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<h2>How it All Began: </h2> "Good morning! It is 7:30 already. Let us keep everything in one place so that we can just load the car and get our asses out as soon as we can" I pointed out to my friend and his wife. It was Sat, the 11th of August and the first day of our 8 day cross-country road trip. I wanted to do this for a long time and have planned it twice unsuccessfully the last two summers. It is not fun driving alone and getting a group together is not easy especially when all your buddies are working full time. Not used to giving up so easily, I made a few phone calls again this summer. "Hey what's up! Are you game for a cross-country road trip this summer?" I asked a friend of mine, who used to live in New Jersey, over the phone. "Great! I was also planning to contact you in this regard." He said. Then he told me that he was relocating to West Coast and that he planned to drive down. That put an end to my phone calls. I was not planning to persuade others any more. I knew this guy was going for sure irrespective of others and this was my best opportunity to tag along. That's how it all started. My friend, his wife and I decided on a one week drive to Portland, OR. They would settle down there and I was going to fly back to New York. So, based on my experience, here is how you can do a cross-country road trip in 8 days. I divided the content into sections to add clarity to the description. You can find at least one picture per section for visual effects. Please checkout my  <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/8036260@N02/collections/72157601660551801/" mce_href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/8036260@N02/collections/72157601660551801/" id="hud1" target="_blank" title="4000 mile drive">"4000 Mile Drive"</a> on flickr for the entire collection. Also, feel free to click on any text that looks blue. Those things belong to the species hyperlinkus webisitis that are normally dormant but spring to life on a mouse click. They also take you to a whole new world. I'm sorry but no time for any fancy stuff. This is 100% natural :-). Please keep in mind, I'm not going to tell you how to do but how we did it. Just take what you want and leave what you don't. I hope you find it informative and entertaining. Thank you for checking this out and have a pleasant time reading! Please excuse me for any typos/grammatacial mistakes. Things were done in a hurry. <h2> <a class="mceItemAnchor" title="Google_Maps_and_NPS:" id="hkqs" name="Google_Maps_and_NPS:"></a>Google Maps and NPS: </h2>Everyone with common sense knows that two points can be joined by a straight line.  NY and Portland are no different. In this case it is not exactly a straight line but you know what I mean. Dedicating 8 days for this trip didn't justify driving in a straight line though. Here came my friend's wife to our rescue with this wonderful itinerary. The two basic tools she used... <a href="http://maps.google.com/" mce_href="http://maps.google.com/" id="klc4" target="_blank" title="Google Maps">Google Maps</a> and the <a href="http://www.nps.gov/" mce_href="http://www.nps.gov/" id="yxyb" target="_blank" title="National Park Service">National Park Service</a> website. The NPS website is an encyclopedia of National parks of this country (duh!). There is no point explaining the details of the website here as you can just scroll your mouse button an inch north-eastwards and click on the link. But to provide an overview, you can find any national park in the country and obtain the pertinent information such as the location, history of the park, travel tips, tours and attractions if any, accommodation, what to know before visiting the park etc. Now this input can be fed into Google maps to obtain the final product that looks like the one below. Click on the image to view bigger version. <div id="lxvd" style="padding: 1em 0pt; text-align: center;"><a href="http://docs.google.com/File?id=ddtp32xd_9hhbw92gz" mce_href="http://docs.google.com/File?id=ddtp32xd_9hhbw92gz" target="_blank"><img src="http://docs.google.com/File?id=ddtp32xd_9hhbw92gz" style="width: 320px; height: 257px;" mce_src="http://docs.google.com/File?id=ddtp32xd_9hhbw92gz"></a></div> One might wonder why we decided to just drive through the entire North East and almost all of Midwest while stopped at like a million places in the West. Well... We have been living in North East forever and moreover there are so many people here and so little land that mother earth ain't have no room for parks like in the West. <a class="mceItemAnchor" title="Why_pick_these_places?:" id="ohz_" name="Why_pick_these_places?:"></a>Why pick these places?: <ol><li> These places fell, more or less, on our way from NY to Portland. We did not want to exactly follow a straight path but we did not want to veer off a lot from that course either </li><li> We had to keep in mind the 8 day limit we had on our trip </li><li> Tetons and Yellowstone were a must and the rest had to be picked based on this requirement </li><li> Based on the valuable information provided on NPS website and feeding that information into Google maps, we could approximately calculate the driving times between places and also the time we may have to spend at each place to get the best out of it. On a side note - this trip was more of a "cross-country road trip" and not really "explore the national parks trip"</li><li>Last but not the least, inputs from different people who have been to some of these places </li></ol> <a class="mceItemAnchor" title="Bed_and_Bath:" id="ttb8" name="Bed_and_Bath:"></a>Bed and Bath: We knew where we are going and when. Hence we had to reserve hotel rooms/cabins/campsites wherever we were planning to crash for the night. Once again it was the NPS website. Only problem we had was with Badlands. Could not find lodging information for this. So we used  <a href="http://foreverlodging.com/lodging.cfm?PropertyKey=67" mce_href="http://foreverlodging.com/lodging.cfm?PropertyKey=67" id="zdqn" target="_blank" title="Lodging