My sister will be working in Raleigh, North Carolina over the summer and she wants to take her car which for the past few years has been parked here in San Jose, California. From the Bay Area there are two routes to the East Coast, Interstate 80 and Interstate 40. On Google Maps it is just about 30 steps to Raleigh but all you need to know is that once after Barstow, California all you have to do is take Interstate 40 all the way to the East Coast. It's that simple. The trip is over 2,800 miles which you can break down into about five days traveling each day a little over 600 miles in about 10 hours which gives you time to make a few stops along the way.
Before you plan to make such a cross country road trip here is a list of required accessories. You need to pack an IPod, we had two. I also recommend having a ITrip FM transceiver so that you jam to your tunes on your car radio. A good DigiCam will always come in handy. And just in case of emergency and equally important in killing time I always carry my cellie. A 24 bottle pack of Gatorade will come in handy when traveling through the scorching heat of Arizona and New Mexico.
DAY 1: MILE ZERO
We start our journey Wednesday at 11:40 AM in San Jose. At mile 0 we are all in high spirits, mile 1 no one is moody yet, at mile 2 I start asking, "Are we there yet?" Oh, it was going to be a long 2,800 miles. My official duties on this trip where as a logistic officer since I don't know how to drive stick. I had the map, estimated travel time, recommended points of interest, and designated where to stay along Interstate 40.
Before we hit I-40, along CA-46 between Lost Hills and Wasco there is a elementary school right on Gun Club Road. I thought that this was like having an inner city high school on Drive By Drive. I thought to myself, "Is this school sponsored by the NRA?" Down the road there is a Gun Club Ranch where I could only imagine what they raise there, maybe bullets are raised there like baby carrots? Yes, as you can see the heat was getting to me.
Beginning with Barstow, CA, the towns we passed by seemed like villages. We would pass what the map would indicate as a city and we would ask ourselves, "Where do the people live?" Beginning with Barstow the towns we passed where a one exit towns and it seemed like most of the residents had taken that exit out of town a long time ago.
We wanted to set the pace on our first day. We traveled 702 miles, from San Jose, CA, to Williams, AZ. I didn't record the time we stopped but it was a little before 11:00 PM.