First, yes, it does seem nuts to drive that long all the way home with the price of gas.  But next year and beyond the price may be much higher.  And every two weeks between my wife and I we drive around 1,500 miles total which is probably average for most couples.    Our trip was 12 miles short of 4,000 miles when I dropped off the rental car, so in essence we were driving 2,500 more miles than we normally do.  And travelling in the U.S. is much cheaper than going overseas with the dollar so low

This may sound even more nuts.  We rented a mini-van.  I had reservations for smaller cars, but all they had left were larger cars.  That was ok, since the mini-van we drove was rated at 24 mpg.  We needed the room because we were buying wine across Washington, partly for a friend’s wedding.  We had plenty of room for everything we bought too.  The cornucopia of bugs on the mini-van by the end of the trip looked like our car had a bad case of acne.

The best thing to do with car reservations is to book it way early.  I booked mine on http://www.yahootravel.com.  I checked what the prices would be to rent the car just before I left and a mini-van would have cost anywhere between $2,500 to almost $9,000 for the two weeks.  The cost is high because they charge more for one ways.  Budget had to honor the cheapest car rental I had booked since they had to upgrade me.  I was also able to use a coupon from the Entertainment book.  In the end it cost me $972 total.  Not too shabby since it would’ve probably cost $400 more for a flight back and $1,000 for our baggage and to ship everything back.

I also toyed with the idea of buying a cheap used car in Seattle, but the last thing I wanted to deal with is a car that died on the way home.  It would’ve been fun to get because I would’ve spray painted every city name on the car as we got there.  Or maybe had the locals do it.

Best bet is to always book the cheapest car available.  There is a good chance they won’t have any economy cars in the lot.  The other year I booked a car for $12 a day in Vegas and they ended up giving me a convertible for that price since they didn’t have any of the cheaper cars in the lot.  The Budget lady we worked with said they had no compact cars or the like – all SUVs and larger – in Seattle too where you would expect them to have most all the cars in the lot.  People want the smaller cars so that they don’t spend as much on gas. 

I bought American airline gift cars at the Bedford Giant Eagle since they were doubling GetGo from 10 cents to 20 cents for every $50 spent.  I bought the airline tickets before they started charging for extra luggage.  I was able to get a good deal for tickets on Kayak.com.  I kept searching the site for a good deal.  Prices were changing constantly.  It’s best to look at least 6 months before you fly to find the best deal.  Sometimes a deal can be found just before you fly, but it’s not as likely.  Most airline search engines don’t check Southwest pricing, so check their prices also.  Kayak checks all the other airlines and also other travel sites like Priceline and Orbitz.  I was also able use a 5% discount code from the Entertainment book for American Airlines too.

Figure it would’ve cost me thousands to fly to each of the different cities we visited, the amount is relatively cheap.  We stayed in Seattle, WA, Kenniwick, WA, Spokane, WA, Kalispell, MT, Cut Bank, MT, Billings, MT, Deadwood, SD, Rapid City, SD, Fargo, ND, Minneapolis, MN, Mackinaw City, MI, and Traverse City, MI.  South Dakota was neater than I expected.  Lots of bikers with Sturgis nearby.  I tried to scale Mount Rushmore and into George Washington’s nostril, but he had a runny nose and I just couldn’t keep my grip.

We found hotel deals on Kayak.com too.  We stuck to three diamond rated hotels.  Cost more, but worth it.  Prepaying saved us.  Back in February had I booked a couple pre-pays, I would have paid around $85 for a four diamond hotel in Spokane and Minneapolis.  They are non-refundable, so I didn’t get them then.  But I did find a pre-pay before we left at a great price for Minneapolis.  I wanted to make sure our trip was 100% going to happen before I booked.  Remember to check to see if the hotel charges for parking if you stay downtown.  Can be pricey if they do.

Going during peak season made the rooms more expensive, but since I booked early I was able to get better deals.  Check a AAA travel book to see when peak season is for hotels.  Part of the reason we took the trip when we did is because the days are the longest of the year.  We were able to enjoy a full day of sunlight.  The most we drove in one day was about 9 hours.  Between stops, the latest we got to one of our stays was around 9:00 PM and it was still light out.

