Road trip: California Dreamin' again

Amigo got an audio book for Christmas: Bill Geist's Way off the Road: Discovering the Peculiar Culture of Small town America. He would laugh out loud while listening to the stories. As he finished, he recommended that I look for a print copy and read it myself.

He was right. I found a copy on Paperbackswap.com, thanked the swapper who sent it, and got a note telling me that the book might make me want to take a road trip. Sure enough, reading got me thinking about a long road trip on my bucket list: getting our kicks on Route 66.

I've realized that the Route 66 trip will happen at the earliest in summer of 2013, perhaps a year later. With that in mind, I can plan and dream and seek sponsors for the potential adventure.

Ideally, we'd rent or lease a vehicle to drive from our Wisconsin home to the end destination. At the West end of our journey, we'd turn in the vehicle and take Amtrak back to the Midwest. From Chicago we'd ride the Hiawatha to Milwaukee, and either pick up our own car or have family/friends get us to take us back to our own house and our own beds.

In a perfect world, that vehicle would be a roomy sedan or a minivan. If we all go (essentially, four adults), the minivan would be better. It would have to have good air conditioning: a minivan type would have the passenger climate control vents to make it easy. Given the long stretches of desert on the trip, that's a necessity.

Taking into considerating the length of the trip, good gas mileage is important. A hybrid, perhaps? A sizable gas tank, too, so we don't have to stop too often to fill up. Maybe a gas company will sponsor us; discounted gas or a gas gift card for the road? It could be done. It's not a glamorous sponsorship, but it would certainly be one of the most valuable.

Cupholders! I request at least one cupholder per person, accommodating my coffee and the other folks' Mountain Dew. Perhaps Starbucks would sponsor me; free or discounted coffee for the trip in exchange for blogging it? I'm in!

I know that I'm simply dreaming at this point. Driving Route 66 is definitely on my bucket list. Since Amigo enjoys road trips in general and we like road tripping together, we'd like to do it before I get too old or he gets too busy to enjoy the adventure.

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