My Ride

I have a 2003 Pontiac Vibe (extremely similar to a Toyota Matrix, except mine has a roof rack and a built in 110v inverter for my electronics)

The seats fold down flat in the back for sleeping and I might need to get an additional storage box and bike attachment for the roof. Here is a pic of the box, they make them half that size with the bike mounting next to them...
 

Mine has 72,000 miles, and seems like it is in great shape from the driving stand point.  I had it checked out last month and told the guys about the trip.  I told Rob the service manager at Milea, "When I'm in Death Valley and my car has died on the road 60 miles form anything, it will be Rob from Milea, I will be cursing for the rest of my life." He got the point and found about $800 worth of things to do to my car... Oooops!

I'll be rolling with a Garmin Nuvi 660 GPS:

And a trusty old Ipod mini that is on its third battery, and has a hardwire connection into my car stereo.

While we are on electronics, I'm definitely bringing my blackberry bold, but not sure if a laptop is a good idea.  I need to look things up and plan next parts of the trip, including updating the blog, but I think I can do most of that using the blackberry and other peoples machines... Any comments on what to do?  I guess I will bring it and if its really turns into a brick, I'll send it back to NYC.  Therefore I need new batteries for both my blackberry (for a spare) and the laptop (dead).

Organizing the stuff in the car so I can travel and sleep with Max in the car, stow the car at trailheads and inner-city streets without worrying about getting broken into and not looking like Mr. Bean will be a real challenge.

The Rules of the Game

There are probably an infinite number of variables you could change to make a cross country trip different from someone else's, but I have a few basic rules I'm going to try to live by:

• No more than 4 hours of driving a day, distance travel reserved to 6am-12 noon.
• No hotels or motels.  Basically, don't pay for lodging (except for US Forest Service cabins in the woods). (more details on how I plan on doing this later)
• Use my car, bicycle and walking in the most efficient manner to get to experience the most fun on the trip.
• No compromising my personal beliefs to take assistance for people with agendas (ie proselytizers or creepy old men) (I say this now and am sure I will be kissing the ass of the born-again road side assistant I find myself needing in Death Valley, but hey I have a sense of humor and irony to fall back on too)
• No expensive crap like fine restaurants etc on the way.
  

Goals:

• Finish this trip and be ready to face my next adventure (whatever it may be)
• Get totally comfortable with back-country and car camping
• Get a hang gliding certification so I can go up by myself when I feel like. (http:/www.ushpa.aero/, more on this later...)
• See the sailing cities of the US
• Train Max a bit better.  I hope that being out of the big city will be therapeutic for both of us.
• See the country
• Develop thoughts on where I'd like to live outside of the North East US.
• Meet a whole lot of different people.

Anything else that happens is incidental and I guess I'll just have to take it as it comes...

General Route

I plan on taking the following route in general.  I have marked the map with planned stops.

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