Never thought I would see the day...

I don't get around a whole hell of a lot.  Before May of 2010, the farthest I had been from my hometown Sacramento, CA was Oregon.  Then I flew out to Bomb Prom, a moped rally in Cincinnati, Ohio.  One day while I was there, I went on a road trip with some friends from San Francisco and Sacramento.  We went and got too many fireworks in Kentucky, and went to what would be more appropriately called an alcoholics wet dream than a liquor store in Indiana (crap, I think it was Indiana).  All things considered it was a pretty short drive, but by the time I got back home and reflected on the whole trip to Ohio I realized something:  Why the hell didn't I do that sooner?

So I sat down and took a look at the vacation time I had saved up.  I did the math and decided that rather than my typical use for this time (an extended weekend here or there to go to a rally) I would go for broke and plan a balls out cross country road trip for a full month.  So I sold my small pickup, got a giant creeper van that measures gas mileage in feet rather than miles, and started saving.  I (with the help of a few awesome friends) did a lot to my van before I finally put in my time off request.  I made a sub floor with trap doors for storage, and a large storage compartment under the bed (pictured below)  I also put in carpeting, insulation, a new stereo, and 2 backup leisure batteries.  I hope to have the "kitchen" done in the next week or two.  Everything is pretty much all set now, and I am counting down the hours to June 17th when I leave on a 6,000+ mile road trip that will last about 40 days. 

 

My girlfriend Amy will be coming with me as far as Colorado to visit some great friends of ours, then its just me for the rest of the way.  Gas money is going to be tight, but I figure I will go as far as I can and if blow through half my savings before I get half way I will just turn around and take a nice leisurely drive back to the best coast and do lots of fishing.

I originally planned on just taking tons of pictures (which of course I still will), but I got a lot of pressure from friends, family, and coworkers to make a blog.  So...here is my shitty little concession.  I never thought I would see the day.  But I figure why not?  This will be an easy way for my family to know I am not dead, and it will be awesome for me to look back on.  We will see how much I actually update this thing.  Below is a map of my planned (hopeful) route.