I'll Know When I Get There

When one puts together a 1,600 mile road trip west there is a certain amount of planning that needs to take place beforehand. How much depends upon your style. One can go with a full strategic plan, one can think strategically, or one can just head west and figure out where you are when you get there.

I am transporting some family belongings handed down from my parents to my siblings who all live in various towns spread out in Colorado. With a bit of free time and a need to get this move done sooner rather than later I made a decision to do the move myself rather than hiring a moving company. In a previous life I had some experience in packing and short distance moving. I have never driven across the country further than Minnesota and I have a desire to see how towns are doing economically between here and there.

The truck rental place allows for six days and 1,600 miles so those were the parameters of my travels. I have one brother who lives in Longmont, one brother who lives in Beulah, west of Pueblo, and a sister who lives in between in Littleton. I asked and was turned down for travel companionship by both my wife and daughter; my wife because she done that drive before and did not look forward to doing it again, my daughter because she is just graduated from college and back from a month of house rehab and construction in Kentucky and is starting a new job shortly. So I made a decision to do it alone splitting the twenty hour drive up over four days.

I got some maps and figured on not driving on the interstate perhaps driving on the Lincoln Highway (US30) but no pathway certain. I filled up an MP3 player with great tunes and got a few books on tape. I got new batteries for my camera and planned to post somewhere. As I do not have a smart phone I planned on taking my computer with an air card.

Luckily I didn't complete a strategic plan as my sister arranged for my nephew to accompany me, which is actually something good, not having to do it alone. My nephew is a new history/math teacher and crew coach and is in a job search in the Washington DC area and looks to be an interesting travel companion. However, he seems to be into deeper planning than I am.

We shall see.