Getting ready for the summer road trip with my parents
For the love of god will it please stop raining? I don’t mind the rain so much as long as it gets broken up by some decent weather, but the last month or so it’s been crazy. The thing which drives me nuts is continually listening to the sump working to within inches of its life just trying to keep our basement from being a new swimming destination.
But, now I sit here plugging away and planning this summer’s travel plans. The benefit of working digitally is that a start date and end date for a vacation are written in chalk.
When we go and we come home, we never really know. The thing we need to kind of figure out is the destination so we can start looking for cool roadside attractions along the way.
Last year’s road trip down south into Iowa, Missouri, Tennessee, and Mississippi.
Last year’s trip along the Mississippi River Road was outstanding. At about Memphis we cut across to Tupelo to check out Elvis’ boyhood home. Then, loaded the van back up and zigzagged down the Natchez Trace Parkway road into Natchez.
The best part of traveling is finding those hidden little gems of coolness. Those little things you pass on the road and just have to go back and check out. Like seeing a flying saucer parked in a field. Maybe they were just having lunch.
Or, driving past a restored gas station from sometime back in the ’40s or ’50s.
Maybe it was going on a quest to find an abandoned ghost town back up in the woods in Mississippi.
We also hit the crossroads where Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil for the gift of playing the delta blues. It was a last-minute thing. You know, one of those, ‘turn here’, the tires squealed a bit and we were off to our next roadside find.
These little off-the-beaten touristy path adventures along with the planned sites make the road trip the best way to travel.
Like Gump says, “You never know what you are going to get.”
I’ve been working hard putting a lot of the cool pictures and stories from that trip on my Instagram account. Pop on over there to hear all about it. Don’t worry, I try to make the stories interesting.
It’s not your typical ‘arms in the air look at me’ Instagram channel. I’m trying to make it fun and also include some good travel destination advice.
Here is the link to the channel. https://www.instagram.com/liferebootproject/
This years road trip to Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York.
This year is shaping up to be something pretty cool. Our first destinations look like we are headed to Cleaveland for the Rock and Roll hall of fame, and to see Ralphy’s house.
If you are not familiar with Raphy’s house you probably haven’t seen the Christmas classic, A Christmas Story. We are talking leg lamp and all, boys and girls.
If you haven’t seen it, it’s a classic.
I just want a selfie with the leg lamp.
Also in Ohio is the prison where the Shaw Shank Redemption was filmed. I love that movie. The place is rumored to be haunted. Who knows what we might see.
Then we are headed to New York. Not the city, but north of there into the rural countryside where my parents tell me are the old mansions of the Rockefellers and Vanderbilts. I’m not really sure, still doing research into those.
Now, on to some travel tips.
Finding Cheap Accommodations in the US.
For accommodations, the US isn’t one of the cheapest places to tour in the world, but there are some ways to make it at least a little easier on the pocketbook.
The first thing is to figure out how comfortable you want to be.
Do you really need four-star accommodations or would you rather have something on the cheap? I’m talking something clean with a bed and a shower. I don’t like roaches, so I’m going to do my best to avoid them.
When I travel with my parents, I don’t mind the cheap bed and a shower, but they like hotels with a hot tub. These will run you a little more than cheap.
I shoot for under $100 a night. $50 a night is good for me, but the $50 probably won’t do for them. They did the camping thing and the roughing it thing. I guess now they want more of the comfort thing.
We stayed at a place last year near St. Louis where on the outside I felt like I should be toting a gun. I got into the room and it was beautiful and clean. I paid in cash and it cost me $50. My parents paid by credit card and it was closer to $75.
Cash is your friend when you want a deal.
There is another little nugget of wisdom in there. Don’t be afraid of carrying a little cash with you on vacation.
Cash has amazing bargaining power.
Cash doesn’t always work for your bigger chain hotels or events, but if you ever find yourself at a place where you suspect the owner is the one you are talking to, don’t be afraid to bargain with cash. It can get you some pretty decent deals if you let it.
I’ve even seen this actually advertised more now than ever before. Some businesses now give discounts for paying in cash. It only makes sense. Credit card companies charge fees to process credit cards. If you can save that business a little money by bargaining in cash, they might very well give you a good deal on the price.
Booking a little ahead using travel websites.
We did this last year and it worked out pretty well. Even if you don’t have a concrete plan when you set out, you can find deals the day of just by using one of these cheap travel sites. I like Momondo.
That is how I found that place in St. Louis.
About 2 o’clock in the afternoon, we had figured out that St. Louis was going to be our resting place for the night. As long as we stayed out of East St. Louis, we thought we would have a pretty good chance of leaving in the morning.
I got on Momondo and found very little at a decent rate in a good part of town. I finally found one in Granite City which is just a little east of St. Louis. It actually felt like a suburb it was so close.
$50 cash and we were off for more adventures in the morning. I would give it a couple of hours leeway before you expect to arrive and settle into the room.
Internet speeds and any processing that needs to be done may put a snag in the reservation if you cut it too close. Since we don’t have any firmed-up plans this year, I’m sure I will be using Momondo more than before.
I’ve also started looking into hotel rewards points and Airbnb. I’ll report back my findings in the next article.
A lot of people are using them, but I’ll let you know.
Till next time, be safe,
Kevin