Reservations begin

I started making some reservations this week. I recall that when I was a kid and my family would go on road trips, there was something about not being able to make reservations at national parks until 6 months out. Apparently, this has changed with the Internet, because when I was looking into reservations for a couple of the places 9 months out, they're already pretty full. In fact, for the dates that I had wanted to go to the Grand Canyon (north rim), there was already one night that was unavailable. So I shifted the whole trip up 2 days and started booking. So now the plan is to leave on Thursday, May 9. I'll be at the Grand Canyon Lodge on the day that it opens for the season. 

I also booked a room in the Many Glacier Lodge in Glacier National Park and a room in the Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone. The Old Faithful Inn was already pretty booked, so I ended up in a room with a shared bathroom, which will be just fine. The important thing is that I'm in the Inn. 

I also used google maps to create an image of the route that I plan on taking. I posted it on Facebook last night and a lot of people joined in my excitement for the trip. I've started reaching out to some people with whom I would like to stay along the way. It's great having so many friends all around the country, so I'll get a chance to visit with so many people that I haven't seen in a long time!

I also have an open invitation to any friends that would like to join me for portions of the trip along the way. I'm really hoping that my brother will be able to get off work and join me in Disney World for my birthday! How fun would that be??? 

Please feel free to let me know if you're on my route and would like to get together while I'm in town or if you're interested in joining me along the way. My only thing is that I have the dates pretty meticulously planned out in order to reach specific points at specific times. So I can let you know when I'll be where, but there's not much wiggle room in adjusting those dates. What will actually be done along the way or in destination cities is up for adjustment, if necessary. 

Responsibilites

My life has always been full of responsibilities. I thrive on filling my schedule with various activities, and I guess that I often naturally fall into leadership roles. I was president of the Austin Handbell Ensemble. I was social chair for my UVA alumni chapter. I am on the organizing committee for the Junior League of Austin's A Christmas Affair event. I stage manage a never-ending list of shows. And I have a day job. Now these are all things that I very much enjoy, even the day job. Yeah, some days suck, but for the most part, my schedule is full of things I love. But it can be a lot. I literally schedule things like "eat", "drive", and "shower" into my calendar. This is the life I've chosen and the life I love.

But I get burnt out. And sometime in the last year, I realized just how burnt out I really was. So I decided to take the summer off of stage managing. I usually stage manage at Zilker every summer. I started out there in 2003 as a random backstage crew member. By 2005, I was co-deck manager. In 2008, I became the lone deck manager. And in 2009, I added rehearsal stage manager as well. Last year, I even had the opportunity to call the show for a weekend. FYI - deck manager means you're in charge of everything (set, props, actors, etc) on the actual stage, rehearsal stage manager means you're in charge of organizing rehearsals, and calling the show means coordinating lights, sound, and the running of the actual show. So, Zilker has always been a part of my summers. It's been a large part. It's a huge commitment. 7-ish weeks of rehearsal followed by a 6-week run. During rehearsals, I'm there pretty much every night and once the show opens, it's 4 nights a week (Thursday-Sunday). So I decided that this year, I'd take the summer off and not do Zilker. It was a hard decision to make, but I knew that I needed it for my own sanity. I ended up filling up May and June with a ton of traveling. And July and August, I had a lot more free time than I usually do. Now, for various reasons, I did end up back at Zilker for a total of 12 nights this year, but still, it was a significant step back. And, for the most part, the nights that I was there, I wasn't in charge. I wasn't responsible for the show. I could come in, do my part, and let someone else deal with the responsibility that I usually had.

And what did I learn from that? I learned that stepping away from that responsibility and handing if off to someone else for a time felt great. I started to see how much responsibility I had taken on in all areas of my life. And I yearned for more freedom. More opportunities to step away from the responsibilities of life. So the question became, what can I do to experience a break? But not just a week, not just a month. A significant, long-term break from everything. And I started thinking about my road trip again. I pulled out the spreadsheet and started playing with it. Enhancing the functionality of it. Making it easier for me to plan and plan and re-plan. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it could be an actual reality for me. I ran some rough numbers on the financials and realized that I could do it. I could go next summer. So the more I've thought about it, and the more people I've told, the more solid the plan becomes. It's happening. I've even already told my boss at my day job, and he's totally supportive and has told me that I'll have place when I come back.

So, here's the current plan. Leaving Austin on May 11, 2013. I'll pack up my apartment and put everything into storage. I still have to find someone who would be willing to watch my two cats for the summer, but I'm sure I'll find someone. Doing a clockwise loop around the country. Returning to Austin August 30. I have 36 destinations and many, many places to stop at between the destinations. Some other time, I'll talk about the in-between stops, but for now, here are the destinations:

1. Oklahoma City
2. Denver
3. Grand Canyon
4. Las Vegas
5. San Diego
6. Los Angeles
7. Monterey, CA
8. San Francisco
9. Healdsburg, CA
10. Portland, OR
11. Seattle
12. Vancouver
13. Bull Hill Guest Ranch
14. Glacier National Park
15. Yellowstone National Park
16. Chicago
17. Toronto
18. Cooperstown, NY
19. Ottawa
20. Boston
21. Martha's Vineyard
22. New York City
23. Philadelphia
24. Bridgeport, NJ
25. Wilmington, DE
26. Lancaster, PA
27. Baltimore, MD
28. Washington DC
29. Charlottesville, VA
30. Asheville, NC
31. Wilmington, NC
32. Charleston, SC
33. Savannah, GA
34. Disney World
35. Pensacola, FL
36. New Orleans

Let's start at the very beginning

Don't judge me by my post title. I still have Sound of Music brain. By the way, you want to find an amazing community theatre organization with a long history of quality musical productions? Check out www.zilker.org. And stay tuned in the future for some of my favorite theatre stories, most of which occurred out at the park.

