Lessons Learned: |
- Have some sort of theft protection for your car. We found out the hard way
about this in St. Louis. Imagine
being 4 days into a 3 week trip and having your vehicle and everything in it stolen!
We were VERY fortunate. (We bought 'The Club' for the rest of the trip!)
- Don't sweat the delays. On a trip if this magnitude, delays are inevitable.
At first it was hard to accept but after the first week when we experienced 2 major
delays (St. Louis & New Jersey), we learned that being flexible
and accepting delays made for a much more enjoyable time.
- Because of the possibility of delays, a day or two of buffer should be planned in
at the end of the trip. We had one day and we used it. Without it, we would
have been much more stressed about getting home.
- Plan lots of things to do in the car while driving. We had a TV/VCR, CD
players, books to read and draw & color in, activity books (which Becky made to be
specific to our trip), snacks, drink cups for each person, etc. We also rotated
seating arrangements often. Anything to break up the monotony.
- Vary your accommodations. We had a good mix of hotels, camping and staying
with friends & family.
- Vary your activities. Don't always take the tour that is offered. If
possible, go on your own and at your own pace. Include some 'fun' things (like us
going to a baseball game) along with the
sightseeing, etc.
- Reserve your hotels through Priceline.com!
We stayed at the Hilton Hotel in St. Louis for $35 a night! We paid
no more than $50/night at any of the 3 and 4 star hotels we reserved through
Priceline.com. The downside to this is that they are pre-paid so plan this into your
'buffer'. If we had not had a pre-paid reservation in New Hampshire, we would have stayed
another night at Ron & Jean's in Massachusetts.
Another good reason to vary your accommodations.
- Along with the sights, make sure you take pictures of friends & family you
might stay with. For example, we just can't believe we didn't any pictures with
Brian's childhood friend in Iowa! Really dumb!
- Above all, plan, plan plan! We spent 6 months planning this trip and even
though we learned some lessons along the way, the planning paid off. If you know
what you're going to do and when (being flexible, of course), you won't be wasting much of
your time trying to decide what to do.
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Things we wished we had done: |
- Go to the top of the Gateway Arch.
At the time it seemed too much money but later on we wished we had done it.
- Visit the Canadian side of Niagara
Falls. We were not able to pull together all of our birth certificates before we
left.
- Arrived in time to go in the Rock &
Roll Hall of Fame.
- Had time to drive to Maine.
- Took (more) pictures of friends & family we visited.
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Least Favorites & Bad Memories: |
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