10 Tips for a USA Cross Country Road Trip |

Ryan Biddulph December 7, 2023 travel posts 🕑 7 minutes read

South Dakota, USA

After driving for 60 hours in total from New Jersey to the Rockies of Colorado and back I want to share tips for a USA cross country road trip.

I am pumping the brakes on sharing blogging tips for a moment.

“Travel Ryan” makes an appearance today.

Technically, we did not reach the Pacific but truthfully you damn well better be sure that these tips work whether you’re going as far west as Walla Walla, Washington or the Rockies of Colorado.

We drove from New Jersey to the following stops going from East to West:

Mansfield, Ohio
Chicago, Illinois
Racine, Wisconsin
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Deadwood, South Dakota
Broomfield, Colorado
Pine Junction, Colorado
Evergreen, Colorado

Driving from West to East we hit:

Burlington, Colorado
Kansas City, Missouri
Terre Haute, Indiana
Mansfield, Ohio
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Do you find yourself preparing for a cross country USA road trip?

Keep these tips in mind.

1: Plan the Routes and Stops Beforehand

Kelli and I planned every stop save our first stop east to west, which we booked on the fly.

We picked the routes based on Google Map’s no-tolls option.

Yes we can afford paying tools but why pay $100 for a trip to Racine from NJ when the toll-free route adds just 90 minutes and saves you $100?

Factor in our hyper fuel efficient Dodge Avenger – New Jersey to well beyond Mansfield, Ohio on a single tank – and it made sense to go toll-free in both directions.

Prime roads traveled:

I-78
I-81
I-80
I-90
I-70

We took I-70 for much of the west to east trip and I-78, I-80 and I-90 for much of the east to west trip.

Planning each stop and road for a long trip gives you:

confidence
clarity
peace of mind

versus randomly freestyling the journey.

Being spontaneous feels fun sometimes but also tends to create anxiety, a lack of direction and perhaps a tendency to overreach during a road trip.

I knew what to aim for prior to each trip. Maintaining this frame of mind made for an easy, seamless drive, every time.

Be flexible but map out each stop based on your specific desires. Perhaps spending more time at some stops resonates with you. Maybe spending less time at other stops floats your road trip boat.

Map out your trip to create a sense of flow and ease to your USA road trip.

2: Give Yourself 5-7 Days to Reach the Rockies from the East Coast

Guys; 60 hours.

We did 26 hours from NJ to Deadwood before adding 5 hours south to Broomfield. Tack on 2 more hours in Colorado and you have 33 driving hours in total heading west.

We did 27 hours from Colorado to NJ heading east.

Driving 60 hours means splitting up the time to do a proper road trip spread out over 5-7 days versus dashing through your trip wildly in Cannonball Run style.

Remember guys; this is a USA road trip to experience not a race against time.

Give yourself up to a week to either reach the Rockies or the Pacific. Break the trip up into 5-8 hour drive days to enjoy each experience from a relaxed, no pressure to push it, mindset.

Trending towards 12 hours is do-able but do you really want to spend 12 hours driving for a day? If you are on the road you cannot be in town to enjoy the sights and sounds.

Notable Stops

We enjoyed:

Wall Drug in South Dakota
walking around Lake Michigan in Chicago
taking in the desolate landscape in South Dakota, Eastern Wyoming, Western Kansas and Eastern Colorado
feasting on the postcard perfect view of the Rockies from east of Denver in Colorado
spending evenings in Burlington, Colorado, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Deadwood, South Dakota, Terre Haute, Indiana and Mansfield, Ohio
doing short house sits in Racine, Wisconsin and Kansas City, Missouri, addition to longer sits in Colorado

The Kansas City neighborhood was quite posh and tony, similar to wealthy northern New Jersey towns where big money from NYC lives for a short commute. Racine was Cheese Head Central; every other person seemed to be wearing Packers gear.

Chicago, Illinois, USA

3: Make Cruise Control Your Best Friend

Use cruise control to:

save gas
save time
nap (that is a joke)

I used cruise control for most of the trip to save money on gas, to save time by not accelerating and decelerating needlessly and to preserve my peace of mind.

