On the way home, we planned to take 6 days. We only stopped for gas, bathroom, and sleep.
Westbound, October 2021
Day 1: Phoenixville PA to Fayette OH (PA, OH)
Harrison Lake State Park
Day 2: Fayette OH to Kellogg IA (OH, IN, IL, IA)
Rock Creek State Park
Day 3: Kellogg IA to Sterling, CO (IA, NB, CO)
North Sterling State Park
Day 4: Sterling CO to Sevier, UT (CO, UT)
Fremont Indian State Park, Sam Stowe Campground
Day 6: Sevier, UT to Oceanside CA (UT, AZ, NV, CA)
For our fourth trip across the country in COVID time, we planned to take 7 days, including a stop at my 50th state, ND, with my relatives in WI and Dave Grohl’s hometown of Warren OH. Otherwise we only stopped for gas, bathroom, sleep.
Eastbound, September 2021
Day 1: Oceanside CA to Sevier UT (CA, NV, AZ, UT)
Fremont Indian State Park, Castle Rock Campground
Day 2: Sevier UT to Sinclair WY (UT, WY)
Firehole Canyon Campground
Day 3: Sinclair WY to Medora ND (WY, MT, ND) via Devils Tower
Theodore Roosevelt National Park, Cottonwood Campground
Day 4: Medora ND to Pelican Rapids MN (ND, MN)
Maplewood State Park
Day 5: Pelican Rapids MN to Oconomowoc, WI (MN, WI)
home stay
Day 6: Oconomowoc, WI to Mosquito Creek Lake OH (WI, IL, IN, OH)
Mosquito Creek Lake State Park
Day 7: Mosquito Creek Lake OH to Phoenixville PA (OH, PA)
On the way home, we planned to take 6 days. We only stopped for gas, bathroom, and sleep.
Westbound, July 2021
Day 1: Phoenixville PA to Grand Rapids OH (PA, OH)
Mary Jane Thurston State Park
Day 2: Grand Rapids OH to Kellogg IA (OH, IN, IL, IA)
Rock Creek State Park
Day 3: Kellogg IA to Ogallala NE (IA, NB)
Lake Ogallala State Park
Day 4: Ogallala NB to McKinnon WY (NB, WY)
Firehole Canyon Campground
Day 5: McKinnon, WY to Sevier, UT (WY, UT)
Fremont Indian State Park, Sam Stowe Campground
Day 6: Sevier, UT to Oceanside CA (UT, AZ, NV, CA)
For our third trip across the country in COVID time, we planned to take 6 days as we added time to visit my aunts and uncles in Wisconsin . We only stopped for gas, bathroom, sleep and that visit.
Eastbound, May 2021
Day 1: Oceanside CA to Sevier UT (CA, NV, AZ, UT)
Fremont Indian State Park, Castle Rock Campground
Day 2: Sevier UT to Sinclair WY (UT, WY)
Seminoe State Park
Day 3: Sinclair WY to Luverne MN (WY, SD, MN)
Blue Mounds State Park
Day 4: Luverne MN to Oconomowoc WI (MN, WI)
home stay
Day 5: Oconomowoc, WI to Yellow Springs OH (WI, IL, IN, OH)
John Bryan State Park
Day 6: Yellow Springs OH to Phoenixville PA (OH, PA)
For our second trip across the country in COVID time, we planned to take 6 days as we added time to visit Steve’s cousin near Dallas. We only stopped for gas, bathroom, sleep and that visit.
Eastbound, October 2020
Day 1: Oceanside CA to Willcox AZ (CA, AZ)
Willcox KOA
Day 2: Willcox AZ to Lake Colorado City TX (AZ, NM, TX)
Lake Colorado City State Park
Day 3: Lake Colorado City TX to Hickory Creek TX (TX)
Hickory Creek Campground
Day 4: Hickory Creek TX to Memphis TN (TX, OK, AR, TN)
T.O. Fuller State Park
Day 5: Memphis, TN to Dublin VA (TN, MS, VA)
Claytor Lake State Park
Day 6: Dublin VA to Phoenixville PA (VA, MD, DE, PA)
For the drive home, we took 4 days as well, but that last day was over 14 hours, and it was rough! We only stopped for gas, bathroom and sleep.
Westbound, August 2020
Day 1: Phoenixville PA to Chesterton IN (PA, OH, IN)
We decided to take a different route, to hit up some different scenery. The first night we were not able to make a reservation, but stayed at a private campground near Indiana Dunes, arriving after sunset, and took a lovely beach walk in the morning.
Day 2: Chesterton IN to Ashland NE (IN, IL, IA, NE)
We made it to Eugene T Mahoney State Park just past Lincoln at sunset for night 2. It’s a huge park just off the freeway, with mostly RVs, and quite a few “Gladys Kravitz” lookie loos.
Day 3: Ashland NE to McKinnon WY (NE, WY)
For the third night we did not have a reservation and decided it was best to stop before the sun went down. We arrived at Firehole Canyon Campground within the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area in Ashley National Forest just before sunset and it was absolutely stunning. Sunrise was even better - it’s a spot we want to return to!
