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Hi All:

If you are or know of a Gen Y (Millennial), maybe you can answer this question for me? Where would you go if you were provided a brand new 11 or 12 Yaris, Accent, Fiesta, Versa, Aveo or Fit?

I asked my 19-yr. old son and he came up with skiing in Colorado in winter and some local somewhat local small towns and that was the end of it.

When I was in college, I tried to put together a road trip to see a Shuttle launch in Florida and up until the last week before we needed to pack and go, it was a go until two of the four “college kids” could not go for whatever reason.

Maybe the i-Phone generation who would spend more per month on their Smartphones and data plan then their clothes or housing allowance are simply disinterested? I wonder if a young man or woman’s zeal for an honest to goodness road trip still invites thoughts of freedom of hitting the open road and seeing or experiencing what they have not yet experienced?

For the Gen X’ers and Baby Boomers, we have experienced quite a bit but where would those younger Gen Y’s head?

I came in at the need of the baby boom era and the 60’s saw me as less than a teenager so all of that “freedom” of the VW Microbus and 5 college kids in Tie-dye T-Shirts and jeans traveling the country in the summer time is something I only saw on TV and laughed about for the most part :)

Anyways, where would a Gen Y millennial go for his or her “connected” road trip?

Wayne

Hi All:

I just got off the phone with my oldest boy (he’s 26 and married) and he said he would drive to Colorado and go hiking, drive to the Grand Canyon or drive to the beaches of California.

He and his wife actually do own a Yaris too!

Wayne

If I were young again, I would drive 2000 miles to LA and then drive across the country to Tybee Island, GA.:D

I texted our son who is 23 and lives in Charlottesville, VA with a tech job. He said he would: do a tour of the South including Georgia and several stops in Florida.

Our 18 year old daughters simply said: California

I asked her why California and she said: It's a car. I couldn't drive it to Europe!:eek:

I'd go cross county hitting as many national & state parks as I could along the way :D

Besides about a bazillion ideas I have in my head for great roadtrips without leaving Oregon and Washington (after all, that is why I live HERE):

- Vancouver and Whistler.
- Canadian Rockies.
- Glacier and Yellowstone.
- Southern Utah/Northern Arizona.
- Tahoe in winter.
- Bay Area.
- Yosemite/Kings Canyon.

But to go back to your question Wayne, I do suspect there is a change with the latest generation and I don't think it has to do with technology. After all, the same forecasts of couch-based doom were said about our video-game-playing, TV-and-VHS-watching, Walkman-wearing generation IIRC.

I wonder if what you're seeing has to do with a lot of young adults now having quite a bit less interest in driving.

And that gives me hope for the future.

I wonder if what you're seeing has to do with a lot of young adults now having quite a bit less interest in driving.
This seems to be the general attitude here too from people ~20 or younger.

As for myself - I'm 30 so classify that how you want, but I feel with discount airline rates as cheap as they are, anything more than half a day's drive away isn't worth it.

I'll never forget the time myself plus 3 coworkers had training in North Carolina. Two of us flew(I was one), two drove.
The 50 minute flight from Philadelphia to Raleigh-Durham was a breeze, meanwhile the other two coworkers were completely exhausted and felt awful after the 7+ hour drive.

That being said, I think local 1-2 day road trips are the way to go. Being (roughly) from the Philadelphia suburbs, some of my notable road trips from my late teens and 20s:

Pittsburgh (to see a concert)
Virginia Beach
Buffalo/Niagara Falls
Pennsylvania Route 6 / Pennsylvania Grand Canyon
Wellsboro, PA (Susquehannock Trail Pro Rally)
Dayton, OH (not exactly a road trip destination, but went to the Dayton Hamvention)
Jersey Shore (of course, an easy day trip)
Centralia, PA


PA Route 6 / PA Grand Canyon was great, as was Centralia mostly because it was off the interstate, so I got to see the real countryside.
Mile after mile of repeating, commercialized interstate driving holds little appeal and is quite exhausting. The sights mostly include the top half of signs, trees, and buildings above varying concrete walls and barriers.

I'm currently in the middle of the book Looking for America on the New Jersey Turnpike which has been good so far, and really expands on how driving has changed thanks to the Turnpike (and roads like it).

Anyway, that is my take on it. I am still always up for a 1-2 day road trip, but finding others who can go is the problem.

Oh boy I feel so old, yet still at 25.

I can't say I fit in with the generation that loves their phone more than their cars, If I had to give up one...well, there's always email for communication.

