For all those who wondered, no, we are not all the time on excursions or exploring new cities. We spend a lot of time in the car and in motels and now, after more than a month on the road, got into a travel routine.
We are both big eaters and sleepers. For our travels this means that we normally sleep our eight hours, eat cereals or go to a breakfast place. Usually we determine our daily itinerary and destination the evening before by interesting sites, distance and low priced motels. The approximate route is already mapped out but we have the luxury to stay flexible. Whenever we hear and see something cool or interesting we add it to our route, like the national roping finals in Reno – yihaaa. The ideas we mostly get out of our LonelyPlanet, visitor centers and recommendations.
So, after breakfast we hit the road and drive until we either reach our first destination and/or are hungry. Lunch depends on the weather and local facilities, pick-nick, a dinner or a local specialty. Since we are often off-track our lunches are mostly burgers. To make our journey more convenient we have our own jukebox. Michi has Spotify, a music streamer, so we can download all the times new music. Soon we will also refresh our Spanish and listen to some Spanish classes, hopefully…
We are still working on perfecting our car-hiking skills. The parks and sights are normally so big and you can get really close with the car that car-hiking is a great possibility to explore the scenery. To make up for all the car-hiking instead of real hiking we try to exercise. While Michi is more old school and does push and sit ups I need some extra motivation. So I have a pink yoga mat and some several sport apps telling me what I have to do.
We target to be at our overnight destinations around 6PM. Sometimes we already have a place, either already booked or we have a walk-in coupon in mind, other times we just drive around and look for a nice, cheap place. Mostly we spend the night in standard motels, but sometimes we find little treasures, like the Inn in White Salmon. An eco hotel with paper pens and a rastafari receptionist. These cool findings make the travel even better.
In the evenings we go out for dinner, plan our trip, read, exercise and watch TV. Sometimes series we know from home but more often great scripted reality TV. Competiveness means a lot to the Americans, so most of the shows have a competitive edge or are even a war: Storage War, Cupcake War, Shipping War, Chopped, Survivor, The Voice, and so one. Another important thing are coaching and counseling and it is also reflected in the TV landscape: House Hunters, Bar Rescue, Bridezilla… In the competitive series nobody is just doing it, everybody has a cause. Every competitor has faced a lost, been bullied or suffered from something else. No matter how young they are, their whole life was a preparation for this moment and they would be heartbroken if not making it to the next round. Trash TV as its best – I just love it ;)
User Guide for Interested
Travel apps & pages:
- Booking.com and its sub-app Tonight
- Hotelcoupons.com and the according coupon booklets. The booklets seem only to be available on the West/ Southwest
- Airbnb, private stays, very nice especially in expensive cities
City apps & pages
- CityPasses, package deals for the main attractions
- GoSelect to create our own sightseeing packages, the more you take the cheaper it gets PLUS you can skip most of the lines
- TripAdviser, an oldie but goldie
Entertainment apps & tools
- Spotify, music streamer
- Busuu apps, easy to learn or refresh your language skills
- A Kindle, to safe money download/ buy mostly free books or sets
- Tägliches Yoga GRATIS; nicely explained yoga classes, level 1 is free
- Tägliches Training, free basic trainings fro the different body parts, shown by normally looking people
- Nike Training Club; positive is the music, negative is that the coaches are so shaped that you might get depressed and go shopping or eating instead of exercising
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