One tip is to call the hotel intermittently to see if they will offer a better price.  A few hotels did drop the price and some substantially. 

Free breakfasts saved time and money.  Most breakfasts were simple.  Some days I would’ve rather eaten the bugs on the minivan.  Are scrambled eggs supposed to have standing fluid in it. 

Speaking of food, a shout out for our meal at Bert and Ernies in Great Falls, MT that was recommended by a pawn shop guy.  Great turkey club sandwich and smashing ranch dipping sauce there.  I shalt dream about that meal.  Made some stops at pawn shops for animal mounts.

Free internet at all the hotels was great.  Turns out more expensive hotels are more likely to charge for internet.

Be sure to sign up for points programs at hotels.  We were upgraded to a suite with a Jacuzzi when we stayed in Spokane because they picked my name out of the people that had already set up their reservation with a points number.  My name was on display on the counter.  I was so beat I didn’t even notice it.

Driving 75 mph through Montana and other states with high speed limits didn’t help my gas mileage.  Overall I averaged 20 mpg.  Not too shabby for a huge Dodge Grand Caravan.  We could’ve picked up a band of traveling gnomes along the way since we had the room, but decided against it. 

I used http://www.gasbuddy.com to plan my gas fill-ups.  Gas prices are obviously ridiculously high, but next year and years after the price may be even higher.  The prices were highest in the Seattle area around $4.40 a gallon.  Prices got cheaper as we traveled east.  I filled up where I found prices the cheapest using gasbuddy. 

One leg almost had us walking across the heat of the Wyoming freeway looking for a gas.  We were in Billings and I filled up enough to get us to fill up in Gillette, Wyoming where gas was very cheap since they have a lot of oil operations there.  Like filling up at $3.80 a gallon is cheap.  Anyway, looking from the passenger seat it looked as if we had enough gas to get there, but at that angle there was actually less gas in the tank.  The low gas light went on.  There wasn’t a gas station for at least 30 miles.  The car we rented got about 24 miles per gallon.  We pulled off the exit and stopped at the station.  And plastered on the pump was an ‘out of gas’ sign.  I walked in and they said they had no gas and that they couldn’t even spare me a gallon. 

The next station wasn’t for another 30 miles.  We coasted down hills without hitting the gas pedal even though the speed limit was 75 miles per hour, trying to go at least 55 mph.

We called AAA just to prep up in case we ran out of gas.  One lady said that there weren’t any AAA offices in Wyoming and then we lost the connection.  Another call to AAA and the lady said there was one in the city we were going to.  I’ll take what is door 2.  The first lady needed a white glove slapping. 

I was looking at houses to see which ones I might be able to walk to from the freeway.

Maybe if night fell we could keep ourselves warm in a dead raccoon carcass.  We finally got to a gas station and after sweating it out, it turned out we had a half gallon left in our 20 gallon tank.  Whew… 

The cheapest I paid was $3.77 in Minneapolis.  I used my Speedy Rewards card at a Super America which is part of Speedway.  Plus I used my Marc’s gift card to get 10 cents off per gallon – works in other states.  Many of the states we went through used 10% ethanol.  Sometimes it made the higher grades cheaper.  In Montana I noticed their lower grades were 85 octane where most states it’s 87.

We were going downhill most of the time since we started at a higher elevation which helped gas mileage.  Funny how so many cities list their elevation on their signs.

Wall Drug in South Dakota was odd.  Lots of kitschy stuff.  Stuff to display that makes your house look cheap.  Man, do they billboard advertise that place…

We stopped at the Mall of America in Minneapolis.  No good deals there.  Three floors of the mall.  Just big.  I wouldn’t be surprised if they found someone that hasn’t been able to get out of the mall since 1998.