I've driven my cars all over the northern and mostly northeastern section of the US and seen my share of roadtrip movies. The drives are only long and boring if you are hell bent on a destination. We automatically click into "get-there-as-fast-as-possible" mode and driving becomes painful over the longhaul...

Forget a carefully planned trip, just point the car in the direction that has the most amount of travel you can do while staying within the borders ;). Head to that road you never really went and find out what's up there (to get a good start from your local area). Bring one piece of technology, and that is to find out where the closest gas station is. Don't even use your nav system. Just...drive.

Eventually you'll want to get back home, and this is where the nav system would be helpful. Otherwise, if you're in cali, head southeast. If you're in NY, head southwest to begin with. Bring that camera and stop and take pictures of anything you find interesting. A lonely highway, a random desert...a random casino in what seemed like a desert. But just go, this is freedom

if i was younger.. hmm... it would depends on how much time i've got to travel... a day? hit a race track to watch bikes every weekend.
a week? head to different tracks doing track days and see some state/national parks along the way. maybe get some hiking in too.
a month? oh geez... just expand it that much more... hit some different tracks in other parts of America and maybe even head on up to Alaska and see some sites.

i don't really need a phone. if it wasn't for my job, i'd have no phone.

as far as what directions to take, if i got a ton of time... i'd drive like my Uncle... just pick a direction and GOOOOOOOOO... whenever i felt the need to figure out where i'm at, gimme a map. otherwise, my sense of direction is pretty dang good. even in places i've never been, at night, in the fog (like Alabama), with a bunch of drunk students from NCOA, never had a worry. GPS can help out in a pinch, but if i have an address and a map, i'm gtg.

my ultimate dream drive/ride is to take a motorcycle and see the lower 48 w/ an option to head on up to Alaska. no time limit, just go.

I wouldn't. I'm not that kind of person.

I suspect younger people value cars less now because, thanks to the Internet, you don't need one to socialize or see the country. While the Internet experience isn't the real world experience, it substitutes or, in some cases, even improves on it.

Obviously, once they have a car they will value the freedom and convenience it provides (as my wife's son is now discovering), but the decreased value means it's lower on the list of priorities.

Give me a high mileage diesel and two months to traverse the old world.
I wouldn't mind driving all over Europe seeing the sights for a few months.
Then come back to America and run around the U.S. and Canada for a few months

Google street view only does so much.

BTW if you try out the new version of Google Earth you now can drive along the streets using either a joy stick or the arrow keys on your key board.

I wasted a good hour in Ajaccio Fr. on Saturday when I realized how much fun it is with this new the street view set up.

I find I like car tours more in my Golden years. It is not that important when you are younger. Many more important challenges in life when young! Plus you can visit any place you want on-line. It is expensive to travel. Not bad in the States, but in other Country's it is very costly, especially in my own Country! :(H:D

I don't like to drive anywhere farther than 3 hours anymore, so any roadtrips are regional.

Give me a high mileage diesel and two months to traverse the old world.
I wouldn't mind driving all over Europe seeing the sights for a few months.
Then come back to America and run around the U.S. and Canada for a few months Oooh, hadn't thought of that one. Audi has an overseas delivery program (strangely, VW does not). Too bad US-spec Audi A3s only come with the DSG tranny because that would be one sweet ride to travel around Europe with and take home afterwards.

But ultimately I'd take one month in the Europe with a car, and pick it up only after I'd already spent visiting lots of places WITHOUT a car. There are a lot of places in Europe where having a car is more trouble than it's worth.

...Month in Europe without car
+ Month in Europe with car
+ Month in Asia without car (because the car's on a boat, takes a few weeks to get here)
+ Month in US with car
= Vacation of a lifetime.

internet can't compete with actually goin somewhere, for me. i like to be able to look, smell, touch whatever i want. there are places i want to go in Europe too, but unless i make a ton, ain't gonna happen. Internet is good for seeing what's there and planning out the trip, but that's about it.

Mmmmm, I love a good read trip. I love the desert, but I've motored through there once already...I was thinking Yellowstone NP, or possibly the Badlands. Although, I'd love to take a falltime trip through W. VA and up into the Northeast to see the colours, and take a path through Rochester NY to see my sister-in law. The Pacific NW would also rate high on my list of roadtrip destinations too, though, perhaps via the "loneliest road in America"?

