Lolololo I quit my job to motorcycle across the southern USA

[BigSteve]

Nice Pintle! I did this about 4 years ago, quit my job, travelled in the states and Canada fo a year and didn't go back to sunny old Newcastle, haha!

My advice would be, dont get too hung up on a route plan, just have a start and an end point, buy a map and just see where you end up.

I went to Toronto with no clear plan, I stayed in a hostel, met an Aussie bloke called Jambo, within a week, I was in Vegas, made my way up the West coast, then into Canada, up to banff, met some French girl in a hostel there and we travlled to Calagary, then I met some Aussie girls in Calagary who fancied whistler, so I travelled there... there I lived with some Japanese ppl for a while, then met a bloke there who was travelling to Kelowna, so went with him, picked apples there for a month.... and so on and so on....

My point is, youre gonna meet so many cool people along the way, who youre gonna hang out with, and want to travel with to other awesome places you'd never even heard of / considered, so my advice would be, have a start and end destination, it might even be worth applying for a working holiday visa for USA/Canada because I promise you, you wont wanna come home, so itd be sweet to have the option of staying and working for a year....

other than that, just go with the flow maaaan!

ps, when you have an accent, you can totally punch above your weight when it comes to American and Canadian girls! thats the best part about travelling to be honest, fit birds you'd neve have a chance with in England are more easily accessible! wooo!

PPS: if youre going to California, Id highly reccomend the Oregon coastline, its not really that much further and it's completely amazing!
A bit further up and you'll be in Canada... Yarrr!

Anyway have fun! if you end up in Vancouver send me a PM and we'll go for a pint!

They have Newcastle Bronwale on tap here y'know!


Hi Peace, Hi cabbage btw :)

[1v0ry_k1ng]

how much money you got stored up for this?

[pintle]

Not enough tbh Im selling my bike, my electric guitar, my amp, and maybe even my PC to fund this

[SwiftSpear]

Not that you'll have a great use for it, but PC's sell like crap generally speaking. Pawn shops and alike are wary of pickup up things that have a long term value of less than 2 years. If it's a really nice box and you have a friend willing to grab it or something for half what you paid for it, it's probably the best you can do.

[Dragon45]

I'd actually recommend ditching that whole route now, given how bad things are going in mexico. It's not worth the headache. My advice: Vancouver Canada to San Fran California.

A MILLION TIMES more stuff to do. or follow bigsteve's route

the coastline is simply fantastic, seattle, vancouver, and many other assorted cities alogn the way are very nice.


but yeah stay the fuck away from the border because of the drug shit. not worth the potential kidnapping or murder.

[BattleMonk]

lol its just like in the movies. britain is boring u dont get mexican cowboys kidnapping ppl and indians and all the other stuff america has

[CarRepairer]

Would you guys stop being drama queens. I live on the California border and I've hardly been kidnapped for violent drugwars at all. It happens less and less every year. This year is 1/4 over and I've only been kidnapped once. What's next, don't cross the street? More people get in car accidents than are kidnapped. boohoo.

Lolololo I quit my job to motorcycle across the southern USA

Not enough tbh Im selling my bike, my electric guitar, my amp, and maybe even my PC to fund this

You'll have to buy another bike so selling your bike doesn't count as extra moneys. You've got guts though. I wish I could bring myself to quit my stable and well-paying job.

[pintle]

Yeah, Im hoping to sell the other bike once I leave. The (very general) plan is to seek work as a motorcycle courier when I return to blighty.

I will be doing this on an _extremely_ tight budget.

Go go route suggestions!

[BaNa]

Then I can only quadruple my recommendation of couchsurfing. Free sleeping, mostly free meals and locals to tell you where the non-overpriced bars are.

[Felix the Cat]

General route suggestion for something that hits more of what the US has to offer (but excludes New Orleans):

1. Fly into New York City, see whatever there is to see
2. Drive to Lancaster County, PA (Amish country)
3. Proceed to Washington, DC
4. Make your way to Interstate 81 which follows the Appalachians southwest through Virginia; there's lots of interesting places to stop along that route and the scenery is pretty
5. Head south and then strike west, destination St. Louis. Route can go through Louisville, through Nashville, or even by way of Memphis then up the Mississippi.
6. St. Louis -> Kansas City -> Denver, likely the least mind-numbing route through the Great Plains.
*alternative detour from #5: head for Memphis then continue west through the Arkansas Ozarks to Oklahoma City, then northwest to Denver.
7. From Denver you have a lot of options...
8a. I25 to I80 to Salt Lake City, then northwest I84 -> I82 to Seattle (likely the cheapest flight home from the West Coast)
8b. From Salt Lake City, proceed on I80 to San Francisco (via Reno and Sacramento)
8c. From Denver, continue west on I70 until you hit I15, take I15 southeast to Los Angeles, via Las Vegas.