Cruising at a set speed focuses your attention on driving but also lets you note interesting sights along the way.

4: Load Up on Nutritious High Calorie Snacks

Stock sunflower seeds, peanuts and granola for nutritious, high calorie, road trip-perfect snacks.

I scarfed down enough sunflower seeds for an entire MLB team during the trip back east. Feeling full, energized and focused made the drive pleasant.

Fruit also works. Apples, mandarins and bananas seem to be good ideas.

Stock a trash bag for refuse.

Toss it at the next available trash can unless you prefer the aged fruit smell in your ride.

Old banana peels smell like rump sooner than later.

5: Screen Shot Directions for Remote Areas with no Service

In desolate areas like regions of Wyoming, South Dakota, Western Kansas and Eastern Colorado, you never know when dead zones will pop up.

Being in some of the most remote regions of the USA, it makes sense to screen shot directions if and when reception craps out.

Having your route handy reduces stress and time spent on the road.

Getting lost in the middle of nowhere ain’t a picnic.

6: Travel with a Large Water Bottle (Filled, Preferably)

Even though we lightly sip water to prevent frequent rest stoppage it plain makes sense to travel with a large water bottle to stay hydrated on the road.

Colorado is desert dry; expect to down some H2O as its lofty elevations, beaming sunlight and parched nature dehydrate you quickly.

Remember guys; driving at 70 MPH to 80 MPH throughout much of the trip means basically sitting in front of a fan on a low setting. Drink water to remain hydrated, even if it is just sipping.

Do not down water by the liter unless you prefer to stop every 45 minutes for pee-pee breaks.

South Dakota, USA

7: Train Your Mind to BE with the Inevitable Disruptions

I slammed into epic thick fog in Colorado.

I had to crawl in the 30 to 40 MPH range because visibility reached only a few hundred yards out, spoiling the brilliant 80 MPH speed limit on the highway there, temporarily.

A big crash north of Chicago turned a short ride to Racine into a much longer trip.

Driving across the United States on a road trip creates disruptions. Train your mind to go with the flow to enjoy your trip from a peaceful space.

8: Top Your Auto Fluids

We got an oil change a bit before the trip and I topped off the car’s anti-freeze in Racine before driving another 13 hours to Deadwood, SD.

Top auto fluids to keep your car running smoothly.

Consider:

changing the oil
topping the anti-freeze
topping the windshield wiper fluid

9: Research Climate Shifts Before Taking the Trip

Racine was a rare for that time of year but balmy mid-70’s as we left in late October.

Deadwood was 6 degrees 2 days later.

Note; the temp in the Badlands was in the low 70’s the prior day.

The High Plains region experiences wildly dramatic weather changes ridiculously quickly. 70 degrees can drop to zero within 12-24 hours or less during the autumn months.

We noted tire chain laws on leaving the Black Hills region and entering the Rockies of Colorado. Pack those chains in your trunk to obey the law and avoid getting stuck during heavy snows on mountainous highways.

Pine Junction, Colorado, USA

Of course, I timed the trip to avoid the heavier, frequent snows in the Rockies since we drive a 2 WD sedan.

4 separate snows hit our region of Colorado before Thanksgiving. Snowfall of this frequency – and this early – is quite alien to much of the USA.

A store owner in Lusk, Wyoming told us that they usually have 2 feet of snow on the ground when we stopped by her shop on October 26th. She said kids learn how to put their Halloween costumes over snow suits.

10: Fill Your Gas Tank Before Reaching a 1/4 of a Tank

In some remote areas like Wyoming, South Dakota, Western Kansas and Eastern Colorado, gas stations – and humans – are few and far between.

Eastern Wyoming was a desolate collection of cattle ranches for 4 hours of driving at 70 MPH to 80 MPH. Kelli and I often saw no cars in either direction, all the way to the horizon many miles ahead or behind.

Gas up at a 1/2 tank or a quarter tank because you never want to be stuck on the side of the road in a remote area sans gas.