The Great American Road Trip of 2010 Begins

"So honey, I kind of have to decide, should I ship the car out- or drive it back?"

"Well, how much will it cost to ship it?"

"About 1,000 dollars."

"Let me guess, you would rather drive it out yourself?"My wife knows me too well. This week I am driving from Salt Lake City, Utah to Buffalo, New York and I have decided to blog at the end of each day.

First let me introduce you to the cast of characters joining me for the adventure that I will refer to on Twitter as #roadtrip2010
Let me start with Jacob, he is my nephew, he just turned 10, he loves to talk too much and he is by far the most responsible of the group. He keeps referring to ME as "the responsible adult" but I'm sure that will wear off as he gets to know me better.

On the far right is my co-pilot for the drive, my brother-in-law Cameron. He is just about to start his senior year of high school, is famous for landing huge back rolls on the wakeboard, designing and building the next air chair which will be called the "skoot-ski" and he also has the record for answering the most consecutive questions with only a "yes" or "no."
Because of Cameron's aversion to elaboration, his mother (and my mother-in-law) Charlotte (far right in white on the top picture) handed Cameron some cash for the trip with one condition: you must keep a journal of what you spend this money on! That way we can get some details from you for a change.

So here you go Charlotte:
From Cameron's personal log:

"So our first stop was in Wyoming. The best thing in Wyoming- FIREWORKS. So I spent my first $20 on fireworks."

The Black Cat Warehouse had as special. Spend $35 or more on fireworks- get 144 bottle rockets for free. I pitched in to make sure we could get in on that. I have no idea what we are going to do with all these fireworks.



Our other stop of that day was in Rawlins, Wyoming. Jacob is a huge fan of collecting post cards, but even the huge rack of post cards at the gas station didn't hold his interest.

In Jacob's words, "they didn't even have a post card of Rawlins."

I imagine any postcards of the town wouldn't be any more interesting than this car with two fronts.

From Jacob's log for the day:

"We are in the Little America Hotel in Cheyenne, Wyoming. I have enjoyed the trip, but miss my family."

Jacob has been a trooper so far on the trip, and I'm sure we will have more adventures to share tomorrow as we pass through Nebraska, also known as "Fabulous Nebraska." After that we will be passing through Iowa where the slogan is, "If you love corn and the movie 'Field of Dreams' - you'll love Iowa." It may be long day.