Pre-road trip

June 13, 2007

Several months before the RTOTF, Graham ran by me a transcontinental trip via car. Apparently, this idea spawned from our mutual friend Dalby (who could not caravan with us this time), and the gravity of the concept did not hit me until I started making a comprehensive list of provisions. Most of the trip planning was done by Graham, but I helped him with the provisions part, as many items are needed for the road and gear for camping/hiking. No item was to be left out: floss, CD player, extra oil, batteries—every item on the list had utility. I made a checklist by category on Excel which could be used as a template for future excursions. The categories which I chose and kept were clothes, car, hygiene, chilling, and places to check out. Most of the items I had already owned, I acquired most of the other items from garage sales, people on Craigslist, and as a last resort, actual stores. Economically, it made sense.
The planning process also includes obtaining maps and routes, and consulting others' opinions and advice online. I had discovered a road trip forum, which people would post hypothetical routes and the moderators of the forum would confirm/undermine the feasibility of the route. Our route was loosely orchestrated and had many destinations, states, and miles crammed into a two-week period. In two weeks, we would have traveled from Michigan to Montana via Boston, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Arizona, and Nevada. Naturally, the mods scoffed at our proposed route not only with disdain, but with utmost condescension. Damned by judges.
One of my favorite fortune cookie messages (that ironically was not a fortune) was, "A cynic is someone who looks down at those above." It was time to battle the mods' cynicism with even more cynicism...at least a zanier kind.

Graham was to arrive at my house in Novi, MI Wednesday, June 13th via Missoula, MT. While I was toiling away at my final statistics project and deciding which media program to burn cds with, he had been driving like a bastard for nearly two days including stops. He finally arrived at 3am (I must be lone-lTHBPBBB). I opened the front door. Diagonally postured, Graham looked like he was about to fall over in exhaustion. Anxious to catch up at least for an hour, we put off sleep and listened to a handful of tunes (ediT and others). We had to be gone by about 8:30am that morning, a departure standard for the whole trip if we wanted to confute the mod fucks.