Journey of a Lifetime

66 DAYS & 10,600 MILES ON THE ROAD

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

More trip info and reader participation.

I must apologize for not having been able to post something of importance more sooner. I did not want to wear out our readers before having left for the trip as there will be an abundance of pictures, stories and possibly video while we are on the road. I do however want to clarify a bit more on our trip and how you can get the most out of this blog.
For starters though the map does not show the letter "A" it is there hidden under the "W" simply because our start and end places are the same. We will be following the letters in alphabetical order and these are the major stopping points along the way. Most places will be just a night or two with the exceptions of Florida, North Carolina and New York. The current trip plan covers over 7400 miles and will take us 54 days in all. There was for a brief time an extension to this trip planned namely to come back across the Northern states and going through Yellowstone National Park. I have been there a couple of times but Jennifer hasn't. After doing some calculations we decided it just couldn't be done. It would add over 600 more miles and nearly a weeks worth of time. In fact we even struggled with the idea that our current trip may have been over zealous in it's planning but the only portion we could truly cut back on was the northern route up to New York and Boston. This would have changed our Adventure drastically and though still going from Coast to Coast it would have lost a greatness to it. We will be cutting the budget very close so as to make sure we see this Great Adventure through.
This also brings up other questions we have been asked. As for accommodations along the way. We will either being camping or staying with friends the whole journey! We have made reservations at campgrounds already through the New York leg of our trip but all are also fully refundable if we cancel. So if you know of family or friends who wouldn't mind us staying in their driveway a night let us know. We will be camping from the minivan, no tents. I am building a platform for the back to have our air mattress on and our luggage underneath. A lot of places we will be paying simply to pull in late and drive out early. The places, sites and things of interest are not at the campgrounds so we will be spending as little time as possible at them.
For the time being we are keeping the meager budget under wraps but may if there is interest share after-wards how affordable it can be to travel by car cross country.
This brings me to my last point how you can get involved. We have had some great suggestions on places to see and places to miss but we really want to visit a lot of diners, drive-ins and dives. We have not had a lot of great food places recommended and thus haven't been able to put up any polls for food yet. Because we are on a, "shoestring" budget please refrain from offering up five star restaurant suggestions. If you had or heard or saw on t.v. a great taco place in New Mexico let us know. If you think you know the best place to get a slice of pie (pizza) in New York again please let us know. We want this trip to be about the whole experience not just the camera opportunities.
One last last thing. We want to have some fun along the way and have thought about doing some possible skits or re-enactments (possible videos) and are again looking for ideas and what you might like to see. I see from the polls you already have us getting wet in the Gulf. We have plenty of other interesting tricks up our sleeves that should keep everyone entertained young and old alike so continue to check back often to see whats up with the Douglas Duo as they go Coast to Coast.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

www.thedouglasduo.com

Just a quick update:
We have just switched to our own domain name.
You can now find us at www.thedouglasduo.com.
If you Google "thedouglasduo", you will find us too.
It will take a couple of days to make the switch official, so please be patient!
We are excited about our new addition to the world wide web.
We have more "Coast to Coast" information in store for you, so stay tuned!

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Coast to Coast is now a "Choose your own Adventure Story"

Jen and I have decided there is just to much to see and do across America in 54 days. So we have come up with a plan to incorporate all of you in deciding where we should go and what we should do. It's just like those books we use to read that allowed us to choose for the characters which path in the story they should take. All of you reading this will be our narrators and we the characters!
Along the right side of the blog we have begun to post polls for you to choose from. For example, some are places to visit like the Statue of Liberty or Ellis Island. Others are suggested foods to eat.
Simply select which one you prefer and click vote. The highest of the two wins! We will be posting pictures and stories of the winning spots as we visit them.
So what are you waiting for? Start choosing!
Be sure to check back often as we will continue to add more polls!
Who knows? It could get interesting!
-Colby

Friday, March 19, 2010

The Maiden Voyage

Welcome, welcome, welcome to our blog! Take a look around. We have set this up in expectation of our fast approaching road trip "Coast to Coast". As you can see, there is a huge map with a huge route planned - 7,401 miles to be exact. This is our intended itinerary - time, weather, & finances permitting. Since we can't bring you all along, we are bringing our trip to you! We would love for our family, friends, and fans to follow us along the way. We plan to regularly update with pictures, postings, links, & experiences (good & bad). Our love for food will definitely creep its way into the blog along the way with visits to local "Diners, Drive-ins, & Dives".

We are 31 days away from our departure date! Early in the misty morning of Monday April 19th we will drive off into the sunrise towards our first stop.

Here's what we need from you:

Please check out our map and the cities we intend to visit. We know many of you have been to these places before. Since it is our first time in many of these places - help us out by leaving some comments with suggested sites to see, great grub to be had, photo op spots, or even advisories & warnings. Do this soon, since we are making more specific plans now.

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We look forward to hearing from all of you!