With David in town and my vacation request approved, today seemed like the perfect day to begin the planning process of our cross country road trip, or as we have since named it: Project Spinning Quarter. It's amazing the amount of power a pair of humans can instill in a simple 25 cent piece (for the sake of posterity I'll share that this particular quarter was minted in 2008 with the design of the newest state opposing the face of the oldest president). Alas, when it came down to choseing route A or route B, there seemed no more logical choice then to leave things to fate.
I cannot remember when David and I first began talking about taking a road trip to the West coast. He had made the drive solo a few times, and it has been on my bucket list for years. I do, however, feel rather confident that neither of us actually thought we'd follow through. It was just one of those things friends talk about because it sounds like fun. Of all the big ideas I've had for exciting life experiences, this certainly isn't the one I would have guessed would have seen any follow through. Neither David nor I have a whole lot of experience "roughing it." As a matter of fact, what little experience I do have (which I owe all to my big brother, the Eagle scout) out weighs David's by far; it seems David has never had the occasion to sleep outside. With several national park adventures on our itinerary, sleeping outside is a must.
The tentative plan for travel is as follows:
Emily to Milwaukee by car
Day 1: Milwaukee to Badlands
Day 2: Badlands
Day 3: Badlands to Yellowstone/Tetons
Day 4: Yellowstone/Tetons
Day 5: Yellowstone/Tetons
Day 6: Yellowstone/Tetons to Salt Lake City
Day 7: Salt Lake City
Day 8: Salt Lake City to San Francisco
Day 9: San Francisco
Day 10: San Francisco to Milwaukee by plane
Emily to Columbus by car
We are trying not to be too ambitious by trying to avoid packing more than we can handle into the trip allowing us to find a perfect balance between adventure and rest. The goal being to fully appreciate every aspect of our voyage.
This is just the beginning of the planning phase, but the most important thing is, this trip is really happening. 11 states/10 days. This is going to be awesome. And so, in the immortal words of Phantom Planet, California, here we come!
