Product Description

Where would your dream take you if you had a whole year to just travel? But perhaps you’re thinking, "if I only knew how to start planning my adventure!" This detailed "how-to" guide will get you moving from the dreaming to the doing in no time at all.

Included is step-by-step, real-life information on planning the trip you’ve always wanted to take -- along with generous doses of humor and advice on topics such as:

* How to pay for a year away from home * How to unravel all your current commitments – to family, work, and organizations * How to plan on the fly and enjoy every day * How to pack in 3 small drawers and 24" of closet space – for two! * How to handle the emergencies that crop up along the way * And the most asked question: How to enjoy your traveling companion on a 24/7 basis!

Once you’ve decided to "leave it all behind", Live Your Road Trip Dream takes you along on an action-packed, whirlwind tour of the authors’ trip – just to help you visualize what months on the road might really be like, and to offer a glimpse into how decisions and discoveries are made along the way.

This is the ultimate road trip planning guide.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #234170 in Books
• Published on: 2004-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 276 pages

Review
"...offers ... advice and instructions on how anyone with the free time can put things on hold ... and go traveling." -- Wilsonville Spokesman, July 28, 2004

"The book that launched a thousand road trips ...see what (they) learned on the road trip of a lifetime." -- The Villager, June, 2004

(This book) is very well planned and well laid out. It is a wonderful presentation... a fun book to read. -- Jana Oliver, Host DIY Author Show, Leisure Talk Radio, October, 2004

...a practical and inspirational gift for RV owners, new retirees, or anyone who’s ever dreamed of a cross-country expedition. -- Beth Harpaz, Travel Editor, Associated Press, November,2004

...fascinating - I've never come across a book that approaches traveling with such a carefree adventure-type attitude. -- Mike Miller, guest co-host, The Travel Hub, October, 2004

Not just a dippy "how we spent our vacation" tome, but a solid, how-to volume -- Judi Janofsky, Rich Steck, Where to Go Next.com, January 18, 2005

Plan, pack light, and expect the unexpected along the way. -- Maya Blackmun, The Oregonian, April 7. 2005

The book accomplishes its goal of stirring one’s imagination about embarking on a modern American odyssey... -- Dennis Gaub, for KOA Kompass, March, 2005

This is really an incredibly neat book ... nothing is going to surpass the resources you find in this book. -- Jeff Gerstl, host The Travel Hub, October, 2004

…the authors pack their book with advice on making your dream happen. -- Christine Delsol, San Francisco Chronicle, December, 2004

From the Publisher
Exploring America’s Favorite Dream: The Road Trip

Where would your journey take you if you had a whole year just to travel? How often have your thought, "it’s a great idea, if only I knew how to start planning such an adventure." What if someone helped guide you through the whole process and got you moving from the dreaming to the doing?

Many people dream of taking that long trip of a lifetime, but few actually make it happen. With humor, advice and loads of practical tips, Phil and Carol White provide a "road-map" for planning your own trip in their new information-packed book, Live Your Road Trip Dream: Travel for a year for the cost of staying home (ISBN 0975292803).

With 10,000 baby boomers turning fifty each day, and many gen-Xers heading out on mid-life sabbaticals, Live Your Road Trip Dream captures the spirit of our times.

The Whites finally decided that the time had come for them to live their road trip dream. Once they were on their adventure, people peppered them with questions, not so much about what they were doing – everyone has their own dream! – but about how they actually made it happen. Phil says, "It was with the encouragement of these want-to-be travelers everywhere that we decided to share what we had learned."

Included is step-by-step real-life information on planning the trip you’ve always wanted to take. Your vision may not be a road trip, but perhaps a sailboat trip around the world, a trek through Asia or a bike trip through Europe. Whatever your dream is, the planning process is the same – only the details will vary.

Whatever your dream, be sure to take the Whites' guide along as you plan your adventure.

