Dear fellow roadtrippers, it has been about 2 years since I posted here asking for advice on a roadtrip.

First I want to thank everyone who commented with advice, but specially u/candres, u/Palindromer101, u/kmwilliams75, u/traveller22, u/211logos, u/bpsnoopy, u/yort410, u/CarbonGod, u/StDandtheChinchilla, u/leehawkings and u/OchoC, your comments and tips, at some point or another helped us -a lot!-

The trip developed into a bit more than a road trip, we arrived through Miami, and spent a week on the east coast visiting family. We then flew to Chicago, we had booked a roomette in the California Zephyr, stocked up on snacks and wine and off we went to Sacramento. The trip with the Zephyr was amazing, I cannot recommend it enough!

Below I will post some general insights but first, a few pictures!

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TLDR: Had an amazing trip, people were wonderful, loved every second of it, fellow roadtrippers tips were a huge plus!

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Planning and Budget

We planned the trip on Furkot (itinerary here), thanks to u/CarbonGod for suggesting it!

I first made a plan with all the suggestions I got and then tuned it. Furkot was really incredible, I checked possible stays and places to eat.

I made an excel sheet with a budget, based on what I found on Furkot for stays and the fixed prices for tickets.

I made a budget of about 5.000 USD (not included was the car rental, the plane tickets and the zephyr ticket), for both of us. It kept quite well, this included also what we spent before the actual roadtrip. The most expensive part by far was the time in the east coast.

Daily expenses on the actual road trip added up to about 300USD/day, for a total of around 4000USD. This includes everything: stays, foods, entrance tickets, coffees, souvenirs, anything and all we spent during the 13 days. We splurged when we wanted to, ate where we wanted to, stayed (mostly) where we wanted to.

A note on the Lonely Planet California Guide, I had gotten it as a present, don't even bother. It is outdated, and led us to book the worst stay of the whole trip (Big Mountain Lodge in Tahoe - the worst!).

Car Rental

I had booked and paid for everything in advance in a deal with the plane tickets. I had contacted my travel insurance to hear about additional insurances I might need, and they said do not get anything, we cover it all. When I got to the rental place, they of course tried to push insurance and made me scared enough to get it. At this point I couldn't call my company due to the time difference and just bit the bullet. I would say that this was the biggest unexpected expense (400USD), but I managed to get a deal on a better car with GPS (which I was very happy about) and some other "free" extras.

Updated information from the insurance is: Make sure the rental contract specifies a deductible, otherwise get the lowest level of insurance and we cover the rest.

We got an automatic GMC Acadia which my boyfriend refused to drive due to it being automatic, so I was designated driver for the whole trip, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

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Hotel Bookings

Before the trip, I had a horrible anxiety about not having booked things in advance. This was really unnecessary and not worth it, we had so much freedom and flexibility and we didn't blow our budget. Plus, I was able to book last minute stays at two of my wish-list places: Yosemite Valley and the Benton Hot Springs! We never had to sleep in the car.

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Journaling

I had gotten inspired by some old family trip albums and decided to keep a journal.

I collected brochures, receipts, tickets, stickers, whatever I could get my hands on for free, and bought a few choice things. I used ziploc bags to keep all this stuff organized, marking it with day of trip and location.

I managed to journal a few times once the roadtrip started, but it was not a realistic every day activity. I did most of it at home and I am not even done, Furkot, the organized ziplocs and the geolocation of the pictures helps a lot when sitting down to write. I did manage to journal quite a bit on the train though (before the roadtrip).

I stocked up on journaling and other supplies, some from home, some I ordered through Amazon to be picked up while East.

The list of things and its usefulness:

• Blank journals - filled one and a half, and I am not done writing yet!
• Colored fine liners
• Cannon Ivy mini photo printer: this was so good, I could pick 2-3 pictures for every day and print and stick on the journal, also could give them as souvenirs to family along the way
• Glue stick and scissors - I cut and pasted brochures, maps, scraps and text into the journal
• A sturdy bag to keep all the small stuff collected along the way and ziplocs

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Supplies

• Physical version of a California Map - we used it very little as generally there was good coverage
• Ipad - we used it a little for navigation when the car's GPS didn't work, used it for music in the car, hotel bookings, reading and watching movies (we did very little of the two latter)

We stocked up at Walmarts, using some common sense and the tips provided by u/CarbonGod, u/bpsnoopy and u/Palindromer101 we had made a list and a budget of 150US, which we managed to keep. This is roughly what we got:

