American Road Trips in bad cars

[jsteinhauer]

Who has taken an epic American cross country road trip in a beater car? Even if you had a good vehicle, I'd like to hear about your trip, though.

While still in school, our last really free summers, my wife and I hit the road for over six weeks essentially homeless. This was in the summers of 1995 and 1996, and we took my 1984 Mercury Grand Marquis from St. Louis, via OK, TX (Palo Duro Canyon), NM, AZ (Grand Canyon), UT (Green River canoe trip) ID (Idaho Falls for old time's sake, backpacking in the Frank Church wilderness along the Middle Fork of the Salmon River), MT to the Bob Marshall wilderness for a backpack trip and Glacier Park for backpacking and relaxation. In the whole trip, we spent about 5 nights in hotels. For those unfamiliar, at least at the time, if you could find Federal land, as long as you were 1/4 mile from the pave road, you could camp free. State and Federal campgrounds had nominal fees.

Those were the best days. We saw some very cool things, met some very interesting people, got the bejeezus scared out of us a few times and had loads of fun. If you have specific interest in some details, just ask. I want to know about your epic road trips. Domestic US only excepting Mexican and Canadian border towns, please.