Epic Cross Country Road Trip

 Cross Country Route #1 ~ the most direct

 

So, on Wednesday morning, Emily and I will pile into her aging over-stuffed Subaru wagon here in Scottsville, Virginia. We’ll point it west and begin driving. After at least four days, over 3000 miles, passing through 14 to 16 US states (depending on where we stop for lunch), we’ll arrive on the west coast. She’s moving to Hood River, Oregon, and I talked her into letting me come along for the ride.

Yes, I know, it’s the middle of winter. Currently, there’s a blizzard sweeping across the Midwest, with temperatures plunging lower than most of the country has seen in 20 years.

We may have to go around. Those figures quoted above? That’s if we take the most direct route, which we’ll call Provisional Route #1. We could end up taking a tour of the Southwest along the way. Hey, it’s 70 degrees in Arizona right now, while by morning it will be -12 degrees (Fahrenheit) in Nebraska. Hmmm, which one is better . . .

I’ll be posting photos from the road as we go.

There’s a GPS app I use called MotionX for the iPhone. It’s pretty great, and I’ve been using it for years for sailing, hiking, biking and driving. I like it so much I also got the HD version for the iPad. It includes about a dozen different map types, from satellite, to road, topos, and even NOAA charts. The nice thing is you can download the maps ahead of time (for free) so you don’t need cell signal to use it.

 

“Point A”

 

It also let’s me post my position to an online map via the phone, much like a SPOT tracking system does via satellite. You can follow our progress (or lack thereof) on the map below. Just enter channel number 23232 and hit the submit button. We’ll appear as a flag labelled EyeInHand:

 

 

direct link to map page

 

I also plan to shoot a time lapse video of the entire trip, so, if all goes as planned, look for that in a couple of weeks.

And wish us luck.