Oklahoma Route 66

My new book will be shipping on Tuesday, June 1st! I am excited to see how a small, personal book of the old highway reads.

Planning Route 66

Last night I was reading the section on traveling through Oklahoma in "Road Trip USA". The author recommended reading "Oklahome Route 66" by Jim Ross because Oklahoma has the longest and most intact stretches of old Route 66, and this book makes it much easier to explore. So, this morning I got on amazon.com to look for the book. There were 4 used books running from $45 to $999! No way! Next I googled the book and author, went to his website and ordered the book for $15.95, including shipping! Perkaps when we are traveling through Arcadia, OK we can find Mr. Ross and get his autograph, then my book will be valuable. Geez. I look forward to getting the book.

Planning the Escape!!

This is Rainy and as a preemptive note: I've never done the blog thing and am confused.

So my Mom says we need to blog about this trip that we're taking. I was reluctant because it sounds like too much work and too much time away from actual experience. Also, we may have to take time to find decent wi-fi. Oh well!

So the idea for this trip came about last month. I had been intending to take a week to fly out to NYC to see my best friend Raven Leal in her natural habitat for the first time. I also knew I would be needing to make a trip to Virginia to visit my grandmother who's health and sanity are in rapid decline. I also need to visit her home in Arkansas one last time to to help prepare it for rent/sale and sort out her possessions. I was struggling to figure out time off from work to do these important things. That's when I decided it would almost make more sense economically to drive than it would to fly. It is also possible that I would need to haul some stuff back to Arizona.

Obviously, I needed to drag my mother into this as well. It would be for her own good! I thought it would take more convincing than it did. One convincing e-mail and I had her on board. I mean, come on, the last time we took an actual trip together was about 13 years ago. My mom is my best friend and and I only get to see her for about 2 weeks out of the year. We are in major need of some quality time. And what better way to spend it?

So I decided that since I would have already spent my year earning residency and I am taking a very difficult science program in the fall that will demand my attention, I would just quit my job. Turns out they just wanted me to take the two months and then come back. I may have exaggerated about how I would be spending my time...

So my last day is June 8th. I will spend the next couple days getting ready and then take off with 2-3 cats in tow. The cats have to go stay in Arizona because there my not always be people at my house to take care of them. Also my 17 year old cat Rascal requires a lot of care, so I only feel comfortable pawning him off on family. We will take Highway 1 (PCH) the whole way from Washington to Southern California, sleeping in the car along the way. From there I will head to Phoenix, grab my mom, and be off!!!

Bought an Atlas!

I just picked up an atlas to help us navigate our path; to hell with the GPS navigator, we are doing it the old fashioned way! I am also reading to book "Road Trip USA" by Jamie Jensen which I borrowed from Mom & Dad.

When we leave Phoenix, we will head north to Flagstaff to pick up old Route 66 which will take us to Chicago. For the next few days, I will be making notations on what to and see along that route.