Road Trip Playlist

Like Elmo, I am going to need plenty of music for the road trip. I recently bought the Griffin iTrip Auto FM Transmitter for my iPod which has great sound quality and also charges the iPod while it's plugged in. I have spent the last few nights downloading countless songs and arranging a few playlists. I made a pretty long one with some oldies and songs that are fun to sing along to, along with some classic road trip songs ("Ramblin' Man", "Free Bird", "Country Road", etc.), but the one I'll share with you is one with some of my favorite bands singing songs about various US states and cities that we all love.

1. NYC - Interpol

2. Florida - Modest Mouse

3. Rome - Phoenix

4. Tennessee - Silver Jews

5. Omaha - Tapes 'n Tapes

6. Alabama - Neil Young

7. L.A. - Elliott Smith

8. California - Phantom Planet

9. Baltimore - Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks

10. Arizona - Kings of Leon

11. Chicago - Sufjan Stevens

It takes too long to upload the mp3s, so if you want a copy of the list or any of the songs, just email me and let me know. Also let me know what some of your favorite road trip songs are!

CouchSurfing.org

According to Wikipedia, "A couch is a item of furniture for the comfortable seating of more than one person and typically has an armrest on either side. Couches are usually to be found in the family room, living room, den or the lounge. They are covered in a variety of textiles or in leather."

I first heard about CouchSurfing.org while reading articles from The Frugal Traveler (NYT journalist who traveled across the US). He really praised the site and the wonderful people he got to meet and stay with during his trip across the country. It sounded pretty cool to me, but I actually forgot about the whole thing until today when I started planning out the details of the trip and wondering where we were going to stay every night.

So I created an account, made a profile, and started looking for couches for us to sleep on. It really does sound like a great program and another way for us to truly "see America" and the people who live in it. And although I cant really let people stay on my couch right now (because I live in a dorm that does not have a couch), I will someday make my place available to couch surfers everywhere.

A map of all the available couches across the globe.

The Evolution of the Route

The Original Plan:

My first map of the trip (created in May 2007) involved going to the following places:

• begin in Atlanta
• Graceland (Memphis, TN)
• Smithsonian (Washington, D.C.)
• West Point, NY (to pick up a friend)
• Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (Cleveland, OH)
• Chicago, IL
• Mount Rushmore, SD
• Yellowstone National Park, WY
• Rocky Mountain National Park, CO
• Route 66 (via Albuquerque, NM)
• Grand Canyon, AZ
• Las Vegas, NV
• Death Valley, CA
• Yosemite National Park, CA
• Monterey, CA (my birthplace)

The total distance would have been 8,652 miles.

West Point came off the trip plans because Im no longer in touch with my friend there. Chicago came off because we roadtripped there last summer for Lollapalooza. Everything else pretty much stayed the same, with minor adjustments, for my second plan (created in December 2008):

The major addition was stopping in southern California and driving back through central Texas through El Paso (I think a quick trip into Mexico was included).

• begin in Atlanta
• Graceland (Memphis, TN)
• Mount Rushmore, SD
• Yellowstone National Park, WY
• Rocky Mountain National Park, CO
• Route 66 (via Albuquerque, NM)
• Grand Canyon, AZ
• Las Vegas, NV
• Death Valley, CA
• Yosemite National Park, CA
• San Francisco, CA
• Los Angeles, CA
• San Diego, CA
• Phoenix, AZ
• El Paso, TX
• Dallas, TX

The total distance would have been 7,335 miles.

This map has stayed the tentative plan for the last six months while trying to plan the details of the trip. I didnt change to my final(?) map until a few weeks ago. I took Graceland off and I decided to cut off Yellowstone and Yosemite because they are trips in themselves. My mom told me not to drive through Texas but to take I-40 back home (see some of old Route 66). The last to come off was San Francisco, mainly because it was too out of the way and LA was closer and more summer-ish.

The Proposed Route (as of 06/21/09, two weeks out):

Obviously, the major addition to this plan was the drive to Buffalo, NY after we return from out west. My girlfriend Liz who is flying down to Atlanta to go on the trip is from there and I figured, why not just drive her home and spend some time in Buffalo/Canada with her before coming home? The other two additions are stopping at Arches National Park/Canyonlands National Park in Utah and at Mesa Verde/Four Corners in Colorado.

• begin in Atlanta
• Mount Rushmore, SD
• Rocky Mountain National Park, CO
• Denver, CO
• Arches National Park, Utah
• Mesa Verde, CO
• Four Corners
• Grand Canyon, AZ
• Las Vegas, NV
• Los Angeles, CA
• Phoenix, AZ
• Route 66 (via Albuquerque, NM)
• back home to Atlanta

• Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (Cleveland, OH)
• Buffalo, NY
• back home to Atlanta

The total distance is going to be 7,232 miles.

The Inspiration for the Trip

I guess the inspiration for this road trip came during the winter of tenth grade (2005) when my parents decided it would be fun to leave Sydney on New Year’s Eve and drive seven hours to see the Outback, take the above picture, then turn around and drive back. I thought it would be cool to do a similar trip across America, stopping at everywhere i had ever wanted to go. So I began visualizing the road trip way back then, planning to go the summer after senior year. There was too much going on last summer, however, so we werent able to do it then, although we did make it to Chicago for Lollapalooza. The plans for the trip have changed a lot in the last few years, but it looks as though the trip across America is finally going to happen.