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• Towels -never really needed them, but now I have two super fluffy towels
• Fleece throw - used it for sitting down on the ground
• Two small pillows - never really used them, we thought maybe if we needed to stay in the car
• Disposable plates, cutlery and cups - very useful for our many picnics
• A fanny pack/shoulder bag - I had a leather bag with me, but soon realized the strap was super uncomfortable, so this was great.
• Cooler and ice - a must, it was very easy to get ice anywhere, either at motels/hotels or stores
• Paper towels, wet wipes and tp - Super useful, the one item that was least used was the TP, we found well stocked and tidy bathrooms everywhere (except Yosemite Valley)
• A crate of water and drinks - This was super nice, we never had to buy any water, just open the back and get some ice-cold drinks.
• Food for picnics: bread, sauces, pickles, salad, fresh fruit, cheese, ham - We enjoyed so much stopping anywhere we felt like for a bite, and we saved a ton of money in food. We did have at least one meal a day at a restaurant.
• Road snacks - beef jerky, unhealthy delicious American stuff you cannot get here, energy bars...
• Personal care items: soap, shampoo, conditioner - always useful!
• First aid kit - we didn't have any issues, except my altitude sickness in Mammoth.
• Ziploc bags - This was very useful for keeping things dry in the cooler, but also for organizing all the brochures, stickers and crap I collected along the way. I marked each bag with dates and places, so when I sat down to journal it was very easy to figure out things.
• Trash bags - we strove to leave every place, in the same condition or better than we found it, so this was very very important. We carried the trash in the car until we found an appropriate place for disposal.
• Wine - We stocked up on wines where we could, so we could have a glass in the evenings. American supermarkets are weird, the variety of wines is not good. The best place we found was (in terms of price and variety) the Grocery Outlet in Mammoth, the cleaning lady at the hotel suggested it. We also visited many tasting rooms in Murphys!

Things that I didn't buy but wish I did:

• Laundry soap and softener/drier sheets - We ended up washing clothes several times and had to buy the expensive miniature stuff. I don't know why we didn't think of it.
• Headlight - would have been useful while walking in the dark, specially in Yosemite.

We stocked up every few days, we didn't need more ice every day.

Meals

In average, we ate "out" at least once everyday, we never opted out of "too expensive" if that is what we wanted to eat. We relied a lot on our supplies and picnics, we enjoyed it thoroughly, there are so many beautiful random places to stop along the way: Folsom Lake, Lake Tahoe shores, the banks of Stanislaus river in Calaveras, Columbia, Yosemite, June Lake....

We soon remembered about the size of portions in the US when we couldn't finish our meals and many times we shared one portion.

Coffee

This requires a special mention. We are not such big coffee drinkers, but the morning cup is a must. It was hard to find good coffee in the hotels/motels. We kept a coffee diary too, for the most part it was awful, except at coffee shops. The little bags of coffee provided at the places we stayed to make on the coffee maker were truly horrible, not even using more quantity could we get some flavor out of it.

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Highlights

• Most memorable meal: it is a tie between breakfast at the Getaway Cafe in Tahoe (the link is sadly expired, they do have a FB page though) and Coppertop BBQ (thanks u/candres!!), special mention to the homemade Jalapeño poppers at the Crazy Horse Saloon in Nevada City - they were H O T!
• Best stays: there is also a competition here:

1. Benton Hot Springs, looking at the stars in a ghost town in the desert, while soaking in a hot tub was magic!
2. Waking up in Yosemite Valley (we scored a "Donald Duck" tent, last minute in Curry Village)
3. Murphys Historic Hotel, we loved it so much (the town and the hotel) we stayed an extra night. We met the hotel attendant, Bruce, a historian, who kindly took us on a tour of the old rooms, and told us the story of the hotel's ghost, Eleanor. We had dinner at the hotel and it was very good also, the service altogether was amazing. They were also the ONLY hotel to provide excellent coffee!!!

• Best unexpected detours: we had not planned for Murphys, and we loved it so much see above.
• Best sights: too many to count, sunset at Glacier Point was magical, Bodie was incredible (thanks u/candres, u/211logos, u/bpsnoopy and u/OchoC
• Best coffee: Peet's coffee in Yosemite by a LONG shot.
• Driving highlights (super fun!): Alabama Hills, Glacier Point after dark, Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, road to Bodie.
• Worst stay: Big Pines Mountain House in Tahoe. Fits the definition of a roach motel to a t. Dirty shits, dirty room, dingy everything. Utterly disgusting.
• Worst coffee: all of the coffee in the hotels, except Murphys.
• Worst meal: we had meals that were forgettable, but none that were bad.

Now onto planning some more, I will post for some suggestions soon!

Edit: a few spelling mistakes