The Drive

Since so many people were curious about this crazy road trip we decided to embark upon, a blog seems the best way to keep people up to date if they were interested so here it goes…we hope you enjoy our random pictures and stories from this trip and have no doubt that with our stunning good looks, Ashley’s ability to talk to a brick wall, Meredyth’s spectacular googling of local cuisine and random pit stops, and our love of weird adventures, there will be many stories (and of course pictures) to be shared.

Background:
As most of you know, Ashley is moving to San Francisco for a variety of reasons. They include:
1. She wants to live in a place where her peace tattoo is more accepted
2. She heard about “meatless Mondays"
3. She won’t have to waste her energy lecturing people about recycling and composting anymore
4. She likes trolleys
5. She likes doing yoga on the beach at sunrise and eating organic mangos from local farmer’s markets
6. She can make a Part 2 to her local foods documentary
7. Her fashion sense is defined by “layering”

Meredyth is going with Ashley on her road trip because:
1. Do Meredyth and Ashley ever do anything apart?
2. She adores (and will miss) Ashley’s spectacular singing in the car
3. She’s a driving machine
4. What better way to kill a few months before January?

In January, Meredyth will be moving to Malaysia for ten months to teach English on a teaching Fulbright. So after living together for 4 years (and practically first year of school which would make it five), we are both extremely sad about being separated by a massive ocean and some smaller landmasses (reason number 8 for Ashley to move to San Fran - closer to Malaysia). Thus, when it became evident that Ashley would have to drive across the country to get her car and a bunch of her crap out to CA, Meredyth figured it would be the perfect excuse to join in on an epic road trip. Throughout college, we have taken many road trips together (some just us, many with other people) – an impromptu visit to Wilkes Barre, PA to see a Dashboard Confessional concert with our roommate Rita, trips down to North and South Carolina Beaches with many friends, New Hampshire to intern for the Obama campaign during the primary, and most recently a trip with two other friends to New Orleans for Jazz Fest, many trips to DC, etc. Although the New Orleans trip was quite epic, this cross-country experience takes it to a whole new level.

We chose the places we wanted to stop based on people we loved, places we’ve always wanted to see, and enticing prospects such as the world’s largest armadillo statue….

Here’s where we plan to stop, in order (no it is not the most direct way, yes it does accomplish the above goals):

Centreville, VA to
Columbus, Ohio to
Nashville, TN to
Memphis, TN to
New Orleans, LA to
Austin, TX to
New Mexico to
Grand Canyon, AZ to
Las Vegas, NV to
Mill Valley, CA
(for our complete route, please visit our handy googlemap guide)

Total Trip duration: 17 days.
Total Driving time: 66 hours.

Pretty cool, right?

Although this is a pretty “sick baller” itinerary, the trip was still missing a little something. A couple weeks ago, Meredyth was reading the Washington Post and read an article about these two guys who went across the country correcting every typo they found. They are now writing a book about the experience. (The article is awesome and you should check it out.) This made us realize that we were missing a further mission of the trip and inspired us to get creative. After some great brainstorming and tossing around ideas, we have decided on the below plan.

As we drive across the country, we are going to give out self-addressed, stamped post cards to random people we meet/ come across. From people working at gas stations to people at universities to people at rest stops to people on the streets at some of our stops, we plan to hand out these post cards to random people. We are going to ask people to write us a post card at the end of the day telling us something that made them smile. (This is the question as of now, although it is possible it will change along the trip. We still haven’t decided.) We are hoping to give away about 100 over the trip, thinking that we may get about 50 back. We just really hope people will do it and are super excited to read what people write. And we are going to have everyone we stay with send us a post card as well.

In cleaning Ashley’s room, she came across her post card collection she kept as a kid. In the spirit of the "3 Rs" (reduce, reuse, recycle), we decided that the 10 blank post cards would be perfect to get us started with our plan and that we will buy more while we are in Ohio.

You can write us as well. If you would like, you can send a postcard to:

Ashley McCormack and Meredyth Haas
38 Miller Ave. #159
Mill Valley, CA 94941

So that is the grand plan – the plan that there isn’t too much of a plan except a general direction, a Garmin to help take us the right way (along with AAA guides and maps galore, thanks Grandpa), some incredible "cookie crack" from Michele, and a desire to take our time and not be in a rush (because when else are we never not in a rush, especially after 5 years at UVA??). We are completely stoked to experience new places, catch up and hang out with people we love, and see parts of the country we have never experienced before. We hope you enjoy reading about our adventures!

The aforementioned "cookie crack" courtesy of Michelle. Words cannot describe these pieces of heaven.

Miles to go: 3,901
Post Cards Given Out: 0
Post Cards Received: 0
States Visited: 0