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.