>>2854642
Cool map.

>>2854642
I wouldn't go on a free all expense paid trip across your shit hole country.

Do you want any recommendations for Appalachia? It's the "secret cool kids club" of America. In that, you aren't particularly seen as cool for going there, esp. the parts that are not the Smokies or Adirondacks/New England, so there's a lot mysterious places and you will never find them all in your whole life.

>>2854642
I've done it four times already. Hell, I'm only seven states shy of the full set.

>>2854642
Already done it multiple times
>>2854644
seethe

>>2854644
angry because we are probably going to take over your country very soon

>>2854642
you want to see some old road trip pictures?

>>2854719
I found this Flickr account one time with a lot of old timey pictures taken of hiking in the highlands of West Virginia in the 1970s and 1980s, really wonderful stuff, wish I had saved the username

I feel like 50 years ago might have been a golden era where people were slightly less fussy about private property and just roaming around looking for cool stuff.

>>2854720
it was more of an adventure back in the day for sure. all the places that used to be nice have been gentrified and are now full of california people

You shouldn't drive across. Most of the middle of the country is boring. You waste days driving through nothing. The ideal trip is a west coast route from South-North in June. Do the National Parks out west. Yosemite, Zion, Bryce, Canyonlands, Arches, Tetons, Yellowstone.

>>2854945
then you would miss corn palace and wall drug store.

>>2854945
At most you'd spend two days driving from the mountain west before you reach Chicago. I'm sure someone who's never seen the great plains could at least appreciate the large empty space they're driving through since its beautiful in its own way. And you can even do roadside attractions like the Minuteman Museum or Little Big Horn. Deadwood is also a good stopover point in the middle of the country on I 90 too.

>>2854945
>you waste days
You can drive through the entire midwest in a single day, and even then if you have half a braincell driving through the midwest isn't bad if you know to stay off the boring interstate.

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>>2854956
>then you would miss corn palace
HOLY FUCK this actually exists haha

>>2854642
Yes I want to come. Are u in the Northeast?

>>2855434
>drive through in a single day
>stay off the interstate
Pick one
Took me four days to drive across Kansas last time
I found Kansas in late spring to be very beautiful and peaceful. The cleanliness of everything is unbelievable, as is the care that everyone takes in beautifying their surroundings. The only downside is how little room you have to roam. There's not much to do besides driving and walking the old deserted Main Streets of a thousand little towns along your route. I remember initially setting out on my first American roadtrip thinking I could stop at anybody's house and strike up a conversation with them. Wrong-o. The few times I did that, people responded very suspiciously. Midwest Americans are mega homebodies. They have big comfy homes, and they spend virtually all of their free time in and around their homes. When they go out, it's either for church, work or shopping. Not for leisure activity. If you want to meet people, go to church.

>>2855462
>Americans are mega homebodies. They have big comfy homes, and they spend virtually all of their free time in and around their homes. When they go out, it's either for church, work or shopping. Not for leisure activity. If you want to meet people, go to church
Growing up and living around these types was a nightmare. It's so isolating.

>>2855523
why? it sounds comfy af

>>2854642
it's just walmarts mcdonalds gas stations suburbs from coast to coast

>>2855565
>not a member of that church
>it's full of scummy people anyway
>family is abusive and crazy
>neighborhood is suburbs so can't go anywhere unless you have a car and drive half an hour into town or use the shit busses
>hanging out means someone's house or a convenience store
>meeting people is really hard unless you're in school together
>high school finishes
>meeting people also finishes
Then it's more shit but about my personal life and problems not everyone else has to deal with.
That isolation can fuck your life up good for a while.
>it sounds comfy
No it's a nightmare. Isolation is death.

>>2855579
>why yes I did learn from the USA from hollywood movies!

The GOAT was during covid, no chinks clogging shit up, parks were "closed" but no one would tell you to go home, highways were easy as shit to navigate with rarely any backups, small diners that didn't give a shit about the wu flu still kept open

>>2855434
But why drive across to see nothing for 1400 miles? If you started in Las Vegas, you could drive up through Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana and Washington and there's something epic to see every 20 miles.

