Cross Country Road Trip USA

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This trip has been on our mind since 2 years. We were jobless (though still in university) as recession decided to hit just as we would graduate, hoping to find something by the end of the year. Our idle minds started considering the idea of a cross country trip, and then leave the country for good, if we didn't find any work. But, it so happened that we all managed to get our hands on some sort of a job, and these plans were put on the back burner for a while. Until we realized that time was flying and people would move on to different phases of life such as getting married, relocating or just getting older, we had to do something about the little idea we had a few months back.

Thus began several sessions of detailed planning, such as flights, car rentals, routes, things to do (and not to do), which states to cover, what car games to play, how many bags to carry and so on. A month from the trip, we would meet every other day for several hours, plan and re-plan the above. We put up a huge USA map on a wall, and would mark way-points everyday, or just sit and stare at it. At the end of it all, we decided to fly from Boston, MA to San Francisco, CA, pick up our rental car, and start a 9-day drive back to Boston. Each day is now documented, including the places we saw, the food we ate, and the funny/interesting/wild stuff we did/happened to us.

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Photos

Planning
Shailesh, Rashmi and Rama intensely discussing the schedule

Planning2
Saket during the introduction video shoot

Comments

[Rama]

"Just for Fun"
I think this was the time when we glorified this phrase and, I believe, "Just for Fun" approach led us to decide to fly onward and fly backward :)

[Rama]

A few additions
Let me add a few more things here that would fall under the pre-trip category. Researching and buying DSLR was also part of the planning process. Thanks to Amazon's 2 day shipping deal we got our cams in time for the trip, leaving us some room for learning. Then we also shot a few introductory videos that sort of kick start our trip.