who can get discounts, such as AAA, military, government, AARP or another, use them.  Ask the clerk who answer the phone for their rate then ask if they have any rooms with your discount and that rate.  We always saved about $25-40 per night using discounts.

Eat in local eateries.  You can eat in a chain anywhere.  Local eateries are fantastic.  Your hotel desk clerk, usually a younger person, can give you good recommendations and best dishes.

Check you oil and tires along the way.  Also, if traveling in the summer, get the car washed every four or five days to get the bugs, and their acidy innard, cleaned off the paint.  Bug guts can ruin paint if on there long enough, same as bird crap.

If there are any disagreements, air them out immediately.  Don't let things simmer.  Get it out and resolved. An underlying current of dissatisfaction can ruin a trip.

Take less than you think you need.  I take less and less each time I travel and it is still too much.  You can always wash your clothes in almost every hotel and you can buy stuff you may need anywhere.

Keep a diary of expenses.  One person should keep the diary of gas and other expenses.  Another way to handle expenses is for everyone to put the same amount of cash in an envelope and it is drawn upon to pay expenses.  When the cash is gone, everyone antes up again.

Enjoy yourselves, laugh, cut up, explore, get silly, have fun, but keep away from politics.  Politics can ruin friendships.

Here are some figures from my recent trip.

24 days.
7915.0 miles
My share of hotel costs for 24 days-$1140.73 or $47.53 per night (shared room)
Food, about $700 or just under $30 a day.
My share of gasoline was $337.79 (part of trip)
Miscellaneous expenses about $100

So the 24 very memorable, pleasurable and very photographically productive road trip cost me about $2280 or so.  That comes out to less than $100 per day.

That is not too bad for spending time with great friends, exploring places to which I have never been, seeing and meeting people all over the country and coming home with great images and great memories.

I highly recommend you try it sometime soon!

Thanks for looking.

Dennis Mook

Many of my images can be found at www.dennismook.com.  Please pay it a visit.  I add new images regularly.  Thank you.


All content on this blog is © 2014 Dennis A. Mook.  All Rights Reserved.  Feel free to point to this blog from your website with full attribution.  Permission may be granted for commercial use.  Please contact Mr. Mook to discuss permission to reproduce the blog posts and/or image.