Chronicle of a Road Trip Foretold

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The key to a successful road trip (from my completely amateur, inexperienced, first timer position) is all in the name. You have to name your trip and it has to be memorable, catchy, and amusing. That way, when you refer to it later, it's always interesting to talk about.

So for this trip to Maine, coming up with a name was kind of a challenge. "The Great American Road Trip" seemed a little overused and therefore, not so memorable for my particular trip. "Maine-tastic" just wasn't zingy enough. I considered "Keep Driving until you hit Atlantic Ocean", but that doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. So I settled on "The Mainey things to see" tour. It was risky to go the pun route, but this trip wants to be a little risky. It's a road trip on the edge...the edge of middle america.

So here's the plan (like a carefully crafted mix tape, I tell ya): tomorrow I'm driving up to Sacramento. Sort of a pre-road trip six hour drive. You know, just to get me warmed up. Then I'm cheating a bit and flying to Denver, because that's the way I like to plan my road trips, with a flight. Like I said . . . risky.

Now Denver is where it all begins. That's where the road trip duo becomes complete and we become a driving force that 12 states are just going to have to learn to deal with. On Friday morning, Monica and I set out for the exotic Omaha, NE. We really like to start things off with a bang. Hopefully we can recover from a night spent in that crazy party town.

Day 2 we're going from Omaha, Nebraska to Chicago, Illinois. I can only imagine the cows we'll see along the way.

Day 3 takes us to Sandusky, Ohio. Unsuspecting at first, this town happens to be the home of one of the country's most impressive amusement parks.

Which brings us to Day 4 which is all about Cedar Point, an amusement park that has the tallest, fastest, and most roller coasters in the country, and perhaps world. It's like Wally World, only it'll be open.

Day 5 takes us to Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, with a potential stop in Hershey.

Day 6 we're going from Elizabethtown, PA to Atlantic City, New Jersey, but we're spending most of that day in Philadelphia.

Day 7 is dedicated to Atlantic City and all of the debauchery that can occur there. Okay, maybe not ALL of the debauchery. We have some standards.

Day 8 we're headed to Boston, Massachusetts

Day 9 is Boston again--the city so nice, we stay there twice.

Day 10 we're going from Boston to Kennebunk, Maine. I'm hoping we can detour slightly to go to Salem, MA, because I think it's worth a detour and the drive to Kennebunk is only like an hour.

And Day 11 we conclude our "Mainey things to see tour" in Brunswick/Portland, Maine. Monica flys back to Denver, and I get settled into summer.

It's going to be an interesting couple of weeks.

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