The Call of the Open Road

May 16th.  This is the time of year when I'm usually frantically trying to plan a vacation and fretting over the fact that I have no plans all summer long.  Then, two weeks from now, I would normally be stressing out that I only have two free weekends all summer long and wishing I wouldn't have made so many plans.  Things are a little different this year, and I already have some things planned.  In June I'm going to Denver for a long weekend as the Minneapolis/St. Paul Alumnae Delegate for the Delta Gamma Convention.  When I get home Beth and the nerdlet are coming to visit (She's just been given clearance to fly!  Hooray!), and then I'll be traveling back to Fort Wayne with them (with a stop to see Mom*Star and Ron, of course) to help get ready for the baby and to help with a family project at The Quinn Inn.  Over the 4th of July Jan and Ron are coming up to visit, and then in the middle of July I'm heading to Tucson to get our Libby married off (with a stop in Phoenix for some quality time with da Evabug).  When I get back Missy and Sean are going to visit from St. Louis, and then in August I'll head to Chicago for Tyler and Debbie's wedding, where I've just accepted the honor of being "the Wedding Gestapo" and where I fully intend to actually re-wear a bridesmaid dress.


I'm incredibly excited about all of these summer events.  I'm already planning excursions for my visitors, I've bought dresses and plane tickets for weddings and conventions, and of course I'm already stockpiling gifts for Baby Slater (due in October).  But.  Something is missing.  And if you know me very well, you probably know what it is: a road trip.

On February 4th I dug out a gift card and headed to Borders.  When I got there I beelined it to the Travel section and an hour later I walked out with three books.  The first book I chose was Road Trip USA: Cross-Country Adventures on America's Two-Lane Highways by Jamie Jensen.

I chose it because, of all the books there it seemed to have the most detailed information about Historic Route 66 which, since the end of East Coast Road Trip 2009 last July I have been determined to make the next road trip.  (I'm not sure how the road trip girls--Colleen/Crackleen, Eva/da Evabug, & Nancy/Pants feel about this.  I've mentioned it once or twice and Colleen was the only one who responded.)  Pages 798-880 of Road Trip USA are devoted entirely to Route 66, and I read every word the day I bought the book.  The author details the trip geographically from Chicago to Los Angeles (the traditional direction to drive it) suggesting places to stay, places to eat, and of course roadside attractions to see along the way.  Much of Route 66 has been covered over with four-lane freeways and he even tells you which exits to take in order to drive the original two-lane portions of the highway that are still open for driving.  And, in case I didn't get my road trip fill from reading about Route 66 (11) (and you know I didn't), he also details several famous north-south routes like The Pacific Coast (1), Border to Border (2), The Road to Nowhere (3), The Great River Road (4), The Appalachian Trail (5), The Atlantic Coast (6) as well as other famous cross-country routes like The Great Northern (7), The Oregon Trail (8), the Loneliest road (9), and the Southern Pacific (10).

The second book I bought was Queen of the Road by Doreen Orion.  I wasn't sure what to expect from this book, but I read it cover to cover in just a couple of days and by the end of it I wanted to buy and renovate a bus, then spend a year driving around the country.  The author and her husband do just that, and the adventures they have along the way had me laughing out loud and wondering if we could rent an RV for our next road trip.  Granted that would eliminate the fun of haggling for hotel rooms and contests to see who can a) score us the cheapest room or b) get us the AAA discount without our actually having a AAA membership, but I suspect that cruising in an RV would create its own fun new adventures!  (Dump stations, anyone??)

The third book that went home with me was The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America by Bill Bryson.  If you haven't read this or any of Bill's other books you really need to because he's just hilarious.  (A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail is brilliant!)  In The Lost Continent Bill also drives around the country, revisiting places his father took him as a child.  While he spent more time visiting "boring historic places" than I would, the way he describes the towns he drives through made me long for that kind of adventure.


It's been nearly a year since we kicked off East Coast Road Trip 2009, and it's been nearly a year that I've been looking forward to Road Trip 2010.  Unfortunately my road trip reading hasn't cured the travel bug.  Rather, it's exacerbated it.  So, ladies, I know it's going to be another busy summer for all of us, but if you have time for a road trip let me know--I'm in!