I felt like celebrating our first mega step forward in the roadtrip planning process (visiting AAA today with Aparna to map out the route and order our custom TripTic guide book) with the very first blog post! Yay! Or rather, it was really quite about time that I got this up and running now that we are roughly 3.5 weeks out. No worries--I'm not starting the countdown quite yet.
Basically, we'll use this blog (aparnaandaliatakeatrip.blogspot.com if you want to search it at any time) to keep any and all friends, family, and conscientious observers informed of how the planning process is going. And when we finally do hit the road, you can read about our adventures along the way!
If you haven't been in my proximity enough over the last several months of brainstorming this epic adventure to have already heard, allow me to catch you up. Way back during fall term, Aparna and I were each discussing our dreams of one day roadtripping around the U.S. and...it just kinda happened! She said 'Let's do it' and I said 'Really?!'
We decided to head out after graduation for a summer adventure that would take us in a giant loop around the States. We brainstormed all the cities in which we knew people or had possible connections to crashable couches...I think seeing the extensiveness of that list alone made me realize this was actually a feasible making-of-a-dream! And I was so excited I broke the news to my family at Thanksgiving dinner! (I figured 6 months out was maybe enough time for my mom to get used to the idea...possibly even enough for her to be excited FOR me, too.) ;) And I've been saving my pennies ever since!
So we have set out our route to head south from Tigard to...
Ashland
the Redwoods
Reno
Las Vegas
the Grand Canyon
Flagstaff
the Petrified Forest
Chaco Canyon
Albuquerque
Dallas/Fort Worth
Austin
Houston
New Orleans
Jacksonville
Orlando
Raleigh
DC (Hopefully in time to celebrate the nation's b-day!)
Amish country (at the LOVELY prompting of Gramma Betty <3 )
Niagra Falls
Toronto
Chicago
Milwaulkee
Minneapolis
St. Cloud
the Badlands/Mt. Rushmore
Denver
Salt Lake City
Yellowstone
Tri-Cities
...and on toward home down the Gorge...all in 4 weeks...in a rental car.
I sincerely hope that y'all are as excited for us as we are. Please do leave us comments and suggestions (and love and support) now and throughout the trip because half the fun (at least) about all this is that we get to see some far-off faces and get to know your distant corners of the country!
lovelovelove,
Alia
Basically, we'll use this blog (aparnaandaliatakeatrip.blogspot.com if you want to search it at any time) to keep any and all friends, family, and conscientious observers informed of how the planning process is going. And when we finally do hit the road, you can read about our adventures along the way!
If you haven't been in my proximity enough over the last several months of brainstorming this epic adventure to have already heard, allow me to catch you up. Way back during fall term, Aparna and I were each discussing our dreams of one day roadtripping around the U.S. and...it just kinda happened! She said 'Let's do it' and I said 'Really?!'
We decided to head out after graduation for a summer adventure that would take us in a giant loop around the States. We brainstormed all the cities in which we knew people or had possible connections to crashable couches...I think seeing the extensiveness of that list alone made me realize this was actually a feasible making-of-a-dream! And I was so excited I broke the news to my family at Thanksgiving dinner! (I figured 6 months out was maybe enough time for my mom to get used to the idea...possibly even enough for her to be excited FOR me, too.) ;) And I've been saving my pennies ever since!
So we have set out our route to head south from Tigard to...
Ashland
the Redwoods
Reno
Las Vegas
the Grand Canyon
Flagstaff
the Petrified Forest
Chaco Canyon
Albuquerque
Dallas/Fort Worth
Austin
Houston
New Orleans
Jacksonville
Orlando
Raleigh
DC (Hopefully in time to celebrate the nation's b-day!)
Amish country (at the LOVELY prompting of Gramma Betty <3 )
Niagra Falls
Toronto
Chicago
Milwaulkee
Minneapolis
St. Cloud
the Badlands/Mt. Rushmore
Denver
Salt Lake City
Yellowstone
Tri-Cities
...and on toward home down the Gorge...all in 4 weeks...in a rental car.
I sincerely hope that y'all are as excited for us as we are. Please do leave us comments and suggestions (and love and support) now and throughout the trip because half the fun (at least) about all this is that we get to see some far-off faces and get to know your distant corners of the country!
lovelovelove,
Alia
