The wise man travels to discover himself.

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime."
from Mark Twain

Wow, I can't believe this trip is right around the corner.  It's definitely going to be a memorable adventure.  Let's hope everything goes smoothly.  I'm not too worried about keeping a schedule except to be in the city of our lodging reservations by nightfall.  I think the fun part about a road trip is the experience and what you find along your journey.  I've been on long road trips before but I was always with family.  I've driven from Maryland to San Diego, Maryland to Houston, and Houston to San Diego.  I've been on many short road trips, but none were long enough that we had to really plan the trip out.

From Maryland to San Diego, I was in high school I think, or just about to be in high school.  It was a long trip and I was a teenager so I had my headphones on the whole time.  I do remember driving through the painted desert, stopping to take pictures of the gigantic cactus, and my mom having a cooler in the car so we could make our meals.  I also remember that we arrived at the Grand Canyon after dark so we couldn't see much of anything out there.  I think we slept in the car that night.  But wow, waking up to the Grand Canyon really was an amazing site.  But other than that, I don't think we stopped all that much.  We really just wanted to get to Sunny San Diego. 

Balboa Park, San Diego

I've driven the route from Maryland to Houston a few times.  The first time was a round trip.  My family and I came to visit an Aunt and Uncle here in Houston over Christmas break.  It was my first time in Houston and I loved it.  The people were so friendly compared to the east coast.  I loved that it was December and I was fine walking around in a sweater.  My favorite things were the many malls around Houston and all the palm trees.  There are no palm trees in Maryland.  The driving on that road trip was pretty crazy.  My dad and brother did most of the driving and we rarely stopped except to eat and use the restroom.  The second time I drove to Houston from Maryland was when I decided to move to Houston.  It was a fun one way trip with my mom.  She was nice company, although not much help in the driving department.  I think she drove a total of 4 hours in the 24 hours of driving.  haha.  But it's okay.  At least I didn't have to drive by myself.  We took it pretty easy.  We would stop driving by dinner time, have a nice meal, hang out by pools and took our time getting to Houston.  We stopped at a boat casino, drove through New Orleans, and visited a Cajun Village.  I still love the swamp that you drive over in Louisiana.  Much more my style road trip.

Part of the Cajun Village

From Houston to San Diego, was the same year I moved to Houston and our trip was delayed a day or two because a huge hurricane hit Houston the day we were suppose to leave and we couldn't put the dogs at the boarding kennel until after the storm.  Don't get me started on the hurricane, that was an experience in itself.  My aunt, uncle and I took turns driving to California....non-stop.  Well we stopped to eat, use the restroom and take a nap when we were all too tired to drive.  I remember there being not a whole lot to see on that road trip.  We just wanted to get to San Diego.  I think what kept us all sane was listening to audio books by James Patterson.  The books were great!  We almost didn't want to get out of the car because we wanted to know what would happen next!

Highland Village, Houston, TX

My girl Stella and I are different but similar.  I'm sure we are going to have an awesome time.  We are bringing lots of old CDs and mixed new CDs, along with our iPods and iPhones, Kindles and laptops.  I'm going to buy some Audiobooks for the road and we can listen to The Secret.  I love that book.  You just feel better and powerful after listening to it.

"The wise man travels to discover himself." 19th Century American Poet James Russell Lowell


I think we will be able to keep ourselves occupied inside the car.  It's what will happen outside the car that is unforeseen.