Preliminary Planning Stage 1

So in the interest of getting ready for this trip I've started the preliminary planning for this coming winter/spring. I'm driving every couple days with my grandma (and I'm getting a bit better too, I'm starting the car on the first try without stalling out most of the time now). I also purchased a US road map and have been attempting to figure out distances of travel and plan on and pick which cities to visit. Devon insists that we should go through Austin, TX, but I think that by the time we're in Lincoln, NE we're just going to want to get home. I offered the compromise that we figure out the trip going both routes and then decide when we're in Lincoln what we want to do. I'm attempting to try and consider this as realistically as possible, although I have no context to compare it too. But now it's solidified that the end of the trip will need to be in April, as there is no way neither of us (nor the car, most probably) want to be in the heat of the southwest in the summer.

The next stage, after figuring out a basic route, will be to do research on the decided cities. I'm attempting to contact people I already know in those cities or who have been to those cities for information. I also want to conduct practice interviews with people in the local all-ages community. I will begin to shop for digital cameras and microphones with Russ. Russ and I are also planning a sort of practice road-trip, going down to visit my dad in S. Lake Tahoe this winter (and I can start research and info gathering there while I'm at it). My goal is to take an equal share in driving, and also to bring Gus (the black car) down there. Dad has agreed to teach me how to put chains on Gus and drive with them on the car, a skill I'll most likely need when I'm traveling through Montana, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and the Dakotas.

I'll be putting up the preliminary destinations, a started rough draft of my goals and objectives for the trip (for magazines and/or people in areas I'm unfamiliar with to show them what I'm after), and possibly see if I can make a Google map of the trip... all in the next few days (I hope).