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[WillowLuman]

With summer break coming up in a couple months, I thought I might go on an adventure. But this will take a lot of planning, and I don't know yet whether it will be feasible.

Goal: to travel up the West Coast of the US (Who knows, maybe further?) and meet up with as many Bay12ers as I can on the way.

Methods: I was thinking a combination of hitchiking, buses, and trains. Most likely, I'd go down to San Diego to meet up with people there, then work my way up to Washington where I have some relatives.

But there are a lot of unanswered questions:
Who would be interested in meeting up? When and where? I have a feeling this will be the trickiest one
Logistics. With any luck, I'll work a job this quarter and thus be able to save up some money for this. But how to employ these resources? Finding places to sleep will also be an issue (and I have 0 experience with that), and there are probably safety considerations to think about.

[My Name is Immaterial]

I'll be back in San Diego over the summer, and would be interested in meeting up.
I can't help with the logistics of your travels; I will be staying with my folks and don't have a car, but I do recommend taking the train north from San Diego. It's pretty cheap.

[Eric Blank]

Probably safer to sleep in the wilderness than on a bench in the park if you're not willing to shell out extra for a room. Just find a flat area with little or no debris and bring a comfy roll-up mat.

I will not be anywhere near the coast anytime soon.

[LordBucket]

Who would be interested in meeting up?

I'd be happy to meet up again, but I'm only about 30 minutes south of you, so it wouldn't be much of an adventure.

hitchiking, buses, and trains

Travel by train can be surprisingly fun if you wander and talk to people. Trains seem to have a larger portion of travelers who aren't quite so much as interested in being somewhere as they are in enjoying the trip.

logistics

Never used it, but you might consider checking out couchsurfing. Worst case, 30 days, if you can average $80/night at cheap hotels that's only $2400. Look around and it's usually not difficult to find $40-$50/night on weekday nights, then rates go up on weekends. Reservations are almost never necessary. I've walked into hotels at 6-9pm and asked for a room for the night and never been turned down unless there was a convention going on. Often you get a lower rate doing that than booking in advance. Also, ask at the lobby for a corporate discount and they'll usually take 10% off.

Alternately, if you want something more adventurous and if funds permit, you might consider purchasing a cargo van and putting a bed in it plus a water heater heater for washing. Hunt around on ebay/craigslist, you might be able to put together something reasonably livable for a couple thousand dollars. For example, checking ebay I find suitable vans for under $4000. Then spend $500 fixing up the interior to make it livable. According to a fuel economy site from OC to San Diego to Seattle and back to OC is under $500. More than greyhound, but with the benefit of being able to stop anywhere at any time for however long you want. Go to apartments and use the coin operated laundry facilities when you want to wash clothes. And both colleges and public beaches usually have open shower facilities, so you won't always be bathing in the back of your van with a bucket.

Then when you get back, turn around and sell the van. If you can break even on the van, you only end up paying for food, gas, and whatever you spend fixing the van up to live in it. If you can eat on $20/day, after selling the van you could potentially end up spending all summer travelling the coast for under $2500.


But be forewarned: once you've done something like this it's really hard to go back to paying $1500/month for an apartment.

[~Neri]

I would be interested in meeting up~

[Yoink]

I'm not sure quite how long your Summer break goes for, but I'll be in the 'States for a while in August.
I doubt I'll be anywhere that's easy to visit (I'll most likely be staying with family in Arizona), but you never know, maybe I'll scrape together the cash to explore the continent a bit more thoroughly.

[WillowLuman]

(Ninjas!)

Note to self: work on driver's ed

Well, I think the mode of transport will depend on how many stops I need to make, and where. Ideally I don't want a form of transit that'll tie me down, since my folks up in WA would be happy to provide a plane ticket for the return. Other than that, I somewhat want to try the absolute minimalist method, though I don't think that would be very safe. Ideally it shouldn't take all summer, but again, that depends on how many stops there are.

You can also come here! 
Don't worry, you won't get shot at. Just hide behind all the walls!

Maybe one day, if I have money, I'll do a round-the-world thing.

[ggamer]

once more I am foiled by people not coming to Georgia. Me and Ice are nice people, you should come see us.

[acetech09]

I can possibly get you a room here in SF, maybe. I have flexible work and few other commitments, so chances are if you end up around here I'll have time.

[WillowLuman]

once more I am foiled by people not coming to Georgia. Me and Ice are nice people, you should come see us.

Maybe one day. But I need to go for most people per journey in this case.

I know there are clusters of people in the SF and SD areas, and I think someone goes to college in the Santa Monica area, and there's 2 near here, but aside from that I don't know where people are.

[Bauglir]

If you get lost and wind up in Iowa somehow I'd be happy to hang out for a bit while you get your bearings straight but otherwise good luck.

[Putnam]

Define "Washington" more specifically.

[WillowLuman]

Chehalis. Though If anyone's up that far, I'd be willing to go meet them.

[WillowLuman]

Currently it's looking like I could do the vast majority of this by train, though my only defined stops in CA are currently "San Diego Area" and "San Francisco" area. Each of which might require staying a bit to meet up with the people there. And there'll probably be some out-of-the-way people, too.

[Vector]

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