I’m going to drive across America.

Tony Robins has suggested that a good way of motivating yourself to do a specific task is to tell people about it. The discussion allows you to clarify your goals and gives your friends the opportunity to pester you about it when you begin to procrastinate.

The plan is that “The Chaps” will fly to the US of A, buy/borrow a car then drive for a month. The plan has enough grey areas and pre-conditions that it could easily fall through. In an attempt to prepare and motivate myself I’ll list what I think are the top three limiting factors that might prevent this trip going ahead.

1. Learn to drive. I think this is the number one issue. It would be unfair not to contribute to the driving. This is something I’ve been putting off for quite some time. It’s actually quite embarrassing that at 24 I still can’t drive.
2. Raise some cash. I don’t forsee this kind of trip being overly expensive. One testimonial I have seen suggested that $1000 per person would be enough. The biggest expence could be buying and maintaing a car for the month. Obviously it may be possible to recoup some money if we decide to buy - but it’s probably best not to rely on that. Another option is to drive someone else’s car. I’ve heard some companies will loan you a car that requires transportation from coast to coast; you drop the car off at the required destination and in return you get to use it for the entire length of America. It sounds a little bit too good to be true so I think further investigation is required.
3. Set a date. 2010. Way off yet, but I need some time to complete points 1 and 2 and arrange some time of work.

I think those are the only limiting factors. I think the route will work itself out, and buying a car is probably best left until we’re there in person.

I recently watched Dave Gorman’s road trip across America. There are certainly some aspects that I would like to incorporate into this trip. He makes some excellent points about the spread of corporate America. Starbucks and Wallmarts are popping up all over the place and have been doing so for about ten years. Independent businesses are being pushed out and American towns are becoming indistinguishable from each other and indistinguishable from European towns/cities. I think it would be sensible to avoid Corporate America as much as possible to expose ourselves to more authentic culture and diverse people. I think we could drop the “Only independent gas stations” rule though.