I've driven across the US on 5 different routes. They all suck. Everything between the Rocky Mountains and the Chicago is a complete waste of time. You'll waste $1000 in gas food and motels to see nothing.

>>2854642
considering all the unexplained disappearance cases in the US wilderness,I wouldn't risk it
let alone all the crackheads that infest the country more and more each passing day

>>2854642
I drove from Los Angeles to Tampa in 3 days once.

>>2855579
Isolation is comfy if you have northern European, i.e. White genes. We have a genetic ability to endure, even enjoy plenty of solitude with minimal stimulation. Yes, it's good to get out and be around people, to force your brain to accomodate new experiences, but we still like to limit social time to an hour per day or less. Talking all day like an Indian leaves us feeling burned out and grumpy.

You can still meet people all over America, but they're not gonna be the titillating 9/10 Stacies of your fantasies. Chances are they will be fat, and also homely or old...those are the people who feel the loneliest and need somebody to talk to. They may even invite you out to dinner if you look poor and hungry enough.
>>2855585
Kansas has lovely state lakes that allow free camping all over the state. It's nothing spectacular, but you can definitely enjoy a leisurely trip across the Midwest, dining cheap and driving wide-open back roads with very little traffic. Bonus points for green grass, wildflowers balmy weather and a long playlist of your favorite tunes. You can achieve a state of euphoria on such a drive, only heightened by the knowledge of the wondrous mountains awaiting you up ahead.

>>2855462
>Took me four days to drive across Kansas last time
BRO
WHAT? Even on the old highways where the speed limit is 50-65 it does not take four fucking days. The fuck were you doing.

Also I think central Kansas rolling hills are pretty nice, but still if you're going to Mountain West or east coast most people will drive through it within a few hours

>>2855585
Nebraska has a way better drive than Kansas by the way but it requires not going on the interstate which is god awful. Sure it's not the rocky's but it's still nice in its own right.
>You'll waste $1000 in gas food and motels to see nothing.
that's def an exaggeration. Gas alone is dirt cheap in the midwest, even if you buy 91/93. Hotels also are no where pricey since most people just want to get to the other coast.

Also driving alone is a way better experience imo than flying. Not to mention it saves you the hassle of having to rent at the destination and deal with possible limitations, renting costs, mileage costs, gas on top of that, and being likely in a car that isn't comfortable like your own.

>>2855641
I flew from Colorado to the East Coast and it is clearly superior to driving. $110 and three hours in a plane, versus $300 in gas alone, 40 grueling hours of driving.
>muh car rental
Didn't need a car on either end. Origin - walk - intercity bus - train - plane - city bus - walk - destination.
>three days in Kansas
I liked Independence. Saw a black autist trying gamely to strike up a friendship with a white roastie who was gardening a streetside flowerbed. 99¢ wings and $2.50 pints at the local dive. Met some cool people at various points in the boonies...a liquor store owner, a retired sailor. Bathed in a fishpond in a Wichita city park. Dropped $10 at a town campground with a hot shower. There was virtually nothing left to the town besides a gas station, but the houses were all inhabited by people who drove 50+ miles on a daily basis for work or errands. America is so incredibly sprawling. Only in the arid high plains and Far West do people cluster in a relatively small portion of the land area.

>>2855621
You are far more likely to run into a crackhead, or any degenerate for that matter, in a city than the wilderness. Once you're in the backcountry you're basically in one of the safest areas within the US. Most crimes that do happen in "the woods" happen at the campgrounds or within a mile or two of the trail heads. Very few people venture into the backcountry, and of those few extremely few are actual criminals with intent to do shit.

>>2855643
Lol which park in Wichita? I live there

>>2855434
>You can drive through the entire midwest in a single day,
wut? Yeah maybe if you're speeding and doing nothing else only eating on the go, and then at that point why not just fly?

t. drove DC to LA

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>>2855641
I would reiterate that driving across Kansas or Nebraska is a waste of time no matter how long it takes or how much it costs. It's time and money wasted when you could be driving through epic scenery out west.

