The Lengthiest Introduction this Side of the Mississippi

For those of you who don't already know, I'm planning on taking this insanely ridiculous road trip... by myself.

The original reason was to see my grandmother, whom I've not been in company with for about five years. I suppose that means I should definitely get out there and visit with her. I knew that my best friend Amy was along the way about four hours South of me; and that I'd have to stop by and see her :)

I also realized that I'm getting older, and quickly approaching that time period where I can't automatically request three weeks off of work in order to fraternize with family members I haven't seen (unless something drastic such as their passing is occurring...) So, at the age of 26, I begin what I'd like to think of as a 'late-bloomer's coming of age ritual'

I won't state that it came to me in a dream, but rather that simply, I feel that this road trip will teach me much about life, family, music, photography, America, the open road, penny-pinching, and above all... myself. My true self, that is.

For starters, I recently made this crazy purchase of this laptop - so that I may easily:

• document my journeying
• import my photos in near-real time
• find out where in Hades I might be floundering about (Mississippi, I'm looking in your direction)
• talk to my sisters via VIDEO (zomg Spaceship Earth was right!!!) and/or friends of mine who want to keep updated on where I'm at :)

Knowing that, keep in mind those who continue to read along for my future postings will undoubtedly bear witness to as much of what I am seeing as I can relate to you in: photos, the written word, and-as always-links to inane BS that I find pertinent at the time.

Secondly: I am not going on this trip alone by choice. Originally after I visited Gram and other Korto kin out in Texas, I was going to meet up with my father and we were going to tour some of New Orleans. It's a city I've always wanted to see: something that seems oddly familiar, that perhaps I DID see in dreams ;) But... that didn't happen. Dad had a multitude of doctor's appointments and random household minutiae that sadly took him from the obvious craziness that is his firstborn.



It is with that premise that I lead you into my first blogged misadventure. (And quite possibly one of the longest)

I knew that I had already taken the time off of work, that three weeks' worth of me being out of the house, out of school... was definitely three weeks that I wasn't going to throw away. I figured at this point, "Well, I am going to be 'down South,' I should probably check in with other family I have," which meant my cousin Jon. Jon's from my Dad's side of the family, and about the coolest cousin I could ever ask for. The crappy thing about Jon is that he lives so far away; would that I could live closer just to hang with him - I feel he's the type of guy I could learn from. He's based in Athens. I didn't realize that Athens would be as far East as it was (I've flown there, and that tends to cloud your sense of direction if you aren't actually paying attention to your latitudinal and longitudinal location).

So I moved my mind's pushpin from New Orleans, LA to Athens, GA. (Jon still isn't fully aware of this, and my tentative itinerary calls for me to actually get there in about a week & a half. Oh, Natalie)

I had planned to do some ghost hunting in New Orleans and surrounding area (What what? Myrtles Plantation? Awww it woulda been neat :D) However, remember, I'm skipping that. Though I seemed to remember something strange about Georgia: oh yes--Savannah is also there: a city that is relatively close to a friend of mine from high school. She's awesome, and a Marine, and has been telling me I need to get my rear down there to take pictures and hang with her. ...Savannah is also well known for some ghostly rumors, tee hee hee. Well, so hey - Athens and Savannah in Georgia, family, and friends - and lo, a tertiary point in the trip was laid. (Cool.)

At this point, I was like "whoa, I'm really doing this," and knew I needed the laptop.
After settling on the Toshiba A505, settling for a decent price for everything it came with, I am quite pleased with my purchase a week afterwards.

I then (during the horrid finals crunch which I am still, at this moment, putting off because I'm so sick of this right now) decided that I needed to figure out the rest of this beast.
If you've been keeping track:

1. Amy
2. Gram + Fam
3. Jon + Fam
4. Liz and Ghosties

Oh boy. That puts me quite a ways-away from Mount Prospect. So how do I get back if I, at that point, am on the Eastern coast of the US? Easiest answer?

SEE MORE OF THE EASTERN US.

So I go north: towards Pennsylvania. Why? Well, it has a lot of good people and cool things there.

Specifically, more ghost hunting and a heckuva lot of history. It would also be yet another of the original 13 colonies to drive through *wink-wink*

I have a couple friends who live out there: however, it has been difficult to reach one of them, and somewhat awkward for me to figure out how to reach him without tacking on another 450 miles to the already seemingly infinite travel plans.

Upon looking at Pennsylvania, I knew of one thing I had to see: Gettysburg. Silly, I know. It's hard to be a civil war history buff when you live in Illinois, don't have much access to travel, and most of what you find out is directly from books... so I don't consider myself a buff - but I do have a great love for the period of time when we were such a young, impetuous nation: like now, but we didn't have our head up our backside yet. I am thrilled to see the battleground, to walk upon the soil where the blood that spilled helped cultivate a country of epic proportions. And of course, to read whatever they have there and take it all in.

I then thought of a couple other places I knew I wanted to at least drive through. One being Centralia. For those of you who aren't familiar, I am giving you the Wiki-link so that you may get an un-opinionated source. I will leave it to the readers' mind as to why I want to visit this locale. Yes I will play it safe; No, I am not going at dark, And yes, I'm sticking to the "normal" roads.

I also realized that on the way to PA, I go scarily close to Washington D.C. This, of course, means that I need to make a stop.

This is not to visit our current President: I am generally closer to him than most of the country, being so close to Chicago. I want to see the Smithsonian :D Yes, that's right. More history, and for free! Totally DON'T want to stay in D.C. though; it just seems scary. I hear bad things about it, etc etc. So that means I have decided to stay in Fredricksburg (between Richmond, VA and the Capitol). I picked this town due to its cheap prices at the local Days Inn (which has WiFi and an outdoor pool) AS WELL AS the 4 Civil War battlefields to go check out as well.

Needless to say, I am thrilled.

Basically, I get to add a couple more points of stay time, as this area seems as if it's going to take a couple days to wade through :)

And this means more book time, as well as "study" time for working on the pictures, there's a side project I'm working on for Dad, talking to people I miss, and of course, perusing the local history and eateries (well... the cheap ones, anyway).

I hope I don't stay away for too long.

Stay tuned:
ETD is Monday morning, 6 am.

As a side note, the following blogs will NOT be this long. If you've put up with me this far, I commend you and congratulate your future reading, as I am convinced that it will be far more intriguing ;)

As I will remain, now and always:
-searching for the truth-