Note that most of the roads from #7 on can be very difficult drives in winter (mid-October to mid-March).

[bobthedinosaur]

the best road trip i can think of is california to washington, take the 1, it goes along the coast line and is very spectacular, but since your taking a southern trip, might save that for another time. all id say for that is take the back roads, and maybe some pictures.

[Forboding Angel]

2 must see things, both of them in arizona, the painted desert and the petrified forest.

Also if you look at arizona, you can take 377-277-87 highway cross country all the way to phoenix negating the need to go all the way west to flagstaff and then south to phoenix. Highway 377 right near holbrook arizona, a lil ways past the petrified forest. Like I said, it winds through the mountains, you'll save a few hours time and the view is absolutely breathtaking. I've been that route 6 times now, and that is my favorite part of the trip out to LA.

Believe me... It's the shit

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Speaking of btw, if you run through Kansas City, lemmie know, I'll buy ya a beer

[Vabor]

Make your trip end somewhere out of America. Its gonna collapse soon so Im leaving as soon as I can. I suggest you end up in Canada.

[smoth]

Make your trip end somewhere out of America. Its gonna collapse soon so Im leaving as soon as I can. I suggest you end up in Canada.

what? not going to wait for change?

[Vabor]

Yep. Change. Cause thats all your gonna have in your pocket. How come Obama doesn't see that all this bailout crap is gonna destroy the economy? Hes just making a even bigger dept. Anyways, good luck with your trip. Believe me, Canada is just awesome.

[CarRepairer]

Don't spam the guy's thread with your offtopic douchebaggery.

And besides, saying that you're going to Canada because America's going to collapse is kind of like being on a cruise and requesting that you would like a new room at the front of the ship because the back is quickly sinking.

[Sefidel]

You want to go to washington state. dont go to california.

[Felix the Cat]

Yep. Change. Cause thats all your gonna have in your pocket. How come Obama doesn't see that all this bailout crap is gonna destroy the economy? Hes just making a even bigger dept. Anyways, good luck with your trip. Believe me, Canada is just awesome.

Obama borrowed his ideas from Marx because he was afraid that if he proposed original ideas, people would copy them.

True story.

Also, pintle, even better itinerary for you... fly to New York, buy bike, go wherever you feel like going until you run out of money. Best way to travel.

My grand ambition: fly into Lisbon, hike to Estonia and back. Estimated time... 18 months or so.
Vague route:
Outward journey - northern route:
-Portugal -> Northern Spain -> Atlantic coast of France -> Luxembourg -> Belgium -> Netherlands -> Germany
from Germany
option A) Germany -> Denmark -> Sweden -> Finland -> Estonia
option B) Germany -> Poland -> Lithuania -> Latvia -> Estonia
Return journey - southern route:
-Estonia -> Lithuania -> Latvia -> Poland -> Czech Rep. -> Austria -> Slovakia -> Hungary -> Croatia -> Slovenia -> Italy -> Mediterranean France -> Andorra -> Spain -> Gibraltar -> Portugal

The general outline is/was to hit the four extreme points in the contiguous European Union: Cabo da Roca, Portugal (westernmost); Parispea Peninsula, Estonia (northernmost); Narva, Estonia (easternmost); Punta de Tarife, Spain (southernmost).

The "contiguous" part is important - the westernmost point in the entire EU is in French St. Martin in the Caribbean, the easternmost and southernmost points in French Reunion in the Indian Ocean. Since hiking between those points isn't particularly feasible, that was out. It was necessary to specify "contiguous" in order to avoid hiking for 6 months through rural Finland to get to some particular spot on the Finland-Norway border...

At the time the plan was composed, Romania and Bulgaria had not yet joined the EU. Their joining has thrown a bit of a wrench in the works, considering that the easternmost point is now in Romania, which doubles the distance to be covered.

That was a bit of a ramble.

[Panda]

I forgot to mention this previously, but the Myrtle's Plantation (the reportedly, haunted plantation home that I was talking about in a previous post) will allow you to spend the night there after you recieve the tour and are told about all of the historical events that occured there and ghost sighting if you pay a fee. It could be fun! You'll even get to stay in one of the historical figures' room and have a freashly made breakfast served first thing in the morning. I hope you have a nice trip!

[hunterw]

but yeah stay the fuck away from the border because of the drug shit. not worth the potential kidnapping or murder.

that shits pretty much confined to south of the border. hell, el paso is basically the same town as juarez viewed from satellite, but has a barely discernable change in murder rate since the cartels started making headlines.

you probably don't want to go to any border towns in the first place, though, since they are rather shitty.

come ride through, gas here is cheap, and we aren't collapsing just yet!