May 13 - We plan to leave the morning of Friday, May 13 from Black Mountain and head west on I-40 until we reach Little Rock, Arkansas. I hope that we can stop at the Bass Pro Shops super store Pyramid along the way in Memphis, Tennessee. This is basically a huge pyramid with a bass pro shop, hotel, bowling alley, and all sorts of cool stuff to spend the money that we're trying to save on. Our favorite equation for the trip, College kids on a budget = Camping to save money, will be applied for our accommodations on this first night.
May 14 - We hope to wake up and leave Little Rock at, what is to the five of us, the very early morning, 8-9 AM, and drive to the Lone stare state to stay in the city of Amarillo. Again, the handy dandy college formula will be applied this night as well. A quick stop in Oklahoma City to drive around could occur on the drive.
May 15 - Following a trend that will be set for this trip, we will then wake up "very early" the next morning and begin the drive to Flagstaff, Arizona. Assuming that the five us will be exhausted, we plan on staying at a cheap hotel in Flagstaff to take our first shower of the trip and get a good nights sleep. Side note: I will be taking bets regarding how many showers each one of us will take during the trip. A good bet would be in the single digits.
May 16 - The next day we get to sleep in and take a short one hour drive up to the south rim of the Grand Canyon! We plan on spending around 4-5 hours in the park. We might take a hike, take some pictures, see how close we can get to the edge without falling (just kidding Mom). After our moderate adventure in canyon we plan on driving to Needles, California, a town just across the Arizona-California line. Probably camp here again, will we.
May 17 - Hot Diggidy Dog! We arrive at our campground outside Yosemite today! Obviously, we will be camping this and the following five nights.
May 18-22 - YOSEMITE, YOSEMITE, YOSEMITE! Can you tell I'm excited? Open to all and any suggestions on what we should do during our five days in the park. One hike I've had my eye on is the 10 mile round trip hike to Glacier Point. We may also take a day trip to San Francisco one day. Again, anyone that has been here or knows about the area, please comment advice!
May 23 - :( We have to leave Yosemite this day. Our drive out of the park will conclude in the sin city, Las Vegas, Nevada. We are crossing our fingers that we can find a hotel that rents to under 21. If not, we'll probably resort to the ole college formula again.
May 24 - This day intrigues me. We have a relatively short drive, 6 hours, and we will be traversing Utah's scenic byway, Utah Route 12. We will also pass through Zion National Park on our way through. The scenic byway is an interesting drive in that it has canyons, rock formations, rivers, and a large elevation change. We hope to stop many times along the way to admire the beauty of the drive. To top it all off we get to camp on Route 12!
May 25 - The most difficult drive is ahead. The drive through the rocky mountains on I-70. Hopefully all the snow will have melted so that our trip is fairly easy. A scenic detour we may take if we have the heart is Loveland Pass. If you don't know what this is, I encourage you take a look at the road and the many detailed reviews it has. Our destination for the day will be Denver, Colorado. We may camp or find a cheap hotel room depending upon our exhaustion and stench with both having equal weight.
May 26 - If the previous days drive was the most difficult, then this days drive will be the easiest, yet at the same time the hardest. One word, Kansas. The quote, "I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore", will be happily used once we cross the border into Missouri. Our destination for the day will be Columbia, Missouri to most likely camp.
May 27 - We've hit the end of our great and glorious trip. This day is quite simple. Go home. "Sweet Caroline", and "Carolina in My Mind" will be blasting out the windows throughout the drive. The Carolina's have been and always will be my home.
Well, this concludes our trip. Thoughts? Comments? Questions? I'd love to hear them! We would love some input on places to eat along the way! We have the major planning done, but still have to do some minor planning regarding food and packing.
Pray for good weather!