>>2856435
>I would reiterate that driving across Kansas or Nebraska is a waste of time no matter how long it takes or how much it costs
Why? There's a reason people live there (i.e. it's nice)

>>2856435
is this an actual viewpoint or is it from a drone or something?

>>2856461
It's nice if you own property and are content to spend your whole life centered around your property. For a traveler, it is very unstimulating.

Yeah it's a good experience to come from Third World ugliness and take a relaxing road trip in your home country, breathing the clean air and seeing all the beautiful properties along endless miles of backroads, but that's all you're doing. Driving and looking at houses, hardly a human in sight unless they are doing some property maintenance. At least in Euro countries you can take trains, roam around on footpaths, visit cafes, see unique old buildings, walk through ancient villages. Much more variety than merely watching the scenery pass from behind a steering wheel, burning $10 of gas every hour you drive.

>>2857370
Contrary to what anon is implying, there is no Yosemite Valley Rim road.

>>2856461
>There's a reason people live there
They live there because there's abundant farmland. The only people who try to say it's interesting or worth visiting are people who were born and raised there and haven't really been anywhere else. The rest of us who've had to visit there know that it's one of the most boring regions on earth.

>>2854642
I've traveled and lived around a lot of the western third of the US and I love it. If you're a European, you have to temper your expectations. It isn't a big open air museum, nor is it a place like Asian where you'll experience alien culture. The western United States is all about enjoying the vastness of nature, and chasing it with a cheeseburger at a local brewery. The people are kind and helpful but not overly friendly and cloying. Avoid the Great Basin unless you're curious because it's as dreary as it looks in a satellite image.

The Great Plains are objectively empty, but worth seeing at least once. Sometimes you'll feel like you're on Mars. Go through Texas in the winter and go to a rodeo. I've heard Dallas's is big.

In my opinion the South and North Midwest are skippable, but not irredeemable.

>>2857564
It's overly romanticized by Americans for its scenic vistas, so hotel prices in the West are often absurdly high, like $199 for a basic motel room. There are a few mountain towns served by buses whose environs can be explored on foot or by bicycle, but overall, bicycle infrastructure is very limited in the region. You'll be stuck riding on dangerous roads with no shoulders. The weather can be very extreme as well when compared to Europe's climate, or even the East Coast. The Pacific-facing ranges have beautiful biodiversity, but the arid interior has a lot of monospecies habitats. Pretty from a distance, utterly boring up close. Living in Colorado for several years I've come to enjoy the continental climate & landscapes to some degree, but it still feels awfully barren and lonely.

>>2856461
Yea that sub arctic winter and the RNG of losing your house in a random summer tornado is real fun shit anon, fucking moron. People live there to farm and be hicks, thats it.

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>>2857569
>bicycle infrastructure is very limited in the region
Dude what do you want protected bike lanes between the fields? It's 913km to Jacksonhole. Where in Europe are you from?

>>2857370
>>2857370
It's a viewpoint. Glacier Point in Yosemite. I took that photo in June this year. I've been a few times. The best drive in the entire US is the back entrance into Yosemite through Tioga Pass.

Currently in the south, arrived from Australia just as everything got so fucking cold. Chose a bad time to show up for a big road trip, so currently expediting my drive to Florida, then I'll come back through the south much slower once it's not freezing. Escaping Dallas on Saturday then dodging iced over puddles in Louisiana was not how I expected things to go.

>>2856435
Laos looks better than this shit

>>2857931
oh yeah, bad timing to show up in the south, should be thawing out by tomorrow though

>>2857931
>iced over puddles in Louisiana
watch out for the gators

>>2857952
Yea, but you won't get a hundred parasites in Yosemite like you will in Laos. And it's not a 30 hour flight and 15 hour bus ride to see it.

>>2858010
I held a baby gator, it was cute. Otherwise there seems little to no wildlife or people are moving around outside.
>>2858004
Cool, but plenty was shut today still which sucked. Couldn't even go to the range to try shooting some cool guns, even that place was closed.

