Road Trip Atlanta to Denver

Road trip from Atlanta to Denver

My wife had a work event in Denver. Also, our son’s girlfriend has godparents who live in Denver. So instead of flying, I decided to make a road trip out of it. Then our daughter and her husband decided to go as well for a vacation. This went from my wife and I getting away for a week to a family road trip to the Rocky Mountains.  Our son and his girlfriend joined us in my car, and our daughter, her husband, and dog went in his car. So, this was a family road trip from Atlanta to Denver.

Will My Car Make a 4000-mile Road Trip?

My car needed tires, so this was a good time to replace them before driving across the country.  So, in late March I replaced the tires on my car, and they said it needed an alignment badly. Therefore, I took my car to my normal mechanic to get the oil changed, alignment, and a good overall check-up to ensure it was ready for the trip. However, that is when things went sideways for me. Firstly, they needed to replace some suspension components to get the alignment done properly. It’s not a big deal, it is a 17-year-old Mercedes with about 199k miles on it, and things do need to be replaced at that age and miles.

After the alignment was done my steering became a real issue. It was very hard to turn at slow speeds, but not always. So after several trips back and forth, they said I needed a new power steering pump.  It was out of stock and would take a week or so to get a replacement. Unfortunately, I was heading out on my road trip in that time frame.  It drove okay other than at slow speeds like turning into parking spaces. I could live with that until I got back to Atlanta. Worse case, have it replaced somewhere in Denver.  So, we headed out with our fingers crossed that we would not have any issues over the almost 4000-mile road trip.

That is Going To Leave A Mark

Everything was going fine for the most part until Colorado Springs, CO. We were rear-ended at an intersection. That was not a fun experience. Imagine being over 2,000 miles away from home and getting into an accident. I will create some videos on my YouTube channel for this road trip, please check them out.

People apparently like watching car videos on YouTube, so I will do one about how my 2006 Mercedes E320 CDI (diesel) did on this road trip,  the good MPG, the accident damage, the end result of the steering issues, and if it survived the road trip. I only filled up 2 times from Atlanta to Roswell, NM (Plumerville, AR, and Hereford, TX), and only filled up again before leaving Roswell, NM to start a long day of driving. This is the same car I used for the trip to Canada, it is a great car for road trips, has good MPG, is comfy, and has plenty of room in the trunk for luggage/backpacks.

Itinerary

* indicates where we stayed at least one night

Day 1

Atlanta, GA

Birmingham, AL

Memphis, TN

Little Rock, AR

Conway, AR *

Day 2

Oklahoma City, OK

Amarillo, TX

Roswell, NM *

Day 3

Carlsbad Caverns National Park, NM

Day 4

Las Vegas, NM

Springer, NM

Colorado City, CO *

Day 5

Colorado Springs, CO

Arvada, CO *

Day 6

Arvada, CO *

Aurora, CO

Day 7

Arvada, CO *

Aurora, CO

Golden, CO

Day 8

Arvada, CO *

Denver, CO

Aurora, CO

Day 9

Arvada, CO *

Day 10

Arvada, CO *

Topeka, KS

Kansas City, KS

Columbia, MO *

Day 11

Columbia, MO *

St Louis, MO

Paducah, KS

Nashville, TN

Chattanooga, TN

Atlanta, GA

Budget (estimated)