Road Trip: The Planning Stage

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So today begins the progress of the official plans for our road trip. The question now is...where will we go? East? West? South? NORTH TO ALASKA!!? hahaha (probably not) but...it's an exciting prospect.

Regardless...I am serious about this proposal. I feel that you two are the only ones who will actually follow through with this. I want this more than anything. Everyone else I know has jobs, and soon we will all have big girl jobs too, so I really want to do this now more than ever. Please be involved and keep planning! if you don't do it, I swear I will go by myself!

Our assignments: pick the region you would most likely roadtrip to and do some research as to which cities/monuments/events/museums/festivals/restaurants/national landmarks you would like to visit. We need to get a decent idea of where we could potentially travel and which would be the best for all of us in terms of where we've been before, where we would like to go, etc.

I feel that if we all talk about this thoroughly, considering what each of us want to see, we can make an informed decision of what to expect and exactly what we'll be doing and how long to spend at each stop.

So I think that we should start with the west, since I think, honestly, that's on the top of my list even though I really have no preference cause I think that they'd all be awesome.

Start here (Sag? Ann Arbor? anywhere in Michigan, I don't really care.) head west to:

**do we want to stop on Chicago for a night? visit our friends? it would be a good time, but we've been there lots of times, so I guess it depends on time

**Omaha: I hear that it's a fun city, we could play Counting Crows on repeat for a good hour and discover some really cool things about Nebraska. Definitely on the top of my list. Still, from Ann Arbor to Omaha it's 11 hrs so it would be about a whole day of driving.

**As an alternative, I've always really wanted to head north to Mt. Rushmore, simply to see that. It's quite a ways north though so we would have to take a great deal of time to alter our route. (It's 8.5 hours from Omaha)

**From Omaha, if we choose not to head north to Mt. Rushmore then it's 8.25 miles to Denver, which I've never been to and I've also heard is amazing. I think that's a sufficient time to travel and a good stopping point.

**However, if we DO go north to see Mt. Rushmore, it's almost directly west to see Yellowstone which is even higher on my list. I WANT to see the geysers!!! I think it'd be awesome. We could camp, hotel, whatever. I really want to see yellowstone. (its about 9 hours from Rushmore to Yellowstone)

**From there, I would vote straight south to Salt Lake City (totally want to see the Great Salk Lake) not to mention all of the crazy mormons! (it's 7 hours from Yellowstone to Salt Lake)

**From Salt Lake (Mormon Country...) straight to VEGAS. Our trip out west would not be complete without a stop in Sin City. (6.5 hours from SLC to Vegas!)

**If time allows, we could always continue on from LV to LA...totally depends on time though. LA is gorgeous...we could go star searching, check out the hills...it's amazing. We'll see. (4 hours, 20 min)

**If NOT...I DEFINITELY want to see the Grand Canyon.

**From the Grand Canyon to Albuquerque ~7 hours

**Albuquerque to Oklahoma City ~8 hours

**Oklahoma City to St. Louis ~ 7 hours

**St. Louis to Detroit ~9 hours

Now I know that's a lot of driving. That's me being a little excessive, we would probably have to cut it down a bit...but let me know what you guys think!

Your assignments: think of where you would want to go IF we went west, haha. We'll do south and east later! There are so many options! Can't wait.

<3 you both.

-Nat

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Comments

[NatJenBeth]

Oh the possibilities! Okay, I was seriously considering Grand Canyon too, HOWEVER, my Dad just talked to some family friends who went there last same and the said the heat was unbearable. They couldn't get out of the car for more than 5 minutes. Plus it is quite far. I say let's stay a little northern? I went to Mt Rushmore/Yellowstone as a child and LOVED it. I totally would not mind going there again. Going all the way to Vegas would be great. But it would take 2 days just to drive home, and if we only have 10 that might be tricky. How about Chicago, Mt. Rushmore, Yellowstone, then hit more spots on the way back?? Just a thought :-) There are also lots of old western stuff around there. Like Jesse James type landmarks haha. Finally, what's a good take off sate for you all? I know you said Friday-Sunday, but I couldn't leave any earlier than the 25th because I work until the 23rd. Even a week long trip would be worth it!! -Beth