Preparing to Leave

Originally, we were planning on leaving for our cross country trip on Friday, July 12th. But after some work schedule-manuevering done by Kenny, we've realized we could leave on Saturday, July 6th instead. This will make our driving a little less frantic, and allow us to spend some more time in California! I've been doing some hard-core researching, planning, and cross-referencing between books, websites and friendly suggestions, and think my itinerary is pretty much planned out.

I've created a handy Road Trip 2013 guide in my awesome Decomposition Book with maps, estimated driving times, attractions, restaurants, and hotels in each place we plan to stop.

Destinations I hope to reach

I had a plan laid out for 29 days, but now I believe we're pushing 35. This will be great to eliminate the few 17-hour driving days I had planned, and replacing them with shorter bursts, and more time to explore the places that we're stopping.

Originally what my itinerary looked like

Schedule now

 And here is a list of the places that we're planning on stopping and/or spending some time in:

• Front Royal, VA
• Skyline Drive
• Blue Ridge Parkway
• Asheville, NC
• Great Smoky Mountain Nat'l Park
• Gatlinburg, TN
• Nashville, TN
• Memphis, TN
• Little Rock, AK
• Oklahoma City, OK
• Amarillo, TX
• Taos, NM
• Taos Pueblo, NM
• Chimayo, NM
• Santa Fe, NM
• Acoma Pueblo, NM
• Gallup, NM
• Sedona, AZ
• Flagstaff, AZ
• Grand Canyon, AZ
• Williams, AZ
• Las Vegas, NV
• Los Angeles, CA
• Joshua Tree, CA
• Malibu, CA
• Santa Monica, CA
• San Diego, CA
• Orange County, CA
• Santa Barbara, CA 
• San Luis Obispo, CA
• Morro Bay, CA
• Cambria, CA
• Big Sur/Monterey, CA
• Carmel, CA
• San Jose, CA
• San Francisco, CA
• Yosemite, CA
• Moab, UT
• Arches National Park, UT
• Mesa Verde, CO
• Silverton, CO
• Glenwood Springs, CO
• Vail, CO
• Denver, CO
•  Boulder, CO
• Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park
• Hot Springs, SD
• Cheyenne, WY
• Mount Rushmore, SD
• Rapid City, SD
• Custer State Park, SD
• Badlands Nat'l Park, SD
• Minneapolis, MN
• St Paul, MN
• Bloomington, MN
• Milwaukee, WI
• Madison, WI
• Chicago, IL
• Cleveland, OH

I've finished buying just about everything we need for the trip, and hope it will fit into the little guy that's gonna drive us 7,000+ miles!

Just 4 days!