That....and y'all don't have all the taxes and surcharges that we get here.

If you have an independent mechanic that you trust, take the car there. Ask them to check the tires, and to let you know if they see any problems with it. You might want to have them check the alignment too. IIRC, if you go to Sears Auto for an alignment, they'll check it and only charge you if you actually need the alignment.

In regards to rental cars--check that there are no limitations to leaving the state and that they offer unlimited mileage. I don't know how much luggage, etc., you'll have, but you'll probably want something with a back seat, so you can store a cooler and snacks for easy access. That will allow you access to those without having to stop somewhere. We drove a Ford Fusion from MDT to MCL and were quite comfortable.

You can take turns driving, and drive straight through, or you can stop about halfway and spend the night. I'd suggest, with just the two of you, that you stop after about 8-10 hours of driving and spend the night somewhere.

Choice Hotels are a decent option, and pretty standard in regards to features at each. Hampton Inns are pretty standard too, as are most Holiday Inn Express locations. All should offer free breakfast, and all should accept payment via debit card, as long as it is Visa/Mastercard branded.

That said, expect that they'll put a hold on additional funds, and you may see that both the initial authorization hold and the final bill charge have hit your account as pending transactions. The initial authorization hold may stay there for up to seven days, so you'll want to have enough money in your account for two charges at each hotel, plus food, gas, etc.

What I usually do, rather than use my debit card, is use my credit card and that night, when I know what the final bill should be, I make a payment to my credit card, for that amount. This means that as soon as the charge hits the card, I've already paid for it. I don't have to worry that they've authorized money in my checking account, and placed a hold on it, so that it won't be available for seven days. At the same time, I don't have to deal with making a payment to my credit card later.

In addition to those music CDs, try an audio book or two. Is there a book you and your girlfriend have wanted to read, but haven't found the time? Get it unabridged on CD (or as an MP3 download) and cruise on down the road. Being able to catch up on my reading is part of the reason I love driving long distances.

I've used Enterprise for rentals quite a few times. Never seen an extra charge for travelling in other states, they just want to know what states you are planning to travel to. Straight daily rate, unlimited miles, and you're not racking up miles on your own vehicle.

As far as what to see/where to go, I'm assuming you'll be coming down I-44, you have St. Louis with the arch and the Busch Brewery, good tour at the brewery (oh and some free beer too) ^^. Springfield has a so-so zoo, but Branson isn't far away if you want to see reincarnated Osmond brothers. DFW area there's all sorts of stuff to do there. When you go to Houston, visit Johnson Space Center. That's a really interesting tour to take.

For your tires, have you been good about rotating your tires? If so, then the tires should be pretty evenly worn, however if they are the original set they probably are starting to get a little long in the tooth. If you haven't been rotating them, your front tires are probably considerably more worn than your rears (I believe that car is front wheel drive). Something to definitely take a look at.

Actually, Subaru's been all-AWD, all the time since roughly 2000 or so. Front tires do wear quicker, though, due to engine weight.

And I've...well...not been very good at all about rotating them, so I'll definitely want to have that done.

I've found that audio books tend to cause me to get sleepy while driving, but YMMV.

I'm sure you'll have fun.

Hate to bust your bubble !

When youo get close to Houston you will be in the constitution free zone of the USA subject to search by the Border patrol.

Also the TSA is expanding to the interstates

Congrats on the upcoming road trip. We made a similar trek from Chicago to Albuquerque 4 times last year, cannon-bawlin' it, while giving TSA and the airlines a big middle finger.

(funny b-a-l-l-i-n-g is a censored word)

You'll find that most cars are fairly reliable. We drove in our cars that had double and even triple your miles. Just make sure you do the normal checks and your auto should hold up reliably.

- tires (rotate and inflate), don't forget the spare
- coins or dollar bills for the tolls
- cheap tire pressure gauge
- fluids (brakes, coolant, transmission) top them off
- belts (check for loose or badly cracked ones)
- battery connection
- do an oil change
- make sure all the lights are working (signal, emergency, license plate)
- get new wipers if yours are shot (you'll thank me)
- do a quick brake check
- have a car jack
- doesn't hurt to check the air filter if you haven't
- look underneath your car for any leaks such as oil or coolant
- get a road atlas. It's nice to track your progress (or a tom-tom/gps)
- music, a gallon(s) of bottled water, snacks, flashlight, blanket & pillows, handy wipes and roll of paper towels.

I always bring along a set of basic hand tools in case. some wrenches and screwdrivers.

btw... i do all of the above myself :)

:D

And every time you get back in the car, take turns asking each other "Do you want to DRIVE today?"

:(

No, wait, that should be, "Do YOU want to drive today?" :)

No border patrol in Houston (yet, that I know of anyway). We are too far from the Tex-Mex border. If you go out I-10 to El Paso...then you need to worry!:eek:

Another possible aid:

A good cheap automotive GPS might be useful. I have an ancient Garmin GPS 496, but the nuvi's and other brands are all good. I turn off the voice since I'm annoyed by it chastising me when I choose to ignore its sound advice and do my own thing.

Otherwise, the car maintenance is all as others have stated above. Pretty reasonable.

Cool. I have a TomTom XL330 that's been great so far and I've made some customizations myself (installed a Trapster database, unit boots to an Aperture Science logo, GLADOS' voice directs me, shuts down with "The cake is a lie!"). I'll definitely be bringing it with as it was indispensable on my last trip to Houston when we rented a car. The rental agent looked so crestfallen when I responded to her GPS upsell with "Nah, brought my own."

-Wipers are a good suggestion. I actually have a spare set I bought almost a year ago that are still in the original packaging (mechanic said my current ones were in better shape than I'd estimated they would be, and lo and behold, they're still going strong now).

-Don't have a jack, should definitely get one. My dad's name is Jack, but that's about as close as it gets.

-Coins/bills for tolls: I have an I-pass so we're covered at least until we get out of IL. Do neighbouring states accept the I-pass or is the IL border the cutoff?

On a slightly less fun note, it looks like the road trip won't be for this year after all. We still definitely want to do it, and many more like it in the future, but we're in the process of buying a house and her dad, who works for Southwest Airlines, is planning a get-together in Key West this fall for which we'd need vacation time and which is too far for us to drive this go-around.

By all means, though, keep the advice coming since I'm going to be saving this thread for future reference.

You folks rock.

According to Illinois Tollway, I-Pass is good anywhere EZ Pass is accepted. http://www.illinoistollway.com/porta..._schema=PORTAL

However, that doesn't help you, since the only states that accept EZ Pass are: IL, IN, OH, WV, VA, MD, PA, DE, NJ, NY, MA, RI, NH, and ME.

I'd also highly recommend checking the CV and rack boots as well as the power steering pump seals/gaskets.

A high-mileage Subaru will generally have some problems with one of those. Mine has... but they're fixed now.