Mind Sprocket: The Back Page : How to Discover America

Note: For an article on how to discover the world, scroll to the bottom of this post.

My husband and I returned from a 9,500-mile road trip not too long ago. We didn’t quite “drop everything and go” but we sure did leave it all behind for the four weeks we were gone. Jobs, friends, and obligations were put on hold while we went in a gigantic loop around the U.S. — from Maryland to Ohio and across the northern states; to Olympic National Forest in northwest Washington; down the west coast and across the south to Georgia; and then straight up back home.

It would take more than just a blog post to describe everything we saw and how it all felt, and to tell the stories of the random crazy things that happened to us, but here is what I can tell you now. Before we left, we told people about our plans and received nothing but encouragement and comments from people who had either done a similar trip in the past — or wished they could do one now. I will strongly encourage you, too: Do it. You will see and experience things that you would likely never see or experience in your hometown or in the places you frequent in your day-to-day life. The United States is huge, let alone the world, and we are blessed in this day and age to have means of travel that people once didn’t even dream of.

If you’re very attached to and enjoy your career, you may find it difficult to leave. But if you’ve got a job that isn’t your career, let alone your life, a car, a tent, and a little money saved is all you need to get started. There will never be a convenient time to take weeks out of your life and do nothing but travel, and you will never have as much money as you “need” to go — so you have to make it happen and work with what you have. In our case, we worked with a small amount of money, a ‘97 Saturn, and borrowed camping equipment.

Here are a few things we did to save money while on the road:

1. Camping is usually cheaper than getting the seediest of motel rooms. If you’re not used to camping, you’ll get used to it quick — after a few times, you’ll be able to set up a tent to quickly that it won’t seem like a chore.

2. Bring along store-bought groceries instead of eating out, and have a small propane-powered stove to cook on. Especially if you travel in the summer, there may be burn bans in effect and you won’t be able to build a fire.

3. Bring along gallons of water to use for drinking, washing dishes, and cleaning.

4. Being clean is a priority for some people (me! me!), but not all campsite have facilities. You can either sponge bath if you’ve got the privacy for it, go out of your way to find campsites that have facilities, or find a truck/travel stop, where you can purchase a shower for about $10.

5. Keep track of your mileage and get oil changes every 3,000 miles while on the road. If you have a regularly maintained vehicle, chances are that it will do fine on a long trip as long as you continue to maintain it.

6. Pick and choose your battles. After paying $25 fees at a few large national parks, we decided to not go to all of the ones on our list because the cost was adding up. Instead, we spent a few extra days visiting with friends and taking drives through states that we weren’t even planning on seeing. Instead of getting a hotel room, treat yourself to a nice meal out instead.

Now, if you want to discover the world while on a budget, see Nora Dunn’s article “Travel full time for less than $14,000 per year” . If this doesn’t inspire you to become the traveler you’ve always dreamed of being, I don’t know what will!

For some pictures from my trip, visit my other blog.