June 20th, 2001

No pictures again today...

Alie and I sat down for the better part of the day and plotted out our course across the states. We've decided to attempt to do Route 66 in reverse, going from Los Angeles to Chicago. How feasible this is remains to be seen... we might end up sticking primarily to Interstate if time isn't on our side.

For transportation we found a company called AutoDriveAway that basically gives you a car to drive for free, provided you'll drive it to where they need it. We found someone needing a car transported from San Diego to Chicago... a later model Honda Accord.

Once in Chicago we're planning on either staying at some local youth hostels and meeting some of the other travellers in the area or staying with some family from my mother's side that I have in the vicinity...
Or perhaps a combination of both.

From there, we're taking Amtrak east to Washington DC to poke around the nation's capital for a day or so... then we're renting another car and heading south to Wake Forest, North Carolina to visit some friends of mine down there(hiya Jon and Diana!)

When we've worn out our welcome there, we're going to drive west to Tennessee and visit relatives of Alie's on the southern part of the state, from there, we'll head south to New Orleans, then east towards Pensacola, where I'll visit my grandmother and grandfather on my Mom's side... and where I'll drop off Alie. From there, I'll head over to Jacksonville to visit my family and what friends I can see... and at the beginning of August, fly back to Iowa to resume work and school.

Tonight, after the planning was done, we had dinner at Tina's place with Dan, the kids and Aunt Sandy. It finally hit me that I would be leaving soon... that in a couple days time I'd be driving across the Mojave Desert on my way to Las Vegas...

While the prospect of the open road is exciting, I find that having to leave Fresno almost negates the joy of the highway.