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.