Day 4: McKinnon WY to Oceanside CA (WY, UT, NV, AZ, CA)
Our last day of driving was long, over 14 hours!
For our first trip across the country, we planned on 4 days of driving, and it was long but worked out well. We only stopped for gas, bathroom and sleep.
Eastbound, August 2020
Day 1: Oceanside CA to Grand Junction CO (CA, AZ, NV, UT, CO)
We trekked from Oceanside CA to the Saddlehorn Campground at Colorado National Monument in Grand Junction CO the first day! Quite a long haul, about 12.5 hours. We were in 5 states - California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah and Colorado! Top temp we noticed was 116, After we got out of the coastal region it never dipped below 100.
We arrived past 10pm, so setting up the Tepui tent for the first time, in the dark, was a bit of a challenge. We had forgotten key info about how to configure the ladder, but eventually got it all set. It was breezy and comfortable that night, and the next morning we were able to take in the stunning views from inside the tent! We chose Colorado National Monument because I remembered it fondly from the cross country trip I took with my Mom in the early 90’s when I moved to California.
Day 2: Grand Junction CO to Sylvan Grove KS (CO, KS)
We also arrived after 10 at our second night’s stop, Wilson State Park in central Kansas. We tried to stop at a KOA just after sunset, but they considered us an RV so would not let us take an open tent spot as the RV spots were full! Lesson learned, future trips we opted for reservations instead of assuming we would be able to pop in when we decided to stop driving. There are no spots - you just grab empty space in a field, so it was a bit difficult in the dark. People were still up and partying around campfires and did not wear masks at all, which caused us to be very careful at the restrooms.
Day 3: Sylvan Grove KS to Marshall IL (KS, MO, IL)
Night 3 we were able to find an open gorgeous woodsy spot at Lincoln Trail State Park. We had an entire section, including the bathroom, to ourselves as it was Sunday and had rained that day which cleared everyone out.
Day 4: Marshall Il to Phoenixville PA (IL, IN, OH, WV, PA)
The next day we drove all the way to Mom’s!
We were able to borrow a Tepui rooftop tent which is amazing!! Pop up or break down takes less than 10 minutes, compared with a normal tent which would take much longer even after you find a flat rock-free spot! It really contributed to making the trip smooth, especially since we often pulled into campgrounds after dark.
We got a bunch of “toys”, and repurposed some things to make the trip easier and self contained. Absolutely essential was a recharger that could take USB or normal plugs which gets juice from a cigarette lighter! Some favorites: thermoelectric cooler that plugs into a cigarette lighter; solar lighting that also has a USB charging port; Litter Genie, normally used for kitty litter but great to use to avoid stinky trash; a “kit” stored in a zipper clutch purse with utensils, paring knife, corkscrew, bottle stopper, small measuring cup (primarily for muesli mix!); rechargeable lighter, citronella candles, Off to keep the biters at bay; bath kit of soap, shampoo/conditioner, facial scrub sheet, and bath mitt which we pop into a pocket beach towel; rechargeable flashlight with USB charging port; rechargeable fan with bendable legs; kitchen sink sponge holder which we fasten around the gearshift, to put phones in - it has “drain” holes on the bottom which can be used to arrange cords to keep them out of the way; and of course a mascot to put in photos - we found cat sunglasses (there is such a thing!!) to keep it fun!
Since COVID is a threat, we decided we only wanted to stop for gas, bathroom breaks and camping. We carried a ton of hand sanitizer, rubber gloves and of course masks!
That meant we would need to carry all of our food, and water for the most part. We carried a 1 gallon Brita UltraMax dispenser for rinsing water, and also another 2.5 gallon water jug with a spigot for drinking water.
The first trip, we prepared way too much food for meals: muesli mix (plus a few non-refrigerated cartons of oat milk to add the night before), tortilla rollups with hummus or cream cheese, vegetarian “sausage” rolls (huge success!), gazpacho (did not work), baked butternut squash risotto (another big hit), wild rice with butternut squash (ok), and spinach pasta (worked well). We packaged 2-servings containers of each meal making it easy to pack, serve, and clean up!
Another huge hit was cold brew coffee - Grady’s Cold Brew Kit comes with a ‘pour and store’ pouch that makes it very convenient, just add oat milk! Oh, and wine!!
For snacks, we brought homemade oatmeal cookies, peanut butter pretzels, goldfish, mixed nuts/dried fruit, hummus with carrot/celery sticks (did not work well), individual yogurts and power bars, plus grapes, apples and clementines. Again, we went a bit overboard because we weren’t sure what to expect. In the end, the best choices were grapes, peanut butter pretzels, goldfish and oatmeal cookies.
In the end we decided to keep most of the food in the back, and portioned out snacks for the day, to avoid dealing with too much unnecessary space taken up in prime spots, and also to keep an eye on how much we were consuming. Collapsible bowls with lids are really convenient, while keeping space requirements to a minimum!
And insulated cups with straws were important to keep us hydrated, along with a small refillable container in the cooler to give us access to cold water!
It took a few iterations to position things that we needed on top and avoid having to repack or unearth too many items, but here are the results!
To see lists and research we compiled for the trip, head over to sustainablebliss.com.
