The Trip's conception, issues, and resolutions

North America » United States
February 22nd 2009

Published: February 22nd 2009

So this past summer my friend Tyler was telling me about how there was this local band he really wanted to see. The problem was, they were local in Seattle, Washington and we live in Reading, Pennsylvania. He was telling me about how he wanted to see them, but the only way to get there was to fly out there, which he couldn't afford. And I thought "we could drive there." We sort of tossed the idea around in our head, but we realized it never work because it would still be too expensive on short notice and the concert was when our school years began.

My brain couldn't get the idea out. Driving across the country, just me and a good friend or two. It all started because of a concert, and now it's become a month-long road trip all around the country.

Over the next few months I started to try and find recruits to go around the country with my this coming summer (of '09). No matter what I wouldn't go without my best friend, Evan. We've been best friends since second grade, and we joked about the idea of a road trip several years ago saying we'd one day go on one together-- and I wanted this to be the time. I wanted to bring three people and I worked very hard to try and get another friend of mine to go, Ashton, but after a month of trying to convince him (and mostly his mother), he simply couldn't go.

With absolutely no luck with anyone else because they didn't have any money to spare (most of my friends are either still in high school, or starting college, after all), I convinced Evan that me and him should just go ourselves. He was a little apprehensive, and to be honest, so was I, but we came to the conclusion we'd still have a blast, even if it was just the two of us.

We plan to leave around May 8th (or whichever day is the day after our last final) and return by June 10th. That should give us a solid month to make our way around the country without being overly rushed. We're taking my vehicle, a 1998 Dodge Durango. At a whopping 15 MPG highway (if you're lucky), this probably isn't the most logical choice. But I have my reasons. My Durango and I have done a lot together. We've done many short trips to various paintball fields within a few states of PA, we've gone mudding together many times, we've gotten some air a few times during various excursions, I've called her home a few times on extended leave from my house, and we've even beaten a street racing car whose driver thought they were faster than my v8 engine at 100 MPH (but don't tell my parents, haha!). I probably sound like a creep referring to my car as a she, but the Durango has treated my family well ever since we got it 10 years ago, and in the approximate 30,000 miles I've put on her in the past 2 years, she's never let me down.

So where are we going? I have a few places that are landmarks for our route, but I'm trying to keep it fairly vague. I only have a few guidelines for our trip, but I'm doing my best to keep it as spontaneous as possible. Our route will take us from Reading, PA (my hometown), to Mt Rushmore in South Dakota, up through some of Washington, down the Pacific Coast (Route 1) in California into San Francisco, over to Yosemite National Park, down past Vegas to the Grand Canyon, over to Four Corners, then pick one of several routes home that go through the tiny town of Bueno Vista, VA, which just so happens to have the best seafood restaurant I've ever been to, then home. There are quite a few things to do in between these places, and we experience as much of it as we can.

From my estimations, the trip will be a total of 7,100 miles. I figured we'll end up driving at least 7,500 with the various offshoots we're likely to take, but who knows where we could end up in a month. If we're lucky, and the little bit of research I've done on the estimated gas prices is correct, gas shouldn't cost us more than $1,000, which is perfect because my dad offered to give me $1,000 for gas for the trip (he's been encouraging me to go on this trip since I mentioned Tyler and I's scheme from last summer).

I've been saving up money to spend on something useful to me when I turned 18 since I was about 9 years old, be it from a car or an apartment or something else useful to me - but since I already have a car and I'll be living with my parents for at least another year because I commute to college, I decided I would spend some of the money on this road trip. However, my friend Evan got his money for this trip in a slightly different manner. Some guy ran into his $500 junker car and did $2,200 in damages. So, he's setting $1,000 aside for this trip and spending the rest on a new car. To make the trip more fair for Evan, I decided I would set a budget of $1,000 for myself as well for the trip, so that I'm not eating at a dinner while he's ordering from the dollar menu at McDonald's. That gives us about $33 each in spending money per day, which I think will be more than ample since we'll be camping most nights and preparing most of our food as we go along instead of using pricier alternatives.

I have a few goals for myself on this trip:

Right now we're still in the planning stages. The Durango needs a major overhaul. She is going to need new tires and have the wheels/steering re-aligned. I have to turn the wheel a good 20 degrees to the left to get her to go straight (too much offroading, I think). The engine needs to get flushed, I need new filters, and I'm sure they'll find a few other things to fix before the big day, but I'm sure she'll run just fine during the trip. In the 30,000 miles we've gone the worst thing that has ever happened was a broken power steering line (the day I got my license, I was practicing parallel parking for 2 hours and the extreme turns over-stressed the line), and a leaky brake line once. But the engine has run solid since the day we got it, and I'm sure we'll be just fine.

I'll try to update once in awhile before the trip to mention how far we've gotten in planning and preparing. I hope you've enjoyed reading this, and I hope you'll all enjoy hearing about our trip starting in two months, fourteen days.

The Trip's conception, issues, and resolutions

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