Driving across the country has become our new normal.

I can still remember dreaming of taking a cross country road trip of the United States. From California to Maine. Seeing historical landmarks and beautiful sights like Mount Rushmore, Niagara Falls or Cape Cod along the way.

Well it’s been three years and all of that has come true. Being a travel therapist has led to many long road trips which include…

California to Alaska

Alaska to Louisiana

Louisiana to California

California to Massachusetts

Massachusetts to California

California to Texas

Texas to Maine

Maine to California.

Keep in mind, we drive two cars on every single trip. Lucky for us, our families usually make the trip and drive one car while we drive the other. It’s been amazing getting to share those memories with family. Some of our favorite stops have been…

Liard Hot Springs in Canada

Matanuska Glacier Alaska

Mount Rushmore South Dakota

Hot springs Arkansas

Grand Canyon Arizona

Hoeshoe Bend Arizona

Lower Antelope Canyon Arizona

New York City New York

Statue of Liberty

Niagara falls

Lubec Maine

And that’s not even half of the adventures. While we love posting the good parts along our trips and the positive side of travel, don’t let that fool you. We have our mishaps. Plenty of them. Here is what can and has gone wrong during our road trips

California to Alaska

We prepared, researched, packed, and laid out detailed plans for driving the Alaska Highway. Even bought a full spare tire for the equinox in case of a flat. We even purchased a real jack that was better than those little ones that come with a vehicle.

Could not have been more prepared. I knew exactly where we would stop, how long we would drive each day and hazards to watch for on the road.

Despite best planning practices, things can always change.

We stayed just outside of Dawson Creek one night in late October on our way North to Alaska. Up to that point, weather had been amazing. But a storm during the night dropped nearly 6 inches of snow and our front wheel drive equinox was not handling the roads well at all.

We had our 4WD truck but that wasn’t going to help with the equinox.

So we stopped in town, and began searching if someone could put snow tires on our vehicle. It was going to be impossible to keep going without snow tires due to the more than 1000 miles left in our trip, and the amount of snow that was continuing to fall.

We lucked out as the local Chevy dealership had a set that was available and even agreed to squeeze us in to mount the tires for us.

After just a couple hours, we were set to roll. But the summer tires were in good condition and we wanted to keep them. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t fit in the truck bed with all our other stuff.

To our surprise, the Chevy dealership holds all their customers summer tires in storage for free and agreed to hold onto ours until we returned 7 months later driving back to the lower 48. Talk about service.

What could have turned into a big situation ended up being a minor inconvenience. We arrived safely in Alaska, just a few days before our planned start date. 👍

Our first weekend in Alaska visiting Homer (November 2017)

Alaska to Louisiana

Road trip meets road work? Always a blast traveling with family (Banff/Jasper National Park) My dad getting a selfie with the construction crew.

Driving the Alaskan Highway in summer was cake compared to late fall/early winter. Jasper and Banff national parks, bison and rams, and great weather.

It wasn’t until we nearly reached Montana where we would soon find out our truck battery was about to quit on us. A few minutes from our hotel, we stopped at a gas station late at night and our battery died.

It did end up starting after a few tries and we reached out destination for the night. The next morning it also started with little issue.

By mid day on our drive pulling into Billings, something was starting to smell and we knew we had a problem. We stopped at Autozone, learned that one of the battery cores was bad and we were lucky the battery held up as long as it did. A quick hour, and a battery change later, we were back on the road.

Fortunately, the drive from Alaska to Louisiana was over 5000 miles and we had time for a second problem.

This time, just as we were arriving in Arkansas for the evening, the passenger window in the truck rolled down and would not roll back up. Kari got a wind full for the next several miles on the freeway. We couldn’t leave the window down all night because we had so much of our personal belongs in the truck.

Both our dads made the drive with us and after a few calls to mechanics we knew in California we figured the motor for the window busted. It was a scramble to call several locations before finding an Autozone that had the correct motor for a 1999 Chevy Silverado. But none of use knew how to change it and we didn’t have any tools.

Fort Smith Arkansas, fixing a broken window motor (Thanks Roy and Roger)

Over an hour later, one 15 minute YouTube video and a few borrowed tools from the Autozone employees, we had a window that was working. It still creeks to this day and I always think of Fort Smith Arkansas. Mexican food and margaritas were well deserved that night.

Louisiana to California

Some point through living in Alaska and driving 5000 miles through Canada and into Louisiana, I ended up with a busted windshield washer fluid tank/hose. It was livable for the drive from Louisiana to California, but it had to be taken care of. What seemed like an easy project ended up being a short 6 hours with my dad taking apart the entire washer fluid container through underneath the hood and replacing the entire hose. Still works.

California to Mass

CA-MA was our first trip with just us two driving across country, and we took two cars! Thank you Walkie Talkies.

We made it safely this trip, but we did have one issue while living in Mass. Apparently, living in wooded areas can lead to critters finding their way into your car.

