Being a long time traveller through the eastern sections of the US, I'm always interested in opinions of places to visit by car, so this thread gets my attention.

I have to ask if you regretted visiting any specific location, or have a list of places you would avoid on a future trip ?

 

 

When in the planning stages, I did consider quite extensively to get a set of camping gear. I made a list and went to several sporting goods stores looking at the compact tents, bags, cooking gear, and made the decision to not go that route for a couple reasons, one is cost, quality tents and bags that can withstand countless use are expensive, cooking gear (pots, pans, heating element, lantern, cutlery, plates, food, etc), fishing pole and other items needed to be comfortable outside start to add up quickly. The second reason is space. The trade offs to make would possibly be no guns/ammo, less clothing for the camping gear (to do it right), or perhaps much less car gear and tools. Just the food aspect alone poses a problem, there's not much room to store food, and the frequency of grocery shopping every single night. Several cans of food, packaged goods and fresh items quickly starts filling the tiny trunk, especially if one considers using a small cooler with ice so food doesn't spoil. Also, how many days of non showering dirty stinkiness do you want to add into and outside the car?

However I do think a trip like this is absolutely possible. But I didn't plan that far ahead, I would wake up in the morning and decide where to go next, or maybe stay another day or two. Searching and looking for a place to bivouac on the fly would be difficult, considering I drove until sunset, exhausted, in the S for 8+ hours a day.

Regarding regret, I can't think of any place to be honest, and thought about this all day. However, one regret is not going to Little Big Horn. The weather was bad when heading out of the Black Hills in South Dakota into Montana. It was September and I was trying to circumnavigate Montana before venturing into Yellowstone before the snows hit. There's a saying at Yellowstone that there are only two seasons there, September and Winter. Another does come to mind, and that is not hiking Zion National Park in Utah, or as I call, Zion National Parking Lot. That place is packed and crowded. Instead of hiking with the masses I drove Zion three times starting at sunrise at the entrance, driving the length, turning around and then back to the entrance then back one more time.

 

This is awesome. Looking forward to reading more.

 

Fantastic write up mate, sounds like it was an incredible journey! Lots of great advice and info too! Definitely gonna use that fabric softener tip in the future.

What air pump did you use? And did you ever need to jump start the car?

 

I have a cheap Slime 300psi air pump I purchased for like $12, 14 years ago for the track and it's held up quite well since. The plastic and rubber mounts inside have ground down to dust from the constant vibration so I keep the cover unscrewed and then lightly sandwich the motor in place while using it. It's kept in a bubble wrap pouch, in a form fitting box with all kinds of other gear in the trunk (gloves, zip ties, hand wipes, leatherman, utility knife, caps, clips, that fit all around the pump in the box). I didn't have to jump start the car until 1 month after my trip ended, battery died at work. I have AAA road side assistance so they came and supplied a new battery on the spot. In the future I would probably add a trickle charge/jump type system to the gear list.

 

This is awesome Thomas!

What a great read! Very inspiring.

 

Awesome read!
The question that kept staying in my mind throughout was the topic of the Guns and Ammo you've been driving around with in your trunk.
Was the 18 States you've traveled through mostly out West/MidWest? I'd love to do this as well, but fear the North East States in regards to Reciprocity would be a stressful nightmare...

 

This was a little bit of a pain as you have to plan for the following entities laws: State, Federal land, State land, City and Tribal land. Most of the states travelled were out west, and I only had to worry about a couple of them when driving through. I don't have a CCW as it's impossible to get one in Los Angeles, so it required research on each states laws and periodic checking with the new year and any new laws that came with it. I completely avoided Illinois however, in Michigan the pistol had to be on a cable lock like California and in the trunk. Aside from those three states which are some of the most restrictive west of Michigan, I had a few options depending on the land I was in, for the pistol either up front with me holstered in the passenger side mesh netting, on the seat covered by something, or easily accessible in the trunk. When driving through tribal lands, keep it in the trunk if you're stopping somewhere and on Federal Lands it's open carry in the car. For the AR I just kept it on a cable lock, and the ammo can also had a lock on it.

Here's an example while in Yellowstone, with the pistol holstered up front. The bag on the floor with the jacket on top is the one used for the easy check into / out of hotels for 1-2 night stays, on the seat are a few maps of the area. It looks a lot messier then it really was as you can grab everything and go with both hands leaving the inside of the car clean (and less likely to get burgled).

 

the adventure would’ve made for a great YouTube channel as well but that comes with editing and posting etc so might have detracted from the experience