>>2855634
That sounds awful. What, 12 hours driving each day?
>Day 1: LA to El Paso
>Day 2: El Paso to Houston/Beaumont
>Day 3: Houston/Beaumont to Tampa
Hard to believe long haul truck drivers do this shit weekly

>Florida gonna be freezing too next week when I get there
This sucks. I thought the South was supposed to be warm even in winter, then I get here and it's fucking frozen.
Wanted to go on a swamp tour or something tomorrow but there's not much point in that, if they're even running now.

>>2854642
It's called America not "The Yoo Ess"

>>2858185
This is very abnormal. Plain bad luck. Push through and you'll see some of the weirdest shit you'll ever see (frozen swamps). Then you'll be in Los Angeles (that's your plan, right?) which has perfect weather.

do u guys ever visit appalachia?

>>2858199
it means "the united states", guy and it's a very common phrase, you'll get up to speed some day, hang in there

>>2857575
No, I just want the lazy ass county government to pave a proper bike lane alongside the busy county highway I live off of in Colorado, which is used by dozens of bikes every day. A yard wide shoulder is not sufficient. The county collects 300% more revenue than they did a decade ago, but what the hell they do with all that money is anyone's guess. I unironically feel safer & less stressed walking the roadside in India than I do back in Colorado.
>>2857931
Winter in America sucks balls, and don't let any winter-loving indoor faggot tell you otherwise. I've slept in an unheated van over multiple winters in the Desert Southwest, and it was the most miserable experiences of my life. India is downright comfy and enjoyable by comparison to a cold north-wind sandstorm howling all night as you burrow into a pile of blankets to survive it.

I'm going in the summer and while I'm not sure if the whole trip will be a road trip or not (depends on what World Cup tickets I get, if any). I'm looking at least of doing Dallas -> Kansas -> St. louis -> Pittsburgh -> Philly -> New York
Between St. Louis and Pittsburgh is either gonna be going north (to Milwuakee, then down through Illanois and Ohio) or along Tennessee and Kentucky.
I know people ITT have said Kansas and the midwest is boring so am I better off going along Tennessee and Kentucky? In terms of nature and shit it might be good but the other states are probably at their best in the summer. Either way I have places and things to do and see.
Also is 6 hours (non-consecutive) driving a day OK or should I do less? Some days along this route would only be 4 or 5 hours in a day.
Apart from that recommendations are welcome. Depending on WC tickets I might end up driving down along the East and South coasts towards Dallas so recommendations are welcome for that too. In the next few days and weeks the ticket situation will be clearer so I'll have a better idea of my routes.

>>2858419
there's lots of nice hiking stuff to see in tennessee and kentucky but you WILL waste a lot of time driving to all the various things that are not close together so you do have to kinda plan your accommodation to be central to whatever parks you are near or just be willing to crash at a random motel

>Also is 6 hours (non-consecutive) driving a day OK
I recommend more like 2-3 and maybe 3-4 on days where you shift "zones". You will end up doing a lot of driving going between individual stops no matter what unless you just stay within a city environment and for me that's kinda boring.

I can't imagine wasting my time getting my stuff searched like a criminal just to watch other people kick a ball when you could be exploring gorges and waterfalls in Ohio, PA, KY, TN...

>>2858444
I could see myself reducing scope and making 2 or 3 sub-trips around certain areas (e.g: the south, the North-East, Apalachia) over 5-7 days each. Doesn't need to have a central hub, and desu I'd prefer staying in new places day-by-day.
Nature stuff is interesting but more of a day trip thing for me. I could envisage doing TN/KY where I take on a forest one of the days, while also doing cities or seeing touristy roadside attractions (I'm a sucker for them).
Given I'm not American and want this to be a big trip where I take in as much as I can (and maybe come back later to places I want to explore further or missed) the goal is maximalising what I can do, although I know my current plan is pushing it a bit.
While the football is something I hope to go to, it's not the end of the world if I miss out. Also I'm going to get groped by the TSA anyway lol.

