The Car

It occurred to me that nothing has been mentioned about the actual vehicle we are using. In the weeks leading up to this trip, it was still up in the air about which of Rob's parents' rides we would be taking, the car or the minivan. Considering our destination and the part of town he will be working/living in, Rob advocated to leave the minivan at home. Thus, we will be touring the nation in a Porsche Boxster.From zero to sixty in really fucking fast

Obviously, the image above is not the exact vehicle (this one is from an auto show a few years ago) but our whip is almost identical: black, soft top, plush leather interior, and more than enough get-up-and-go. As I mentioned before, it seems to have very poor winter-driving abilities but that shouldn't be an issue after the first couple of days.

Hey, it beats the hell out of the other option.

The Route (long post)

Ok, this is the route we will be taking with the places we will be stopping at along the way. Unless we hear from more people about free couches or a freak storm hits, this is the final version of the trip.

Starting on the 2nd, we will leave Boston and head south on I-95. We will stay on 95 all the way down to Raleigh, North Carolina. I'm still hoping someone between the two cities will email me with a place to stay; we won't make that stretch in one day and I'd very much like not to spend more money on another hotel room. Regardless, we will spend the second night in Raleigh. We've got a room at the Georgetown Best Western in D.C. that night. This way, we'll be able to take our time through any rough weather and still manage to see the sights at the Capital.

From there we will head west on I-40 to Knoxville, Tennessee. After spending a night outside of the city we will continue on to Huntsville, Alabama and spend a night with my roommate Brian. The next day we will set out for Little Rock, Arkansas, home of the William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Library.

An overnight in Little Rock and then on to Shawnee, Oklahoma, just east of Oklahoma City and birthplace of Brad Pitt. Going through Oklahoma City I-40 will merge with historic Route 66, and we will hit some of the famous roadside tourist sights on the way. Continuing on through eastern Oklahoma and northern Texas, we will pass through Amarillo, all the way to Albuquerque, New Mexico. We may or may not stop in Amarillo for the night depending on how early we get going and how fatigued we are by the time we get there. A night in Albuquerque will put us on the path through central New Mexico and Arizona towards Phoenix.

At this point, we will assess our financial situation and either keep going towards L.A. or (if we can afford it) detour north and make for Las Vegas. On the small chance we get very lucky and win lots of money, we'll spend a night in the Emperor's Penthouse Suite at the Bellagio and drink fine wines with Wayne Newton. Otherwise, we will sprint for Thousand Oaks, California (just north of L.A., apparently its supposed to be Malibu 'Lite' and one of the safest cities in America). Either way, we will be in the city of Los Angeles by January 11th at the latest.

Our journey will be concluded on the morning of the 12th when Rob goes to check in at the BU-LA office and I head towards the airport to fly back to Boston.

So yeah, that's the plan. Apparently, Porsche's automatically accelerate to 187 miles per hour and automatically lock onto the nearest hard object if they touch winter weather (at least that's what Rob told me). So if we run into bad weather at any time past Raleigh, the contingency plan is the go south to I-20 or 10 and then keep going.

Right. 4 days left, we still have a fair bit to get organized before then. Happy New Year!

4 Days Left

It's December 28th and I've spent the day figuring out our route for next week. I didn't realize until I looked at the counter that we are less than 5 days away. It looks like nobody is watching this right now so I could very well be writing to none but myself (the cliches just keep piling on). Either way, I'll be posting the [somewhat]final itinerary very soon. Stay tuned...