From the Author
Traveling for a year? It is either one of your fondest dreams – or your worst nightmare! It’s something many baby boomers have long thought of doing after we are through with the family-raising stage of life and before we succumb to old age!

The difference between whether you can make it happen or whether you can’t is not how many obstacles you have, it is how badly to you want to do something totally life-changing -- totally for yourself.

When we first told people we were thinking about doing this, no one believed us, especially the kids. "Parents don't just run away for a year!" they exclaimed.

But we did.

Once we got the rhythm of being on the road, we could feel our curiosity begin to creep out of someplace deep inside us.

If you try to plan your every move, you will begin to feel like you are on a forced march to that next commitment, not on a trip of joy and exploration.

Let the child in you live again, your trip will be over too soon.

Once you have settled back into your routine, be sure to take some time to reflect on what you've accomplished. You have done something that not many people can say they've actually made happen. Congratulations!

So, would we do it again? You bet! We will never have another experience in our lifetimes as awesome and memorable as our road trip dream.

Customer Reviews

Robert H. Mottram, Author - In Search of America's Heartbeat: Twelve Months on the Road
We liked the way the Whites organized their book; approximately half of it a how-to for people wanting to hit the road themselves, the rest of it a narrative account of the Whites' own road trip through America to give the reader a taste of what it is like to be footloose and free on America's highways. The Whites' trip was a bit like our own In Search Of America's Heartbeat. In fact, we visited a few of the same places, although we saw them through different eyes and often took away different experiences and conclusions.If you are in the formative stages of putting together such a road trip, the Whites' book is one good place to begin. Its budgeting tips alone will help you plan realistically for your time away from home.

Excellent primer for an extended roadtrip
This is an excellent primer for a very extended road trip, but it's not about being an rv full timer. The authors decribe intending to be "full timers" for a year with only incidental trips home for holidays and emergencies. They describe the evaluation in purchasing an rv and provide plans for living at camp grounds. But they stayed in hotels 4 to 5 nights a week and ate at restaurants even more often.
So it's really about their road trip to see the contiguous states in a year, how they planned & prepared, where they went, what they saw, and how they dealt with personal and family emergencies.
There's a good routing plan to see the lower 48 and many sites are described in detail, including many "do"s, "don't"s, and "watch-out-for"s.
The most valuable sections describe their analysis for dealing with the day-to-day responsibilities they left behind when they're on the road, far away.

From Planning the Dream to Putting Rubber to the Road
Before even finishing "Live Your Road Trip Dream" I had moved to the computer and was making plans for an extended summer trip visiting all the lighthouses standing guard over Lake Michigan's shore line. Phil and Carol White have found the perfect balance in crystallizing the dream, planning the "plot," and journaling the journey.

In this second edition of their award winning, how to - planning guide, the Whites have included new sections with suggestions for taking sabbaticals, working on the road, and ideas for using the trip for teaching your children.

I have often heard that half the fun is in the planning. The White's have divided their book into two parts. "Part One" begins with helps for the reader to determine and put into action the steps for making their own personal dream trip.

Detailed suggestions for financing the trip, provision for your home, cars, and family responsibilities are covered in this section. The pointers on choosing your traveling home, planning your route, nailing down the details, and keeping in touch with the family are comprehensive and practical. Carol offers amazing insight into some decisions that may come up along the way as well as anticipating how to handle possible emergencies.

In "Part Two" Carol shares journals of their journey pointing out the places they visited, highlights of the trip, the ambiance of some of the hotels where they stayed, and items of historical interest. They visited all of the 48 contiguous states, 43 National Parks within these states, and many monuments and museums of historical significance.
Phil added some "Phil-osophies" regarding the sport halls of fame, including golf, some games they watched, and a man's view of many of their stops along the way.

The resource list, the check off lists worksheets, and sample itineraries in the appendix are invaluable.

Carol's writing is engaging and positive, and resonates with a contagious spirit which instills in the reader the motivation to move from a dream, to a plan, to making that dream become a reality.