3000 mile cross-country road trip! Maryland to California

[MTiz]

I have lived in Maryland my entire life (23 years) and up until this year, I had never left the east coast. Back in January my best friend and old college roommate left MD to take a job in Sacramento, CA, and fell in love with the state. Back at the end of April I went to go visit him and a similar thing happened. We road tripped from Sacramento down to LA, stopping in San Francisco, Monterey, Santa Barbara, Malibu, and a bunch of other places. I understand why everyone raves about California so much even with it being so expensive to live in. It's literally gorgeous, everywhere looks like a movie scene, and the vibe is completely different from the east coast. I also convinced him to buy this while I was out there :



Anyways, we kicked around the idea of me moving out there with him, and doing a road trip in my M3. I wasn't serious at first but then I figured why the hell not? I recently finished my Masters's Degree in Information Systems in May, and I work fully remote. Nothing is really keeping me tied to MD anymore and it's time to see the world. A lot of work and $$$ was put into the M3 to make it ready for the trip. At 160k miles it needed a few things. Subframe reinforcement was the big one, all new bushings in the rear, new tires, fresh oil and filters, and a few other small things. We packed the car up and left early Saturday morning for Chicago, IL. A city I've always wanted to visit.


Hard to see but through the mountains of Pennsylvania we were mobbing with a CTS-V Wagon(!!!), a GTI Mk7, and a WRX. This was super fun and completely a coincidence that we were all on the road at the same time.


Most of the midwest was extremely boring to drive through after leaving the Pennsylvania twisties. Ohio in particular dragged forever. Everything changed once we got to Chicago though.






This city is actually so gorgeous it's not even funny. I've been to NYC dozens of times and Chicago is by far the prettier city. I took so many pictures that I can't even put all of them here. Some of the highlights were a Huracan, SF90, and a tuned M6 Gran Coupe that was extremely loud. That's a car I plan on owning one day. The food was great too-- Wish we could have stayed longer. Also, 424 miles a tank!!!

Sunday morning we bid Chicago farewell and headed towards the next destination-- Denver Colorado

[MTiz]

So the drive to Denver was extremely boring for the most part. So many straight, flat highways that it felt like I was staring at cornfields for hours on end. I probably was. At one point I did get to chase a Widebody Scat Pack Charger through all of Nebraska. Dude had Virginia tags funny enough. We were doing 110+ mph for hours and never saw a single cop. Actually, I think we may have seen 3 or 4 cops the entire way from Illinois to Colorado and everyone was doing 90+ on the highways.



Denver is also another beautiful city and I'm definitely glad we stopped here. At this point, we were dead tired though, and got In-N-Out and then went to sleep. But I did go downtown to take some pics to capture the memories. Will definitely visit Denver as well in the culture.


Forums kill the quality but I broke out my Canon to take this picture. Union Station was gorgeous.

We are currently 18 hours from Sacramento and getting ready to head out. We're gonna push through to get the trip done as we both have work. But I'm looking forward to driving through the rockies and seeing the Nevada desert, as well as finally getting to California. Will update one last time when we get settled.

[gheorghe]

So the drive to Denver was extremely boring for the most part. So many straight, flat highways that it felt like I was staring at cornfields for hours on end. I probably was.

They don't call them fly over states for nothing. I did that drive from Michigan to Vail and completely agree, Western Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Eastern Colorado we straight and empty lol.

Keep the pictures coming

[Nate047]

Hell yea dude. Honestly I know you already have your route planned, but you should rethink your schedule and do everything possible to go though Moab/Arches, and then go down to Monument Valley, and finally Sedona and the Grand Canyon, that whole part of the country will explode your fucking brain if you've never seen it. From there you can drive straight out to LA.

[heinzboehmer]

Hell yea dude. Honestly I know you already have your route planned, but you should rethink your schedule and do everything possible to go though Moab/Arches, and then go down to Monument Valley, and finally Sedona and the Grand Canyon, that whole part of the country will explode your fucking brain if you've never seen it. From there you can drive straight out to LA.

Yeah that drive is awesome, did it when I moved out from CO to CA. The grand canyon in particular was incredible. Thought it was just an overhyped tourist thing, but I was very very wrong.


OP, if you liked Denver and want to go back, I would suggest to also go visit the towns surrounding Denver. As much as I like Denver, it's in a bit of a weird intermediate spot, IMO. Not big city enough to have all the cool city things (walkable, things to do everywhere, etc.), but also big city enough that you lose a lot of the nature stuff that other places in CO have. Towns like Boulder, Estes Park, Nederland, Winter Park, Breckenridge, Vail, Aspen, etc. are way more nature-y and extremely pretty. Pretty much all of them are an hour or two drive from Denver, so you can just visit them for a day. Good luck on the rest of the trip!

[Nate047]

Yeah that drive is awesome, did it when I moved out from CO to CA. The grand canyon in particular was incredible. Thought it was just an overhyped tourist thing, but I was very very wrong.


OP, if you liked Denver and want to go back, I would suggest to also go visit the towns surrounding Denver. As much as I like Denver, it's in a bit of a weird intermediate spot, IMO. Not big city enough to have all the cool city things (walkable, things to do everywhere, etc.), but also big city enough that you lose a lot of the nature stuff that other places in CO have. Towns like Boulder, Estes Park, Nederland, Winter Park, Breckenridge, Vail, Aspen, etc. are way more nature-y and extremely pretty. Pretty much all of them are an hour or two drive from Denver, so you can just visit them for a day. Good luck on the rest of the trip!

My wife and I recently did that drive, she bought a 986 in Denver and we took a few days to drive it back. I've seen a lot of the American southwest over the years as a photographer, and it literally never gets old. But seeing it for the first time, can't even describe that.

[mtpktz]

Looks like a great road trip OP - glad to hear the car hasn't given you any trouble.

Continuing with the Denver theme - a few of us get out and enjoy the beautiful roads and scenery Colorado has to offer a few times during the Summer and Fall so if there's anyone ever interested in a drive, feel free to PM me.

It sounds like OP has his route set to Sacramento and is currently on the road, but Moab is just a quick detour south from I70.

[02_lsb]

Bro you’re nuts. That supersprint is migraine central.

[K-Dawg]

Nice. Too bad you didn't have more time to see some things along the way. I just got back yesterday from a ~2300 mile road trip in my M3.

That's pretty good fuel mileage. I think the best I've done is 25.1 mpg.

[nahvkolaj]

Welcome to CA! Refreshing to see talk about this state that isn’t negative. There are a lot of positives to living here. Cool post and I’m looking forward to your next update

[Obioban]

Looks like a fun trip!

[R717]

Hell yea dude. Honestly I know you already have your route planned, but you should rethink your schedule and do everything possible to go though Moab/Arches, and then go down to Monument Valley, and finally Sedona and the Grand Canyon, that whole part of the country will explode your fucking brain if you've never seen it. From there you can drive straight out to LA.

Great suggestion. This past spring I flew the wife out at the end of a work trip and did Sedona and Grand Canyon, both of our first time seeing them. Mind blown - pictures just don't do it justice.

[simonnim]

Welcome to Sacramento. Go to Tower Cafe when you get here.

[jet_dogg]

Don't forget your strap LOL!!

[stash1]

Sorry to see you leaving MD, but GL in the new venture!👍