The country is full of roads

Maps

I kept looking at maps, at Google Maps, and websites.  Which way to go?  I thought of going one way, but then found a different way, then still another way.  I was going to need to pin this down.  I looked closely at my Michelin Road Atlas, Google Map, and maps that I requested from the individual states through which I’d be travelling.  I was getting a good idea of where to go.

The things you don’t know

The planning of how long it would take for me to get from place to place was up in the air.  I mean, I THOUGHT I knew how long things would take, but then something would happen that would shatter my vision.  For example, I initially thought to go to New Orleans then travel along the coast on the Highway 90, through Mobile, AL then take the 98 all the way along the coast to the 221 near Perry, FL.  A mate of mine asked me how many days I had planned for that.  I told him one.  He laughed at me and told me it would take at least 2, maybe more.  He informed me that the GPS didn’t tell me that traffic would be moving at about 20mph on that route for the entire way.  The GPS definitely did not tell me that, he was correct.  I checked with another mate of mine and she verified what he said and told me I should either travel inland on the interstate or go a different way.

The first camping reservation I had made was on this route.  Having grown up in Monterey, I love the ocean and I was so looking forward to seeing the gulf.  Now it looked like my plans had to change.  As I have played around with the route and tried to hit every beautiful thing, the time I can expect to be gone has grown.  By a lot.  When I first looked at a map and traced the basic route, it seemed it would take me 22 days.  Now I was up to 29 days, and pushing the limits of what I would be able to do with both time and money.

Cancelled

I cancelled my reservation at Tate’s Hell and started to rethink.  It was time to look at this a different way.  I needed more flexibility in my schedule.  And I was getting a lot of input from my friends.  Why go to New Orleans, they asked?  I don’t drink and I’m a vegan.  I’m not interested in voodoo or haunted places, so why go?  Thinking on that I decided not to go to New Orleans.  Oh, I’ll still get to Louisiana, but not to New Orleans.  And I’m okay with that.  Although I’d love to try my hand at catching an alligator, I would probably stick to the northern parts of Alabama and Georgia, so I likely wouldn’t see any.

Evolution

My latest plan is to loosely follow the basic route across the south, up along the east coast and across the north.  However, daily mileages and exact stopping places won’t be part of the plan.  I am planning on places where I can stay, but there are a lot of them, all at various distances, so I can move as much as I like.  I’ve also accounted for some days where I may not feel like travelling, and at least two days where I won’t travel at all.

This trip sure has evolved already, and I’m only a couple of months into planning.  I can’t wait to see what actually happens!