The Car - Problems to Take into Consideration

Tani and I had a huge debate over how we would actually get across the US. We talked about ideas from buying an RV to riding a bike, and from riding a motorcycle to buying a SUV. We even once talked about backpacking it by foot. As you can understand some ideas were more sane than others.

We looked into buying a car for the trip, and even found a friend who had done it over the summer. Our friend had bought a car just for the trip, and when he reached his final destination he sold it for a profit. He told us that we could do the trip within a budget of two thousand dollars (not including the car), but upon closer investigation we found out that he'd either been eating dry pasta for five weeks, or his calculations were very off.

That's when we began looking into the more expansive alternative of renting a car. The idea behind renting is that you get a nice car in good shape, and you have less worries. If you buy the car and it breaks down you're screwed, which may happen with a cheap POS. If it's rented and it broke down,  but not because of you then your alright. They may even switch it for you. Also, you don't have to worry about selling it again before you leave the states. The main downside is that it is very expensive, and you don't get your money back.

We looked into different rental companies, even calling them up and comparing. All of the fees were jumped up because we are under twenty-five. Luckily, since I do not have a license at the moment, don't ask it's a long story, the price was lower than it would have been if we had to pay for a second driver.

We sought advice from Tani's father's corporate travel agent. We would constantly badger him about what we should/shouldn't do, or how to get the best deals. He offered us a deal for a Kia Sedona for six thousand and six hundred dollars, but that was a bit too step and we couldn't exactly afford it.

One day the travel agent calls Tani down to his office. Tani not knowing exactly how this will play out, and feeling slightly guilty for badgering the poor man goes to pay him a visit. The second Tani walks in the travel agent starts offering him the deal of the century. He offered us a Ford Escape which is a mini-SUV for the same price as renting a small economic car, and for a two month lease being under twenty-five that's amazing.

We took the deal, and now we're just waiting to pick it up in Baltimore, Maryland.

Mickey Polevoy

How it All Came to Be

Tani and I are not professional travelers, and we have not traveled much. We don't have the first clue as  how to do this, but we're doing it anyway.

So it all started during our time in the military (Tani and I did not serve together) we'd sit and talk on our vacations off, and we would constantly go on about how we would go on a trip we'd tell our kids about. About how we'd do crazy things like hiking, hunting, and fishing. I even suggested we shoot a drug dealer just for shits and giggles, but Tani decided that that would have to wait til next time. We talked about buying an RV and driving around like an old married couple, and other ridiculous ideas. Finally, Tani's mother being fed up with listening to us go on about the trip for hours at a time told me that she'll pay me fifty bucks at the airport if we actually go, and that's when we bought our tickets.

Just to spite his mother and all of our friends who sadly did not believe in us Tani and I went straight to the internet and bought plane tickets to the US. My dates are from July 23, 2014 until October 21, 2014.

We began the debate of where we would go, and after much brotherly debating (calling each other atrocious names you wouldn't call your worst enemy) we decided that we'd travel from Washington D.C. to California and back. We looked up and researched parks and attractions for days if not weeks. Constantly debating whether certain sites were to far out of the way, or if we could afford it.

Money is a huge issue as we are on a very limited budget of eight thousand dollars each. I know that sounds like more than enough, but it really isn't. Just the car, gas, food, motels, and supplies costs around five thousand each, and that doesn't include attractions and sight seeing.

We found an amazing site that helped us plan our trip and it can be seen in the picture that I am attaching to here.

There is so much to say so you'll have to follow my other posts as well, I hope that I'll be able to properly document it all.
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Sincerely,
Mickey Polevoy