So we wanna go, Now what?

Setting our minds to take a trip like this is only the first step, now comes the part that I pride myself on, the plan! I have learned that I am not a very spontaneous person, no I am actually off the chart in terms of needing a plan. I never really knew that until I got older, I always liked to think that I was at ease in jumping into things and thinking about them later, but in reality spontaneity scares the living daylights out of me! For instance, back when Tony and I were first dating, he thought it would be a great idea to get a few guys from work and go to a Braves game in Atlanta for an overnight trip. I was all for it, the guys, my boyfriend and I catching a game of my favorite sport (but least favorite team)! Then came the discussion about where we should find a hotel to stay in. That's when it hit me, I really am a woman who needs a plan. They would have much rather gotten in the car and headed out throwing caution to the wind. Not me. I started my research, finding a hotel that was not only "nice" but also was close to a MARTA station. Once I presented my plan to them, they all looked at me like I had three heads, who in this world would put so much thought into a one night stay in a city four and a half hours away! Me, that's who. After it was said and done, and the guys got to ride a MARTA train back to the hotel and could indulge in quite a few more brewskies at the park, they were all thanking me for my careful planning! Yep, thank you very much, it was an awesome trip. Well, up until the standstill we met on the interstate 20 mins from home, who plans for that?

So what does it take to plan a trip of this magnitude?

First of all, it takes time, and plenty of it. Not only to actually drive this far (a little over 5,000 miles round trip), but also to make a plan. So to start, we have set aside 21 days to make it to California and back, sounds like a lot of time, especially when you could jump on the interstate and drive from Chicago to LA in four days, but this trip is not about making good time across the country, it's about having a good time. Unlike most destinations, or road trips, you can't just set the GPS for Santa Monica and ride along the interstate until you reach your destination. You can't even pull out a Rand McNally map (do they even still make those?) and follow road signs. See when Route 66 lost it's official designation as a US Highway on June 27th, 1985, it also lost it's place on the map. In some places, where the rejuvenation has started to happen, you can find a road sign, and even find it on Google Maps, but it is not complete by any means. What that means is, that it is out there, we just have to find it. In order to find it, we need the knowledge of those who have gone before us. Namely a guy named Jerry McClanahan. 

Jerry is one of those guys who has made it his life's work to help others get their kicks on Route 66. He is the Author of the EZ Guide for Travelers as well as the Here It Is! 8 state map set, both of which we own. They are really amazing, turn by turn, sight by sight. *A little disclaimer here, I have read and studied the EZ Guide and Maps, but we have yet to try them out on the actual road, so once they are actually used, I may have a slightly different feel for them.

So, first things first, Tony and I decided where to begin. We decided to start not in Chicago, but in St. Louis. One reason being, we know that we could never start at the beginning and make it to the end and still get back home in those 21 days. After deciding that, we had to plan our return trip. Driving out there we know which states and cities we will be going through, but we wanted to take a different route back, why not? So we sat in front of Google Maps and plotted out destinations that were less than 7 hours from one another to make the return. We settled on Las Vegas, Nevada, Moab, Utah, Colorado Springs, Colorado, Dodge City, Kansas and Columbia, Missouri. Then came the fun part. Trying to figure out how we were going to make it there and back in those allotted days. That was extremely hard. The problem was, we knew when we would leave, and when we needed to be back, but the how was the question. This took the greater part of three weeks to figure. The way we started was that I went line by line through the EZ Guide alongside Google Maps and plotted the route turn by turn. The interesting thing about Jerry's guide, is that he gives you tons of side trips and sights to see along the way, so just plotting a course took a long time. About a week after I started, and learned the limitations of Google Maps as far as how many points you can plot, and learning that I absolutely despise the new generation of their mapping system, I finally had a set of my own maps!  

As I was feeling quite accomplished, since I had plotted the course to the west, then it hit me, where in this world were we going to stop each day? How long would the first leg of our journey really take? Can't really plan how long we would be where until we got those maps, but fitting all this in...Will it work?

Boy, once you think you have a plan, then you realize that you have only scratched the surface.

Trip of a Lifetime!

First and Foremost, Welcome to my Blog. 

I am starting this blog to chronicle our vacation this summer. Not only the trip, but the lead up to it as well as what we take away from it.

