In just 3 short days…

I’ll be starting my road trip across the country. I don’t think I’ve gone into a lot of detail about this trip but it’s actually a pretty big deal for me. This will be my first vacation in over 2 years, and although I’ve gone on a couple road trips before when I was younger, this time around I get to do the driving

The trip is based around a wedding, a good friend of mine is getting hitched, I was invited, and I decided that I’d find a way to be there so I could see it all go down (that and I’m not about to pass up free cake and booze!). Since I’ve been to New Mexico before I figured that for about the same price of getting a plane ticket and then a rental car etc. I could just drive there, and for a few bucks more I could make a couple detours along the way. Additionally, my mom hasn’t been on a vacation or a trip of any sort in a long time, in fact the last trip we went on together was our road trip to New York for my uncle’s wedding. We decided that she and my little sister would also be interested in touring the southwest so our plans quickly manifested into a family trip of sorts.

By now you might be wondering about those detours I mentioned, here’s a breakdown of the cross-country venture we will be enduring over a period of 7 ½ days. From Minnesota we will drive straight through to Salt Lake City, Utah. Once we’ve gotten some pictures and whatever food people from Utah eat into our bellies we’ll continue on to Las Vegas, Nevada. In a recent entry I mentioned my reservations at the Stratosphere in Las Vegas, we will stay there for 2 nights and then continue on to the Grand Canyon in Arizona and then finally Albuquerque, New Mexico. We will be in New Mexico for 3 nights, which should give my mom enough time to see the sights while I’m meeting with friends and attending the wedding. On Sunday the 12th just before we head off to Denver we’re planning to see the Farewell Mass Ascension at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. The original plan was to spend another night in Denver, Colorado before heading home but to save time and money it will end up being another straight through night, which is how we’re pulling this off in only 7 days. Insane? Maybe, but it should be fun…ish.

I’m going to be dedicating a lot of my time this weekend to getting my car and myself ready for this expedition. I’m planning to twitter as much as possible during the trip, and obviously I’ll be taking tons of pictures that I’ll never get around to uploading. The bottom line – don’t be surprised if I’m a little MIA on the blog front over the next couple weeks, between moving into a new house and this vacation my schedule will be booked.