I'm mutualing to Cali and am looking for any tips or insight i can get. My wife, dog, two cats and I are traveling to cali from NJ in our 4dr Frontier in April on our own dime. I'm preferrably looking for advice from anyone who's taken the trip or one close to it in similar circumstances, however any advice will do. We are looking at driving 12 hrs/ day. so it should take about 4 to 5 days, then we'll stay in a hotel for the remaining days until we check in to housing. i'm looking to spend as little as possible as we will be packing lunches and planning our stops in advance. my normal cruising speed is 80mph but i calculated with stops making an average of 60mph. Any input??

First, make a list of hotels on route that will allow pets. I travel from Columbus to Denver with my brother in law and two large dogs. Knowing where you can stay with pets is very important. Also, there are a number of routes from NJ to Cali - where in Cali are you going?

Avoiding Chicago would be a good thing. There is never a good time to transverse Chicago. That would mean avoiding I-80.

This is a drive for a PCS? If so then you are limited to 350 miles per day that will be paid for by the government. And you will need to check with housing itself on what the limits are for pets, at most bases it is 2; 1 dog/1 cat, 2 dogs or 2 cats. So having 3 can put a damper on that for you.

Navy Lodge is now allowing animals so check with them and see if there is any on the route you are taking.

on a mutual you pay for everything out of pocket w/ no expense to the gov't!! the route i planned on taking is 80 all the way as we were planning on stopping in erie, pa and then going on to petaluma, Ca. i have researched all the pet frienndly hotels and have a list from petswelcome.com of the hotels along the way in case we get held up and can't stay where initially planned. the wife isn't to kean on staying in a military base, why i have no clue but she doesn't want to do that!!!

Please be very careful in regards to where you choose to stay when locating pet friendly establishments. Recently my family traveled to Ft Jackson SC to see my son graduate from Boot Camp and transport hom to Ft Lee VA. I contacted PetTravelers.com in order to obtain a reservation for a pet friendly hotel. The Super 8 in Petersburg VA was neither human nor pet friendly. Make sure when you make you reservations to specify that you are lookig for accomodations with 3 stars or better otherwise you are rolling the dice. We ended up in a crack house with mold on the baseboards, broken locks etc. Had we not been so tired from traveling all night we would have packed immediately and left.