Irvine, CA to Boston, MA: Coast to Coast Roadtrip

The idea of spending a long vacation on a road-trip has become a reality when we deferred our India visit to the next year. Our three year old, Tara, has been responding encouragingly well  to the shorter leisure trips  we did in California so we knew the time is just right to resume  the long shelved interest  of ours. 
The plan was to do a coast-to- coast trip from California to Connecticut driving through some of the states we have never been before.  We have friends living in Connecticut so when we get there we intended to drive to Boston and New Hampshire to see the fall foliage.  We estimated a distance of over 4,000 miles and organized to cover it in 18 days, leaving sufficient time for sightseeing, dining and rest.  On 19^th day we would return to California by flight from New York.

The initial plan of driving our brand new sedan was quickly sabotaged by more experienced road trippers and that’s how we ended up renting a Chevy Traverse from Hertz.  This seven-seat cross-over SUV had every comfort, safety and cargo features we were looking for and was a pleasure to drive. AAA associate helped to make cancellable bookings in Hotels and also provided detailed maps and informative tour books for the regions we were passing through.  On 12^th October 2012, we had a Pho dinner at our neighborhood Vietnamese restaurant and drove to Barstow, CA to kick- start our cross country trip on the historic Route 66. 

A link to a Slide Show of all pictures