As most people already know, the legendary Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles does not exist in full anymore, but there are many other roads that can be driven between the two cities. Last weekend I took the quickest alternative, a straight 40 hour long drive where I got to see the landscape shift several times between snowy mountains, green fields and sandy deserts. Even the deserts were not the same, shifting between red and dark and light brown.
The US is perfect for those who like to travel with car. It is a country built for driving, where you can find drive-in-shops, drive-in-banks, drive-in-restaurants, drive-in-cinemas and drive-in churches where you do not even have to go out of your limousine to get married. The roads are also wide. Even in middle of Nevada dessert there were two lanes going each way, and in bigger cities like Los Angeles there roads had seven, yes seven lanes. There are also signs showing all you need to know on the roads, but some of the traffic laws are a little bit different from the traffic laws in Europe: it is allowed to drive right on red light if it is ready, in most states you are allowed to drive past other cars in the right lane (not only in the left) and in the biggest cities they have lanes for “carpooling” where only cars with two or more people are allowed to use.
The gas prices in the US are also ridiculously cheap compared to gas prices in Europe. The prices differ from state to state, but the most expensive gas we filled along the way was between Las Vegas and Los Angeles where the price was four dollars for a gallon, which means that a liter of gas would not cost more than a dollar. After putting almost 5000 miles behind us we knew that we would have to do some maintenance of the car, and for a full service in Colorado they did not charge more than 60dollars for a full service, including brake fluid and oil change. As long as you fill the car seats, roadtripping is the cheapest way to travel in the US and it will give you a lot greater flexibility compared to flying going by buses and trains.