>>2858460
>I'd prefer staying in new places day-by-day.
its kind of exhausting packing and moving every day unless you are staying in a van or something. I prefer doing 2-3 days each in one place, doing a couple hikes in a local area, and moving on. + rest days, which, if you are fit, you could just explore cities on those days.

I will say the cities of the south are um somewhat disappointing so I wouldn't really get your hopes up, but sometimes there's cute little museums, mansions you can tour, also I like art galleries for browsing and purchasing crafts, and there's sometimes interesting local restaurants.
>Given I'm not American
where are you from

>or seeing touristy roadside attractions
I mean, obviously there's the smokies and that's as touristy as it gets in the east outside of big cities and kuwohi is nice and the cherohala skyway is fun but there's also lots of slightly lesser state parks that have good hiking and will be crowded but are missed by people who only are willing to do national parks and the biggest, gimmickiest attractions

chattanooga has a ton of different canyons/hiking in multiple directions
its very expensive to stay in the city but there's trailers to be rented in the burbs

>>2858478
>its kind of exhausting packing and moving every day unless you are staying in a van or something.
I definitely have the energy to do it (for now) and generally I'm not taking the whole house with me on my travels so I should be grand.
>I will say the cities of the south are um somewhat disappointing so I wouldn't really get your hopes up
A lot of cities in general seem to be this way, bar the massive ones (NYC, DC etc.) and maybe the likes of Nashville. Mostly they'd be a stop more than anything and if I can get accommodation near some of them I'll take that instead. Granted staying in the cities gives me a chance to look at them anyway.
>where are you from
Ireland. The driving aspect doesn't worry me much, apart from the amount of lanes and turnoffs. At least there's no narrow roads!
>touristy attractions
When I say that I actually mean shit as tacky as "The World's Largest Toilet Paper" or other novelties, but of course I'm not going for the exclusively.

>>2858560
>At least there's no narrow roads!
hahahahhahah
if you want to see some of the nicer stuff, the more remote stuff, the roads get very narrow to the point where you wonder if the creators envisioned a chicken game where you simply HOPE there is nobody coming in the opposite direction around one steep, blind curve after another
my biggest advice is don't waste time in major cities, they are kinda bland, esp not dc
>The driving aspect doesn't worry me muc
if only you knew how aggressive the people here are you WILL be tailed unless you go 10+ over the speed limit even on the steepest, most winding roads

>When I say that I actually mean shit as tacky as "The World's Largest Toilet Paper" or other novelties
that's kind of a waste of time there's so many gorges you can park right next to and roadside waterfall parks
I mean, you have limited time here. Once you see what I mean in person, you will get it.

>>2858606
>if you want to see some of the nicer stuff, the more remote stuff, the roads get very narrow to the point where you wonder if the creators envisioned a chicken game
Well in that case at least I've driven rural Ireland and England so I'm prepared. It's the exact same. I was thinking more about the highways and interstates when I said that.
>if only you knew how aggressive the people here
Hmm I won't mind it too much but look we'll see how it is.
>kind of a waste of time
It's a taste thing. I wanna do a mix of shit including the gorges and waterfalls and all that.
Either way thanks for the advice. I find out about the tickets in a week and from there I'll determine what I do.

>>2858207
california is pretty nice in winter. haven't had santa ana winds in a few years either

>>2858630
bro the LA fires were almost exactly a year ago

is there anything fun to do between sf and portland
looking at the map, north cali looks like a flyover state, with nothing major going on
route 1 would probably get old somewhere between la and sf

>>2854642
Redditors love to shit on Gary, Indiana. Is it really that bad ?

>>2858280

What are these winter temperatures youre talking about? Can get 3 degrees Fahrenheit here in finland for weeks. Plus the sun sets at 4pm and rises at 9.

>>2858868
It's the home of Michael Jackson. I think it's worth a visit.

>>2858862
I live in Eugene, you could visit there. There's good outdoor stuff
Southern Oregon/ Northern California is mostly wilderness if you like that. Redwood forests etc. Highway 101 is beautiful

>>2858868
Go look at it on streetview