Which Route?

Dan: Once we agreed to drive cross country, Alan had to work on making plane reservations for his flight back home. Well, to do that, we had to determine exactly when we were leaving Harrisburg and when we'd be arriving in California. In order to that, we had to plot out our route. So I brought over a ten year old Rand McNally USA road atlas that I happened to have at home [I have hoarder tendencies] and we looked at our options. We've chosen a southern route, through Virginia, Kentucky, Arkansas and New Mexico. This avoids potential weather conflicts on more northern routes. It also avoids potential relationship conflicts. I have family and many old friends in the Midwest, and while I really would love to spend some time in Alton and St. Louis, our tight schedule would make any kind of quality visit impossible. In addition, Alan would not know any of these family/friends of mine... and we’d both be anxious to get back on the road...and I can probably come up with a few more excuses for taking the more southern route. The fact is, however, that I’m really looking forward to seeing the sights in the Appalachian and coal regions on the first few days of our southern route. Ironically, Alan suggested those might be the best days to put “pedal to the metal” – I think he’s looking forward to getting out to the Western states. Oh well, conflict can be good, that’s how we grow.