The Preparations

In preparation for Saturday, and the beginning of our adventure, I thought I'd take the time to catch you all up on how we decided on this trip, and all the work we've put into making this happen.

As most of you are aware, Chris and I spend inordinate amounts of time playing a video game called World of Warcraft. Now, normally, video games have a pretty short life span, usually measured in hours or days. What makes WoW different is the social aspect. And when you play with the same people day in and day out, you get to know them pretty well. Chris and I have been playing with the same people now for about two years , and we've sort of become a family.

Chris had the opportunity to meet a few of them last year when he vacationed in Florida, and he came home raving about the experience. He was slated to go to Mexico this spring with his cousin, but that plan fell through and he was suddenly stuck with two weeks worth of vacation that he had to use up by the end of April. But what can you do with two weeks and no plan? Certainly not languish at home!

So, he had an idea. Kind of a rash idea, about travelling all over the States to meet these people we play WoW with. He totally didn't think we'd be able to make such an idea fly. But it sounded like such a unique experience, I just knew we had to try. Originally it was, "hey Pete, your sister lives in California, right? And we have some guildies who live in California, right? So... let's go to California!" Then, as more and more of the people we play with showed an interest in meeting, our travel plans began to cement into the route we've planned out now. And it doesn't look like we'll be able to make it up to San Fran to see my sis. Interesting how these things go.

The first stumbling block was actually getting the time off work. Chris already had the two weeks, but we quickly came to the conclusion that we'd need an extra week to do anything even remotely like what we were planning. His boss agreed to give him the extra week if he worked it's equivalent beforehand and banked the hours. So, he's been faithfully going to work early and leaving late to make up the needed time. (He's a trooper.)

Then, it was my turn. For those of you that don't know, I've recently started a new job (mid Jan) so it was with some apprehension that I approached my bosses. It was a long process, getting the time off, because my work is also transitioning into some new technology and my boss was already swamped with that. But somehow, she found the time to look at my request and work some magic to make it happen for me. Major props to Maggie and Sean, if they happen by here, for making this trip possible.

So, ok, we've got the time. Unfortunately, neither of us have done anything remotely like this before so we have no idea what we're doing. The basic premise is to try not to eat fast food and to try and find cheap lodging to keep costs down, but other than that.... Our peeps have come through, however, giving us all sorts of great advice about road-trippin' on a budget. Advice like stopping at tourist information booths when we enter states we're going to be spending the night in and picking up coupon books. Or to make sure we have lots of bottled water when crossing Arizona because you get dehydrated really quickly. Stuff that didn't occur to us, but will certainly make the experience a little smoother. And for the rest of it, we're just going to make it up on the fly. It's kinda the point of it all, for us. Besides knowing where we're stopping when we're meeting people (a necessity when involving more folks than just us), this trip is just a blank canvas waiting to be filled.

So. Exciting!

Other than that, our preparations have simply been stocking up on things we think we might need. Chris bought a cooler. We're borrowing his brother's laptop so we can blog our experiences. (Thanks Adam!). I'm picking up a USB adaptor for my camera's memory card so we can post pictures as they come in. Chris' brother-in-law is sending us some books on tape to enjoy as we're driving. (Thanks Mike!). I've filled my new 80gig Ipod (Thanks Dave!) with all the music I own, as well as a ton of Vinyl Cafe podcasts and Ted Talks. Chris had the car maintained so we don't have any unpleasant surprises along the way. Even simple things, like stocking up on socks and underwear (there may be long stretches between coin Laundromats), or finding someone to watch our place while we're away (Thanks Pat and Nadine!).

And I think we're pretty much ready to go. Chris still has to work today, and I'm heading into KW to pick up my freshly minted passport. Then, it's packing and loading the car, ready for our 7:30 AM start time tomorrow. We've booked our hotel in California (since it's the only place we're going to be staying more than one or two nights)--the Clarion Los Angeles. And we still have to touch base with one or two people that we're going to be meeting this weekend. But other than that, it's onward and upward!

So a heartfelt thanks to everyone who's made this trip possible. And a thanks to everyone who's going to make this trip memorable. And another thanks to everyone who's going to be keeping tabs on us here and sharing some of the experiences with us. We're so grateful for this opportunity to "do America". I'm sure it will never be the same again.