at Badlands">Forever Lodging</a>. Here is what we ended up doing at each place. <ul><li> First night in Chicago - Crash at a friend's place. Lodging - FREE, Breakfast - FREE, Hospitality - PRICELESS </li><li> Second night in Badlands - Cabin with private bath- $70 per night. Up to four people </li><li> Third and fourth nights, Rockies - Campsite (holds up to two tents) - $20 per night </li><li> Fifth night - Motel room in Dubois (near Grand Teton) - $125 per night - Up to four people </li><li> Sixth night in Yellowstone - Cabin with common bath - $110 per night for three people </li><li> Seventh night - Ford Explorer. basically driving to reach Portland by Sat morning </li></ul> Did you observe that we picked a different type of accommodation at each place? Also summer usually is extremely busy and hence it is a good idea to reserve accommodation well in advance. Especially at places like Yellowstone and Grand Teton. <h2> <a class="mceItemAnchor" title="Home_on_The_Wheels:" id="yhc_" name="Home_on_The_Wheels:"></a>Home on The Wheels: </h2> Having decided on the day to leave, the places to visit and the time we had to reach our final destination, it was time to look out for a car to rent. Wait a minute, did you think we were going to drive in our own car? Not a bad idea. Since my friend was not coming back, we could have taken his car. Well don't forget that this gas guzzling beast on the wheels was going to be our virtual home for all the time we spent on the road (which turned out to be almost 100 hours). It had to be spacious to sit and stretch legs, comfortable and big enough to carry all our stuff. We had to find a car rental that would rent us an SUV with unlimited miles, navigation system, full time roadside assistance and most important - one way. Price was also a factor. The best bet for this was <a href="http://www.hertz.com/" mce_href="http://www.hertz.com/" id="lqf3" target="_blank" title="Hertz Car rental">Hertz</a>! <div id="cnpx" style="padding: 1em 0pt; text-align: center;"> <div id="dm05" style="padding: 1em 0pt; text-align: center;"> <img src="http://docs.google.com/File?id=ddtp32xd_6c5nwrrkg" mce_src="http://docs.google.com/File?id=ddtp32xd_6c5nwrrkg" style="width: 320px; height: 213.12px;"> </div> </div> We picked up a Ford Explorer with just 3000 miles on it. It had a GPS navigation system and a 6 CD MP3 player in addition to other standard things. At the end of the trip, we ended up paying just above $1000 for two drivers including bumper-to-bumper insurance coverage and coverage up to $100,000 in case some jackass decided to sue us (like in an accident or something). The bugger was giving approximately 19 miles a gallon while it was fully loaded throughout the trip. Not at all bad. I think this was a pretty good deal. Coming to gas, we might have spent around $750 at an average price of $3.25 per gallon. Can you believe that gas in "middle of nowhere" in SD was more expensive than in NJ? <h2> <a class="mceItemAnchor" title="The_Backpack:" id="g3.w" name="The_Backpack:"></a>The Backpack: </h2> Good, we got the car in place. What we rented was an SUV and there would be plenty of room with just the three of us in it. What shall we fill it with? <ol><li> Food </li><ul><li> Canned food </li><li> Microwaveable stuff </li><li> Snacks (cookies, chips, crackers) </li><li> Fresh fruits </li><li> Dry fruits </li></ul><li> Drinks </li><ul><li> Water </li><li> Gatorade </li><li> Soda </li><li> Red Bull </li></ul><li> Cooler big enough to hold at least 6 bottles at a time with ice </li><li> Paper towels </li><li> Toilet paper </li><li> Book and a pen/pencil </li><li> Cash </li><li> Camera </li><ul><li> Extra batteries </li><li> Enough memory </li></ul><li> Printouts of </li><ul><li> confirmations for lodging </li><li> important contact numbers </li><li> directions </li><li> brochures of visiting places (if downloaded from the web) </li><li> maps of parks downloaded from NPS </li></ul><li> Camping / hiking gear </li><ul><li> Tent </li><li> Sleeping bag </li><li> Self-inflatable camp mat </li><li> Flash light </li><li> Lantern </li><li> Extra batteries </li><li> First-aid kit </li><li> Swiss army knife </li><li> Bug repellent </li><li> Sunscreen </li><li> Raincoat </li><li> Hiking boots </li><li> Two-way radio </li></ul></ol><ol start="11"><li> Duffel bag </li><li> Toilet Kit </li><ul><li> Toothpaste </li><li> Toothbrush </li><li> Body wash </li><li> Face wash </li><li> Deodorant </li><li> Moisturizer </li><li> Shaving gel </li><li> Shaving razor</li><li>Whatever you want </li></ul><li> Clothes (you know what to wear) </li><li> Audio CDs </li><li> Cellphone charger (both travel charger and car charger) </li><li> Air freshener for the car </li><li> Trash bags</li><li>Sun glasses (extremely helpful while driving right into the Sun) </li></ol> <div id="fuby" style="padding: 1em 0pt; text-align: center;"> <img src="http://docs.google.com/File?id=ddtp32xd_5nts4qnrq" mce_src="http://docs.google.com/File?id=ddtp32xd_5nts4qnrq" style="width: 320px; height: 240px;"> </div> Tent - Three people Jeep tent. Bought it from <a href="http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/home/index.jsp" mce_href="http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/home/index.jsp" id="rwtl" target="_blank" title="Dick's Sporting Goods">Dick's</a>. Easily fits 3 and totally waterproof. Requires two people to assemble. It is a very nice tent. I like it. Duffel bag - I picked up a 30" duffel bag for around $30 from <a href="http://www.walmart.com/" mce_href="http://www.walmart.com/" id="zo9c" target="_blank" title="Walmart">Walmart</a>. Initially I was not sure about the quality of the bag but it turned out to be pretty good. Unfortunately I could not find a better one of this size anywhere else. It easily fit my tent, camp mat, boots and other small camping gear like first aid kit. We were not planning to barbeque and hence did not carry any grills and stuff with us but we did run into a lot of people who did. 12246

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