Epic Summer Road Trip 2019: Stage 2 - Planning (How long can we road trip?)

Back in 1986 my parents loaded my sister (Heather) and I into the family truckster for a six week road trip from Scipio Center, NY all the way to the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State.  My kids are currently somewhat cool to the idea of a summer-long road trip since it will require quite a bit of driving and they'll be away from their friends, the house, the dog, and... oh yeah, their mom for most of the summer.  I remember being apprehensive as a kid about going on a long road trip since I was missing a big chunk of the summer at home and more importantly, I was missing the summer soccer season.

The 1986 trip was done in a National Lampoons Summer Vacation-style station wagon (minus the wood paneling and air conditioning), a home-made plywood roof box, 2 10-speed bicycles attached to the hatchback; and a pop-up camper (zero amenities) with the cooler bunged to the trailer hitch.  I vividly remember driving through a particular hot area of the country with all of the windows down and having my mom continuously pass me a wet wash cloth to keep me from getting heat stroke.  I'm pretty sure a lack of AC was a mild form of child abuse.

I have shared with quite a few people that that trip is probably the reason why I currently reside half way across the country.  Simply by seeing and experiencing different places from where I grew up, I think gave me the confidence not to be overwhelmed or apprehensive about packing up all of my things and moving far away.  There is that realization of, "Oh, I can do this.  I remember seeing such-an-such on that 1986 road trip!"  That first step in making any major decision is a willingness to take the risk.  Familiarity goes a long way in getting over that first hurdle.

So... how long to road trip.  I kinda used that 1986 trip as a baseline to keep it around 6 weeks.  We pretty much had the whole summer to use since I quit my job at Girl Scouts last year and was told by the Mathieson CEO (i.e. Wendy) that I should probably start looking for a job after the summer.  I also didn't want to short-change the kids of enjoying some of summer here in Seattle with friends and good weather (minus the annual smog season from wildfire smoke).  I remember being pretty road weary as a kid near the end of the '86 trip and my parents actually sprung for a hotel room (gasp) on one of the last days traveling eastbound.  Six weeks seemed like a good baseline.

I didn't know for certain how long our trip would actually take until I started mapping out the route.