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I have taken multiple solo cross-country road trips from Florida to California and I usually break up the journey into 5 days. This time, I wanted to challenge myself and make the journey in 4 days. 

After doing numerous cross-country road trips, I have learned my limits and become familiar with the best cities to make stops in, so I was pretty confident that I could do this.

ROAD TRIP ITINERARY

DAY 1: Tampa > Lafayette, 768 miles, 10.5 hours 
DAY 2: Lafayette > Fort Stockton, 721 miles, 10.5 hours
DAY 3: Fort Stockton > Phoenix, 670 miles, 9.5 hours
DAY 4: Phoenix > Los Angeles, 372 miles, 6 hours

ROAD TRIP PREP

Before going on any road trip, I make sure I’m fully prepared by reviewing the ultimate packing checklist. Key points to take care of are to get your car checked, download offline maps, and bring lots of water and snacks.

I always take my dog, Kuma, on road trips with me, so I make sure I have all the dog essentials as well.

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I also make sure that I have the iExit app downloaded. This app is great if you’re driving on the interstate. It finds you automatically, shows you exits ahead, and allows for easy searching. It’s come in handy many times when I was in search of restrooms, service stations, food, and more.

FAVORITE GAS STATIONS

I try to stop by service stations that have a lot of gas pumps and restrooms so that I don’t have to wait around for a spot to open. I want to be in and out as fast as I can so that Kuma is not waiting in the car too long by herself.

I look for service stations geared towards truck drivers like Pilot and Love’s because they always have clean restrooms and some have a designated pet relief area.

My ultimate favorite service stations are Buc-ee’s and Busy Bee’s which are both mega gas stations. The only Busy Bee’s I come across is in Florida, but Buc-ee’s has many locations in Texas, where they are based.

Both Busy Bee’s and Buc-ee’s pride on have the largest and cleanest restrooms on top of having many other conveniences like a dedicated dog relief area, excellent food, souvenirs, car wash, and more.

FAVORITE HOTELS

Drury Inn is my favorite hotel to stay at when I go on road trips because it is usually the most budget-friendly hotel with spacious rooms on top of getting complimentary breakfast, they also offer free dinner and three drinks each day. Yes, THREE. This includes beer, wine, and some cocktails as well.

Some other budget-friendly hotels I like staying at are La Quinta Inn, Hilton Garden Inn, and Best Western. They are all pet-friendly hotels as well.

THE ROAD TRIP

DAY 1 - TAMPA TO LAFAYETTE

The first day of driving is always the easiest day. I’m super pumped to start the cross-country road trip and have a lot of energy. I wanted to drive as far as I could the first day and I knew Lafayette would be a good stop since Candy and I have stopped here before on our road trip together.

I always leave as early as possible so that I can arrive at my destination while there is still daylight. Since I drove in December, the daylight hours are shorter, so it would start getting dark around 5pm.

Driving in Florida is generally pretty boring. Everything is flat and you don’t have much to look at. The only part I enjoy the views is near Pensacola when I cross the bridge.

I made a couple of stops for gas and restroom breaks in Florida. The one stop I always make is at Busy Bee’s at Exit 283. As I explained earlier, this is a great service station with lots of gas pumps and clean restrooms. Busy Bee’s has the most beautiful restrooms when it comes to gas stations.

After Busy Bee’s, I stopped at the Gadsden County Rest Area at Mile Marker 162. I seem to always stop at this rest area when I need to use the restroom. It’s a little inconvenient because once you exit, you still have to drive down a windy road to get to the rest area, so it takes some time to get there. Besides that, it’s a nice rest area with many picnic tables and clean restrooms.

In Alabama, there is a Buc-ee’s at Exit 49, so I stopped here to use the restrooms and let Kuma out for a walk. Also in Alabama, I enjoy driving through Mobile because you cross a long bridge and enter a tunnel (my favorite) while passing through the downtown area. That’s probably the most exciting part of the drive from Florida to Louisiana.

Once I got to Lafayette, I checked into Drury Inn and was pretty exhausted. I usually take advantage of the free dinner at Drury Inn, but since I am a huge fan of Whataburger, I had to go there instead because there was one nearby.

DAY 2 - LAFAYETTE TO FORT STOCKTON

I started off the next morning really early at 4 AM. For some reason, I couldn’t sleep very well so I finally just got up and started getting ready for another long day on the road. I kept myself awake and engaged by listening to my favorite podcasts and music.

This is the day I start the drive in Texas and this state is so huge that it takes two days to cross. I find that Fort Stockton is the best midpoint to stop at that’s in between Houston and El Paso. I’ve stopped in Van Horn before, but that town was a little too small and didn’t have very many choices when it came to hotels and food.

I generally love driving in Texas, but eastern Texas is my least favorite part to drive through because they seem to always have construction, merging into traffic is nerve-racking, and the drivers are a bit aggressive. It’s mainly San Antonio that I get nervous driving through. Houston is actually a bigger city, but it’s an easier drive.