I'm not really sure when my love affair started with Route 66, that's the kicker, the fact that it has become such a passion now, but I can't remember when it all started. Maybe it stemmed from all the historic places my dad took us as children, but I don't think so because back then I was simply looking at old places and houses. Maybe it was the movie Cars. My son Jonathon was so addicted to that movie when he was young. He would watch it over and over each day. His room was decorated in Cars posters and toys and my Uncle Alonzo and my Dad even made him a Lightning McQueen bed out of plywood. Maybe that was it, the story of a forgotten town that had been bypassed years before that was struggling to survive against all odds. Or could it have been when my dad talked about his bus trip to California when he was a youngster heading to visit his sister. His route took him through the towns and cities along Route 66, but most of his trip was spent peering out the windows in wonder, wishing they could stop to see the places lit up in neon. Maybe it was when I read The Grapes of Wrath. I should have read it in high school, but I chose to go the route of cliffnotes back then. It wasn't until a few years ago that I decided to pick that book up and read it at the encouraging of my mother-in-law. Who knew I would become addicted to John Steinbeck and start to read everything he ever wrote! Maybe this passion was just always there. It seems anytime something sparks a thought about Route 66, I get all giddy. I really believe I have an old soul, either that or I was born too late, but as I get older, I find that my interests are so far away from others my age. My interests are of a different place and time. From music to books to movies, everything, there is something that draws me to this feeling of nostalgia. Not because I have experienced it, but because I wish I could. 

Regardless of how it started, the passion is in me now.

A few years ago, before my Dad got sick, he talked about taking my Mom and going on this incredible road trip. I had been dreaming of a day when Tony and I could do the same. I had visions of owning a Corvette by the time we took the trip, and riding alongside my husband the entire trip with the t-tops wide open. When Dad mentioned it, my interest got stronger, I actually felt a slight bit of jealousy that he was planning this trip. It seemed such an unreachable goal for us at the time, not only the cost, but the fact that vacation days are so limited, a trip like this can't happen in a matter of a week or two. I realized that my Dad had lived his entire life with the memory of his face pressed to the window on the bus wondering what it was like to make that journey and being able to take in the sights. To relish in the idea that so many others had made this journey and it would soon be his turn. That Father's Day, I purchased an EZ Travel Guide, a set of Route 66 maps, a dvd set showcasing the many sights along the way and a book of pictures from the route for Dad. I knew full well, by giving him these gifts, it gave me the right to "borrow" them when our turn came. I remember his face when he opened the gift. I remember the excitement that I could see in his eyes, and I remember him saying he now had no reason not to plan the trip, he had everything they needed. If he had only known that time was precious at this point. If he could have only foreseen what the not so distant future held for him, I am sure he would have planned that trip, but he simply ran out of time. 

Dad passed away on February 10, 2013.

With his passing, those gifts became my possessions, not the way I had imagined borrowing them, because unlike my imagination had foreseen, the pages weren't tattered and the maps weren't hopelessly unfolded. The books, the maps, the EZ Guide were all in the new condition in which I had given them to him those years before. Dad had not made the incredible road trip he had dreamed of. As I looked at those gifts, I thought about that dream road trip. I thought about how he had always wanted to go, and this feeling began in the pit of my stomach about wanting to make this trip happen for not only myself and Tony, but also for our son and most importantly, my Mom.  This trip, for me, is not about where we go, or what we see, but more about what we feel. My biggest hope for this trip are the memories we will make. The things that no one else could ever take from us, and something that money simply cannot buy. I want to make this trip for my Dad, to allow his legacy to live on. His thirst for knowledge about history is alive and well inside me and that is something I will always share with him. Mom told us, after Dad passed, that we should never wait to do the things we want to do, because we are never guaranteed a tomorrow. It is true, I know Dad thought he would have plenty more tomorrows, 65 is so young to be gone. Along this trip, I will carry my Dad's memory, and try my best to see things through a different set of eyes. To wonder about a day gone by, but to also be present each and every day of the rest of my life on Earth. 

We don't have the Corvette yet, but things like that don't really matter much. We have the desire and the dream of completing this incredible road trip across the country, and to enjoy it together with my Mom and our son. I hope in the future, Jonathon can look back on this experience and be able to hold onto the memories that came from it. Time is the real need for a trip like this, sure you can drive from Chicago to LA in four days, but you can't see anything at that pace but the world passing by your window in a blur. We want to be able to slow down, take the road less traveled and see the parts of America that long ago were bypassed by the Interstate System, but at the same time learn who we are and grow our relationships with each other along the way.

I am inviting you all along as well. To follow with us as we take this journey and maybe spark something in each of you as well.