Cross Country in a Mini

[BritInAnS]

As an introduction I am a 68-year-old Brit who has lived in MA for the last 38 years. I bought a 2006 PW/B Mini Cooper S in August and two weeks later took a test drive via Routes 91, 84, 81, 70 and 68 to West Virginia and back, covering over 1,000 miles.

Then in September I took another drive via NYC, Atlantic City, Cape May (a great place to visit) NJ, Ocean City MD, Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, Virginia Beach VA, Edenton NC (another great place to visit), Wilmington NC to Myrtle Beach SC. The return route was via Fayetteville NC, Greensboro NC, Roanoke VA, Blue Ridge Parkway VA, Skyline Drive VA, Harper's Ferry WV, Harrisburg PA, Scranton PA, and Routes 84 and 91 back to MA. Besides the above other highlights were a visit to a plantation, a wine festival, Natural Bridge off the Blue Ridge Parkway and Luray Caverns, off the Skyline Drive in VA. I declare that Route 211 from Luray Caverns across Skyline Drive must have been built for a Mini, an amazing drive. I had to take it twice. The entire trip covered 2,208 miles at an average speed of 45 mph and fuel consumption of 28.2 mpg.


Now to the point of all this. I am now planning a coast-to-coast trip in the Mini from Massachusetts to Oregon and I’m looking for route and side trip suggestions. My present plan is to go via Buffalo NY, London Ontario, Ludington – Manitowoc Ferry, through Minnesota, South Dakota, Montana, Washington and down to Oregon. Then on the return via Boise ID, Salt Lake City UT, Cheyenne WY, Omaha NB, Des Moines, IO, Chicago IL, South Bend IN, Cleveland OH, Erie PA, Buffalo NY, Syracuse NY and then MA.

So, any suggestions? I will be leaving in April/May 2007 and be gone as long as it takes. It will be about 3,000 miles each way and take a minimum of 7 days and 50 hours of daylight driving each way without side trips but I will only do this once so don’t want to miss anything worth seeing so am likely to be away about a month.

[yellowmininy]

Here are some suggestions we made to another Mini owner who went out to South Dakota earlier this year
http://www.mini2.com/forum/new-york-...-sd-bound.html

If you haven't yet registered in the MINIUSA Owners Lounge it might be worth posting a thread about your trip, since there are folks there scattered around the country, like IN, IL, MN, WY & WA.
https://ol.miniusa.com/

[BritInAnS]

Thanks yellowmininy, yes I am registered and it has now been posted. It will be interesting to see the results.

[blalor]

How about hitting Route 66? I'd started the planning for a similar cross-country trip (Ithaca, NY to Chicago; Chicago to LA via Rt. 66; up the PCH to Portland; back to Indianapolis by way of Mt. Rushmore). That was about 8,000 miles total. The leg up the PCH was about 1,200 miles. Some beautiful country out thataway. :-)

[BritInAnS]

Yes, that is a great drive, especially the PCH, but I did that a couple of years ago in a rental from San Francisco. to Seattle. I'd like to take a lot of routes as I've flown over numerous times but this time I really want to see the northern states plus the aim (excuse for) of the trip is to visit my son in Portland. Also, my brother in UK will be flying over to take the trip with me and he has a time (wife) restriction. But this is the early stages so anything could happen to the route before April. The southern route comes later.

[yellowmininy]

Glacier National Park in Montana is a beautiful spot, and not far from your general route. I went through there in May 1979. One thing to watch is that there is often still heavy snow at that time of year, so check ahead & see what roads are open. Yellowstone Park has an amazing amount of wildlife also, if you are heading that way. And od course, I still recommend CarHenge & Wall Drug.

[holdenontoit]

Re Glacier: my son lives a few hours south of that Nat'l park.There is a move to close the "road to the sun" that traverses the park because of damage done to the glaciers by cars/people etc. The road is only open a few months out of the year anyway. Traversing Montana east to west is a 15 hour drive,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Big Sky! yeehaw! Sounds like a great trip, I'm envious! Jock

[BritInAnS]

Thanks for the tips. At the moment I am considering a delay till May so that I can get to both Yellowstone and Glacier, plus I believe the car ferry across Lake Michigan doen't start running till mid-May and that's the way I want to go so that may be a controlling factor but plans are proceeding.

[yellowmininy]

Sounds like a fun trip to plan!

[holdenontoit]

Quote: Originally Posted by BritInAnS (original)

Thanks for the tips. At the moment I am considering a delay till May so that I can get to both Yellowstone and Glacier, plus I believe the car ferry across Lake Michigan doen't start running till mid-May and that's the way I want to go so that may be a controlling factor but plans are proceeding.

Both Yellowstone and Glacier are just barely open by LATE may.........Snow, snow and more snow. Same son was in yellowstone on a NOLS (national outdoor leadership school) course for a month in Dec. It snowed 11 feet in 30 days.

[BritInAnS]

Hi holdenontoit. That's a downer but also the sort of information I was looking for so either I'm into May before I leave or I do the trip in the reverse order going across east to west on the southern route and returning on the northern route. It's going to be a long winter but once again, thanks for the information. I'm becoming more and more determined to do this and now my brother has agreed to fly over from England to go with me so yesterday I picked up a Garmin GPS system, something I've never even seen operate before and I'm very impressed. This trip is the excuse I needed to justify it.