Also stopped at my first Ikea.  What a maze of a store.  No real good deals there also even though they had a sale.  I think people hype the store up for the variety of items they have there.  I bought some cork coasters.  That’s it.  I’d imagine kids get lost in that place all the time.  Next time I might take a nap in the bedroom section just to rest up to walk the next section of the store.

Other deals:

- I needed a new camcorder.  I found one at HH Gregg that was discontinued so it was marked about half off.  It was number one rated by Consumer Reports last year.  Plus I asked for more off since it was a display model.  One guy gave me $20 off.  Another only $15.  I went back to guy#1 for the deal.  Only $125 for a new camcorder.

- We caught $1 hot dog day at the Minneapolis Metrodome.

- We used restaurant.com for many deals at restaurants.  I bought them with a 70% off code from naughtycodes.com. 

- Hotels usually offer free newspapers.  I was able to get more coupons on Sundays!

- Look for deals on the internet.  Even request info packets from a city’s Chamber of Commerce.  Most contain coupons.

- Some great wine deals.  One restaurant in Fargo, ND charged $10 for a bottle of wine, some normally priced $23 or so.  We found some half off wine bottle deals at many restaurants also and they weren’t just happy hour deals.

- There were lots of rebates available when buying a case of wine or less.  Look for them at grocery stores.  If you go to wineries, you may be able to find a bottle cheaper at a local grocery store.  Safeway had many deals on wine that were much cheaper at the wineries.

- If you are at an antiques store or similar store, tell them you will pay a certain price in cash.  It costs more for the store if you use a credit card.  I got an antelope mount 30% cheaper because I paid in cash.

- An Army Navy store was going out of business in Whitefish, MT where everything was 75% off.  Our timing was just right since it just went to 75% off.  Got a lot of good stuff.

- Since we were traveling in other time zones, it was easy to catch Happy Hour deals.   From half off or free appetizers, and half off drinks.  We saved a lot going to them.  Billings, MT had a couple places that charged $2 for all drinks and I’m not talking boxed wine.

- Look for weekday deals at restaurants.  Slow times for businesses usually mean they offer deals when they are slow.  We were able to get a two-for-one deal at PitaPit on a Tuesday.

- Check phone books for coupons.  Hotels will usually have a phone book in the room.  

- Bring coupons for national restaurants that you get in the mail or newspaper.  We were able to use many.

- Look for magazines at hotels or attractions with coupons in them.  You can also find roomsaver.com coupons at gas stations or restaurants (walk-in deals for hotels). 

- Check the internet for deals once you find out what you are planning to do.  We did a ship brunch in Seattle that sold tickets much cheaper on-line.

- Parking is usually free at meters after 6:00 PM in most cities.

- Buy a National Parks card at your first National Park you stop at.  It cost $80, but we made up the cost of it on the trip.

We used a Garmin that a friend let us borrow.  It was maybe 60% correct.  I used mappoint.com to find the best routes.  Instead of following Garmin I went the route that mappoint used.  At one point the Garmin said it would take us and extra hour to get where we were going.  At one point we took a different route than what the Garmin showed us and all of a sudden it recalculated and shaved off 20 minutes when we continued on the route that mappoint showed us.  We also ended up at our endpoint an hour earlier than what Garmin originally told us.

Even routes that Garmin knew or listed in their attractions sometimes took us on wild goose chases.  I was ready to punt that thing a few times.  It took us off the freeway and through some streets only to get us back on the freeway to another exit.  Had we continued on the freeway we would have saved 20 minutes.  It really got annoying, so at times we would use it as a reference.  It did work at times and help plot out where we turned, so it wasn’t totally useless.  It was new, so it didn’t need updated maps downloaded to it.  It got us lost in big cities and small. 

It was a one time trip.  I wouldn’t do it again, but maybe with an RV where we could come and go when we please when we’re retired.  I’m glad we did it.  It is quite spectacular to see so much of the U.S. 

Now that I’ve seen all 50 states I will have to think of my next quest.  I have been to almost all of the baseball stadiums…hmmm which ones am I missing….

Joe

http://www.joethecouponguy.com