Somehow, a mouse was able to get into my heater/ac motor in the truck. When I turned it on, he didn’t survive, but the heater no longer worked and it took a few weeks to realize where the problem was coming from. Even though it was a mild winter on the cape, there were several days where it was quite chilly on the drive to work.

Once I realized what had happened, another YouTube video, 5 hours (due to incorrect tools) and one dead mouse, the heater worked. I have since began to start my own tool collection.

Mass To California

Mass to CA with Kari’s parents! Our typical lunch break.

This trip was fairly smooth, but several factors complicated it outside of our control. There were 3 accidents between Ohio and Iowa that significantly slowed our drive across the country.

And this is when I began having symptoms of celiac disease. Intense stomach pain, worsening acid reflux beyond anything I had ever experience and a sudden drop of 12 pounds in a little over a month. Having no idea it was celiac disease causing this, the bread rolls and 7-up to ease my stomach were definitely not helping.

It would take nearly the entire next 3 month assignment, a gastroenterologist visit, scope of my intestines, and a blood test to confirm what was causing the sudden change in health. Talk about a long drive back to California and a grueling assignment.

California to Texas

Four Corners with Tyler’s parents on our way to Houston Texas

Smooth sailing. I think after 3 years of travel and several cross country road trips we may have hit our stride on this one. We spent over a week driving from California to Houston Texas with my parents and saw some of the most spectacular places along the way. Including Williams Arizona (Route 66), Horseshoe Bend, Lower Antelope Canyon, and the River Walk in San Antonio Texas as well as the Alamo.

Despite a smooth drive to Texas, within 2 weeks of work, Kari managed to run over two screws in two different tires. Between those two flats and buying matching tires to ensure a smooth wear, we had purchased four brand new tires for her car, all while I didn’t have a contract. So, while the drive to Texas wasn’t bad, we were definitely stressed that first month living on one income and a large unexpected expense.

Texas to Maine

This was a beautiful drive, taking an entire week to explore several stops including the Grand Ole Opry and Gettysburg.

It was one of our more relaxed drives…..for the most part.

The night of our arrival was the only challenge of the whole drive. It was a little past 9pm and a snow storm north of Portland, Maine was hitting us as we drove the last hour to our Airbnb.

We learned from our Alaska mishap to have snow tires on, but the darn windshield wipers were a problem, AGAIN! Luckily, this time, it was just the tube cracking directly under the hood and some packing tape held up well for the night. Later that week super glue replaced the tape for what continues to work well on our adventures.

As we pulled up to our cabin, on a dirt road, covered in snow, without street lights and with limited cell service, we were unsure where we were at. It took two passes down our road to finally find the house, but it was all worth it!

While not directly part of the drive to Maine, there were problems that occurred while living there for 9 months.

First off, during winter, Kari had the hardest time getting her 2WD equinox up the hill from our cabin to reach the main road. A total of 4 heavy snow days, as well as ice during the transition from Winter to Spring required chains to be put on and taken off after only 100 yards up a steep hill. The first attempt without chains resulted in her sliding down the hill and having to reverse nearly all the way back to the cabin.

Rome, ME. Check out that ice on the ground

The truck had it’s own issues including a total of three flat tires, one of which was while we were out of cell phone service, on a back country road 3 miles deep in the woods. This was for one of our waterfall hikes (Angel Falls) linked here. Returning from the hike, we noticed we were nearly completely flat and quickly drove the 3 miles back to the main road incase we needed assistance. Fortunately we were able to change the flat to our spare without the need to call anyone, because we still didn’t have service.

A day later, the spare tire went flat because it was quite old and needed to be replaced. The third flat was just your run of the mill nail in tire.

Lastly, one week before we were to head out of Maine, of course a wind/rain storm caused a tree branch to fall, crushing part of our car, but only cosmetic. So while the Equinox was beat up, it made it to California where we just got it back from the auto shop in great condition.

maine to california

If you have read this far, wow, I hope you can relate to our mishaps and that you found some of our adventures entertaining.

This last cross country drive was nothing to exciting. Just good family time. Between Covid leaving most towns partly shut down, and our need to rush back to California within one week time to gather tax home days, we didn't make many stops.

Our biggest being Jackson Wyoming and Southern Idaho. Jackson was a quick 2 hours to explore the town, but in Idaho we were able to get out to the range in Boise as well as enjoy some great gluten free food in Twin Falls. Not to mention seeing the Niagara of the West, Shoshone Falls.

No problems on this drive….and we can’t wait for the next!

If you are planning a cross country road trip and looking for ideas on where to stop, how to pack, plan, or prepare, or just want to share your own mishaps you can comment below, find us on instagram, Facebook, or YouTube.

Also, feel free to check out the Road Tripping PT Podcast: A Tale of Two Travelers where we interview strangers turned friends on our travel adventures.

Be like Spencer (worlds most traveled yorkie)…..Take a road trip across the country!

What Can Go Wrong On A Road Trip