I currently live in OK, but Texas is my Home. I would like to go back and explore TX further, especially the western Half (I would especially like to check out BigBend). Give the size of Texas, that would keep me occupied for a while. After that I would like to explore the western portion of the US. I have also read a bit about the loneliest road in america, isnt that US 50? Given my stubborn nature, and my pro-concealed weapons attitude, I might limit my trip to states that are reciprical to OK concealed weapons permits. Gievn that, I guess the drive to Alaska is out of the question.

I forget if it's 50, but that road's in about the right place...and now that you mention it, Big Bend/Guadalupe mountains area is a place my Dad and I have pitched to each other as a motorcycle trip sometime...from E. TX it's a pretty good hop to still stay in the same state!

PS - kudos on the concealed carry :)

I can show you highways in the Oregon desert that make the so-called "loneliest road" (US 50) seem like a freeway in comparison. The one time I drove on 50, there was at least a car every few minutes. Maybe the "loneliest US highway", but we have state highways here that are far quieter.

I forget if it's 50, but that road's in about the right place...and now that you mention it, Big Bend/Guadalupe mountains area is a place my Dad and I have pitched to each other as a motorcycle trip sometime...from E. TX it's a pretty good hop to still stay in the same state!

PS - kudos on the concealed carry :)

With more and more states coming on board with concealed weapons carry, it is getting easier to travel from one side of the country to another and stay legal, but sometimes it can add time to the trip. On a trip from Oklahoma City to Louisville KY it would have been 773 miles to drive though Illinois, but I choose to drive though Arkansas and Tenn instead, adding 86 miles to the trip. One thing I have to remember, even if a fellow state allows concealed weapons, each state can have different laws on how weapons should be carried and how they should be transported on a vehicle. I have to get online and sometimes contact the respective State's Highway patrol to make sure I have the facts straight.

I can show you highways in the Oregon desert that make the so-called "loneliest road" (US 50) seem like a freeway in comparison. The one time I drove on 50, there was at least a car every few minutes. Maybe the "loneliest US highway", but we have state highways here that are far quieter.

What parts of US 50 did you travel?

From one range east of Austin (Big Smoky Valley IIRC) back towards Fallon. Even in the eastern section of what I drove (more or less the middle of the NV section of US50) it was quiet but far from the loneliest road I have driven. My experience was that even US95 from Hawthorne to Tonopah was lonelier.

I've driven 93 through NV from North to South. That was pretty lonely, too. I guess if you drive on a highway out west where nobody lives, it's going to be lonely.

I have done the Pacific Coast drive, camping along the way. Amazing!

I would love to do the Northeast in the fall. We just don't get color on our trees here. They go from green to brown.

I've driven 93 through NV from North to South. That was pretty lonely, too. I guess if you drive on a highway out west where nobody lives, it's going to be lonely.

I have done the Pacific Coast drive, camping along the way. Amazing!

I would love to do the Northeast in the fall. We just don't get color on our trees here. They go from green to brown.

Red, orange and yellow is overrated.

The weather's really nice at that time though.

How did I forget about the PCH?! I practically grew up on that road! ...(well, not exactly but everytime I was on it I had a blast, so it holds a lot of really nice memories)

The shoe tree on US 50, the loneliest road in America.
http://i1179.photobucket.com/albums/x397/BestmpgxB/IMG_4576Small.jpg

Sure, there are lonelier roads, but US 50 is tops among main highway routes. I've been on it for 10 hours averaging <50 mph, and got passed by <3 dozen cars.

But when I was young, I was road tripping the wilds of northwest Sonora.

Hi All:

Many of you have already seen this pic but like US 50 and US6 across NV, OR 78 across the Western Oregon desert is as desolate as they come. I was on OR 78 for about three hours mid week in the middle of a mid 90 degree F day and IIRC, I saw maybe 4 or 5 cars/trucks/Big rigs on it over that period.

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/523/OR_78_West_-_Desolate.jpg

I cannot wait to traverse all three again someday and hopefully in a car that is pulling in excess of 75 + mpg while doing it :)

Wayne

I just asked my wife: the Grand Canyon.

I know that's the one thing she wants to see it above all else.

According to Google maps it's 2,798 miles, 1 day and 21 hours of solid driving. I'd get a bit stiff and uncomfortable but she physically couldn't take it: she's have pain in multiple places. Even doing the 45 hours of driving at 7 1/2 hours per day would require some breaks on the way and back. She says she'd need at least 3 weeks to do it.

Well, at least I know now that we'd probably do a fly-drive. ;)