I guess it was about 2 years ago when I randomly got the urge to go on a road trip. I don't know where the urge came from, but somehow the seed got planted. I decided to brainstorm possible places I would go. At the time, I had no real idea of when I could go or whether it would actually happen, but since I am basically an obsessive planner, the idea of planning out a road trip just for fun sounded like a good time. Yes, I know I am an uber-dork. I'm ok with that.

Step number 1. Where are all of the places I want to go?
This wasn't all that difficult. My family took a pretty extensive road trip every summer as I was growing up. Every August, we would hit the road for 3 weeks. And keep a log. Yeah. Ask me about when I tried to keep a log of our college road trip to Florida and my roommates looked at me like I had 3 heads. So, anyway, I have already traveled to a lot of places across the country, but it's been years since I've been. There are some places that I remember fondly and want to see again as an adult (Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, Yellowstone, Denver), some places that I remember fondly, but don't really need to see again (Mesa Verde, Mount Rushmore, St Louis Arch), and some places that I haven't gotten to yet (Glacier National Park, Seattle, Portland, Vancouver). Plus, there are the places where I have friends or family that I really want to visit or destinations that I just really want to go to again. So, anyway, I made a list. A very extensive list. Of all the possible places I wanted to go. It's actually changed a couple times since the initial list, but most of the original list has remained. The current list has 39 destinations.

Step number 2. Figure out the basic route.
I then took all the possible places I wanted to go and put them on a map. I will obviously start and end in Austin, so do I start going west or east? In any direction, the drive out of Texas is at least 4 hours, so whatever my first destination is is going to be a ways away. So flip a coin and decide to go west first. Clockwise around the country it is. The original plan was for my first stop to be the Grand Canyon, but at some point, I decided a 3-day drive to start the trip was too much, so I decided to go to Denver first and added in a stop in Oklahoma City for good measure.

Step number 3. Create a spreadsheet.
Ah, spreadsheets. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I can make a spreadsheet for basically anything. My movie spreadsheet in college that was an inventory of all of my VHS tapes? My meal planning spreadsheets to organize my grocery shopping and massive cook days? My budget spreadsheet to track all my finances? Good times, all of them. Like the route, the road trip planning spreadsheet has evolved extensively. What started as a simple list of destinations now encompasses lookups to Google Maps to determine driving distances and times, the ability to dynamically change the route based on operating hours of the establishments that I want to visit, and automatic calculations of mileage and expected expenses.

And then at some point, I stalled. I had the idea, I had the spreadsheet, I had the plans, and I didn't think it would happen. It seemed like a pipe dream. See, the original plan was for 2 people. Me and ______. So I figured that I would put the plans on the shelf until there was someone to go with me. And every once in a while, I'd think, "I really want to go. Some day. Some day."

My dream trip.

Yesterday was my 32nd birthday. It was fine. Not my best birthday, not my worst. And not a particularly significant birthday, by any means. But it held a slight twinge for me. you see, in college, my roommates and I had this theory about "ideal ages," or the age a person was born to be. One friend's was 7, one was 14, one was 50, one was 25 or so, and mine was 32. Thirty-two, because, by that age, I would be married, likely have a couple of kids and be a soccer mom living the suburban dream. But that's not where I am today. Far from it. And thank goodness for that. I am single, live close to downtown, have a great day job, am active in theatre, have a ton of activities, and fill my time with things of my choosing. I love the life I've built. Do I want it forever? No. But I want it for now, and that's what counts.

So, here I am - 32, single, living in what I consider to be the best city in the country, active, social, and mostly happy. Yet I'm feeling restless. I've been burdened by great responsibilities for years. And I love taking on responsibility in general, but I'm feeling a strong desire to shed those responsibilities for a while and experience life without them. So I'm planning a road trip. It's something I've been planning for years, and I'm now acting on it. Next summer, I will be traveling across the United States (with a couple stops in Canada as well) for three and a half months. My plan is to put most of my possessions in storage, find someone who can watch my cats while I'm gone, pack up my car and head out.

Being me, I have an extensive spreadsheet with my plans. And it's still in the works. The route and stops along the way are set, but seeing as I love the planning process, it all could change tomorrow. And yes, I'm planning on going by myself. Head out on the open road with only me and my stuff. I hope to see a lot of friends along the way, but there is sure to be a great deal of alone time, and I'm totally ok with that. Like I said, the goal is to get away from my responsibilities for an extended period of time.

Over the next 9 months, I want to document my planning process and see how things change. And when the time comes to pack up my car, I plan on continuing to write (hopefully not while I'm driving) to keep a record of this trip of a lifetime. So come along with me if you like. This is only the beginning.