Eastern Texas has many options when it comes to food and service stations. There’s an abundance of two of my favorite places - Whataburger and Buc-ee’s. They are both based out of Texas, so it makes sense why they have so many locations in this state.

I make sure to stop by a Whataburger before I pass through the greater area of San Antonio because there are no Whataburger locations in western Texas. I also like to stop by Buc-ee’s because they always have great souvenirs and snacks. The Buc-ee’s Katy location is a great stop at Exit 739, 30 miles west of Houston.

Once I pass through San Antonio, I start enjoying the Texas drive as I start seeing some hills and I drive through roadcuts. A roadcut is a cut through a hill or mountain for the purpose of building a road through it rather than over it.

Before I knew it, I was in Fort Stockton. The last time I was here, I stayed at La Quinta Inn Northeast and I really liked this hotel so I stayed here again. I checked in to the hotel, took Kuma out for a walk, grabbed some dinner at a great Mexican restaurant (with a convenient drive-thru), and called it a night.

DAY 3 - FORT STOCKTON TO PHOENIX

This is my favorite part of the drive as I see more gorgeous scenery of western Texas. I always start out with a beautiful sunrise too and love driving toward the pink and purple skies.

Once I pass through El Paso, I enter New Mexico and there is a nice rest area and welcome center near mile marker 164. Las Cruces is 30 miles from the welcome center and I usually exit at 142 for Whataburger, but I still wasn’t hungry, so I drove on to Tucson, Arizona at Exit 263, which was another 270 miles.

There are a ton of eateries in Tucson to choose from. Since I already had Whataburger a couple of times, I decided to eat at In-N-Out Burger since I don’t go here too often. There are a ton of In-N-Out Burgers in California, but I never go while I’m there because Candy makes the best home-cooked meals and I’d rather eat that.

After Tucson, it was only 120 miles to my final destination in Phoenix for the day. I have many friends that live in Phoenix, so I’m lucky enough to have great friends that let me and Kuma stay with them for the night.

Once I got to my friend’s house in the afternoon, I was exhausted. I guess three straight days of driving 10+ hours takes a toll on my body and mental state. Since I made plans to meet friends later in the evening, I took a nap before heading out.

After a couple of hours of napping, I headed out to The Pemberton to meet some friends and it was such a good time. A lot of my friends from high school (we’re all military brats that went to high school in Misawa, Japan) moved to Phoenix, so I met up with a group of them and it was fun catching up and reminiscing the old days.

DAY 4 - PHOENIX TO LOS ANGELES

The next morning, I was a little hung over since I drank a little too much the night before, but it was totally worth it. I had such a blast catching up with all my friends and The Pemberton was an awesome place to hang out.

Luckily, this was the last day of driving and it was the shortest drive of 370 miles. Driving through Arizona and California is absolutely gorgeous. You start seeing the great mountains in the distance and this is always a mesmerizing sight to see for me, since I come from Florida where everything is so flat.

I filled up on gas in Arizona before I crossed the border into California because gas prices get insanely expensive in California. It’s usually at least $1.00 more per gallon. Exit 17 in Quartzsite has a nice Love’s gas station.

The final day of driving went smoothly and there wasn’t much traffic once I entered the greater area of Los Angeles, so that was a relief.

RELATED - Drive This Scenic Route from California to Florida

COST BREAKDOWN

Gas $277

I drove my 2018 Ford Escape SE, which usually gets 30 miles per gallon on the highway and my fuel tank capacity is approximately 15 gallons. The average gas price was around $2.80 per gallon.

I stopped for gas 11 times and the total cost was about $277. 

Hotels $269

Since I was staying at a friend’s house in Phoenix, I only had to stay overnight at two hotels in Lafayette and Fort Stockton. Drury Inn Lafayette was $138 per night and La Quinta Inn Fort Stockton was $131 per night, which made the total $269 in hotel costs.

I also traveled with my dog, Kuma, so I had to pay extra pet fees. Drury Inn charged $35 per night and La Quinta Inn charged $25 per night, so that was an additional $60.

If I had to stay at a hotel in Phoenix, that would have probably been an additional $200.

Food $133

I spent a little more on food during this trip since I had an evening out with friends in Phoenix. If I did not go out in Phoenix, the food cost would have been cut in half since the most expensive items were the cocktails.

I brought my own food and snacks for the first couple of days and saved some money there. For lunch and dinner, it was mostly Whataburger and some other fast food joints like In-N-Out Burger which averaged $8 per meal.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Driving cross-country solo in 4 days was doable, but I was definitely tired on the third day driving to Phoenix. I might go back to doing the journey in 5 days the next time I go on my solo cross-country road trip so that I can relax more.

I hope this cross-country road trip guide helps you out on your journey. Safe travels!

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