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Experience is once in a while won the hard way, and we are no exception. We had thought through a great deal of things in planning our trip all over America but inevitably we learned a few lessons along the way. So for any of you that aspire to make such a trip, here are a few pointers. First of all when planning your trip use any resources you may obtain for nothing. We are members of AAA and their free Travel Guides and maps were invaluable. I am told that if you are a fellow member of the AA in the UK you may likewise get the AAA’s guides and maps for nothing, but don’t hold me to that. State tourist offices in the UK will happily also mail you brochures and maps. In addition to the AAA Travel Guides, which incorporate a wealth of data on hotels, we also made a point of picking up a copy of the hotel discount coupon books in each state. The Florida Homes and Travel website has a link to internet sites where you may print off coupons or order the books. We likewise always stopped at State Welcome Centers to add to our collection of free maps, guides and hotel discount books. However a cautionary tale. Don’t get too obsessed by low hotel prices in either the AAA guide or the discount coupon books. Neither wish to disturb their advertisers, so they give no hint that would alert you to hotels in questionable areas. We made this fault in Montgomery, Alabama on the second night of our trip. The Day’s Inn looked fine and the prompt area didn’t look run down, but as soon as we were unloading our things to put them in our room we were accosted by a black man whose opening words were ” Don’t worry I’m not going to rob you”. He was a beggar and $5 sent him on his way, but we kicked ourselves for letting our guard down and for missing the evident signs. What signs? We soon worked out that the better restaurant chains are never on the defective side of town. First find the likes of Outback, Red Lobster, Olive Garden, etc., and then look at the hotels in the vicinity. We came upon that the hotel chains own guides commonly list adjacent restaurants, so as we collected them on our travels it got more comfortable to find the right side of town. It’s like a mystery code, but no one had told us. From our earlier articles you will know that we were taking a huge coolbox with us finish with our breakfast cereals, as we can’t stand a cooked breakfast each day. It proved to be unnecessary and we wouldn’t do it again. A free continental breakfast was provided by all but 4 of the 24 hotels that we stayed in. It seems to be a very mutual thing now. Mind you the breakfasts surely varied, a good deal of being little more than a muffin or doughnut and a coffee, while others were lavish spreads. Including taxes we expended an intermediate of $52 a night on a hotel, equating to when it comes to $45 a night before taxes. Apart from Monument Valley, which cost us $157 in the only hotel there, the most eminent we paid was $84 and the lowest was $33. In general we found that we got a much better room and a far better breakfast in a three star hotel such as Hampton Inn or Comfort Suites than in a two star property such as Ramada or Super 8, though we had good examples of both. Our worst experience was in a supposedly three star Ramada. We preferent to make an early start out so that we arrived mid-afternoon and could explore a place in daylight and be relaxed sufficient to search out an satisfactory hotel and not worry if it took us a while. We always insisted on seeing the hotel room before we committed. While we wouldn’t take our huge coolbox again, our little one was invaluable. That and our electric kettle and mugs, etc., ensured that we could make ourselves a hot drink in our hotel room when it suitable us. In the sparsely populated dessert areas our Thermos flask was likewise a lifesaver. We filled it with hot water before leaving each morning so we could stop and make ourselves a coffee or tea if we couldn’t find anyplace to buy one, as breathtakingly often times proved to be the case, even on Interstate highways. It may be a long distance amidst places out west and a heap of rest areas have no toilets let alone feed or drink machines. By the way it is necessary to carry a great deal of water or other drinks in case you were to breakdown. Police patrols are almost non-existent in the dessert so we were thankful for our trusty Tracfone that never once lost a signal. How else could you call for help if you broke down? I guess you would have to raise your car’s bonnet and hope somebody stops. We organised our clothes into three groups. With good weather an emergency set of cold weather gear stayed in the holdall in the car boot the whole trip. We had a littler suitcase that we employed for the clothes we planned to wear for the next three days. We found the weather forecasts in an outstanding manner accurate! The other case kept all our other clothes. That way most nights we only necessitated to take one suitcase into the hotel. The dirty washing assembled in a plastic bag in the car boot among a once a week wash. When that was due we ensured that we chose a hotel with a guest laundry. To keep the car boot somewhat tidy we likewise had a bin for spare shoes, and another for storing the collection of maps and travel guides that we accumulated. We preferent to have a cold lunch, such as a sub or a salad and then have a cooked meal in the evening once our day’s travels were completed. Dinner cost us an intermediate of $35. Lunch costs are buried in the $24 a day we expended in cash. Petrol for the 7,827 miles cost us $371 an intermediate of less than $8 a day, something of a contrast to UK prices! The show we went to in Las Vegas, entrance fees to respective things and the odd souvenir added a further $14 a day to make an intermediate every day cost for the whole trip of $133. Owning our own car meant we didn’t have to hire one, so anybody renting would have to concede for this further and added expense. |
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