"so, when did you say you are leaving?

i've been asked that a lot, and i don't blame them because the date has been changed about 4 times for when i will be leaving for michigan... and as of today, everything is finally set in stone... so i will officially let ya guys know whats going on.
i have pretty much decided that my true calling in life is to be a travel agent... well, not really, but putting humility aside, i must say i am pretty stinking good at planning travels. my adventure as "cristina the travel agent" started saturday morning. my goal was to map out every stop and site along the way from bellflower,ca to holland,mi. ideally, i would have had a massive map the size of our dining room table and a red marker, but i made do with mt apquest and a pad of paper, and a pencil, and this cool website that helped me keep track of my stops. the thing for me was to stop at as many national parks along the way as possible... we would be taking 7 or 8 days to get to michigan, so we will have PLENTY of time to see the sweet stuff. i am now going to walk you through what "cristina the travel agent" has set as the route for this awesome road trip. keep in mind that every place we will be going (except for nevada) will be a first-time visit for me!!! oh, and i will be driving with mi amiga jenny, and my parents will be following. jenny and my parents will be flying back from michigan... anyway, here it is!!!
SUNDAY JUNE 24: leave bellflower, ca in the morning making a straight shot for springdale, UT which is where Zion national park is... i have been wanting to go to zion for soooo long, so i am excited to have this as our first stop. on the way we will most likely stop in vegas for lunch.
MONDAY 25: leave zion and head for moab, UT, the location of both canyonlands national park and arches national park... both awesome places!!! we are debating spending an extra day here.
TUESDAY 26: leave moab, UT for crawford, CO where Black Canyon of the Gunnison national forrest is... since this is a short drive from moab, after hanging at the national park we will drive two more hours and stay in glenwood springs, CO.
WEDNESDAY 27: leave glenwood springs, CO and head to Estes Park, CO where the rocky mountain national park is. this place kind of marks the end of the national parks and the start of, well, not much. so from here on out, i literally just chose cities that were along the highway that we'd be taking, and then checked to see that they had some sort of accomodations for sleeping/camping.
THURSDAY 28: leave glenwood springs, CO for Brady, NE. sounded like a fun city, so we'll see.
FRIDAY 29: leave brady, NE and go to Newton, IA... again, we'll see!
SATURDAY 30: Newton, IA to Indianapolis, IN. now, you geography buffs may be thinking, Indianapolis... that's no where near your route you should be taking! however, this was a recommendation put in by my father... so i checked it out, and turns out that Peoria, IL is totally on the way to Indianapolis, right off the highway!!! why peoria, IL? come see the senior play and listen closely to my 3rd line in the play.
SUNDAY JULY 1: leave indianapolis and head for our final destination, Holland/Grand Rapids, Michigan!!! we'll spend two days in michigan so we can just hang out.
TUESDAY JULY 3: mother, father, and jenny depart from chicago, IL for long beach, ca.

so i planned all this out, and even compared over 30 different airfares. i found that ultimatefares.com has the best rates. $77 for a oneway non-stop ticket from Ohare international airport in chicago to the long beach airport. seriously, if someone need some vacation planning done, call me, cause i am good.

so i have a file, 16 pages long, of our itinerary (thats a difficult word to spell)... it first has a step by step location to location, how long each drive takes and how many miles. and then the remaining 14 pages have maps and directions from each to location to the next. good stuff...
but the exciting part is that there is SOO much room to take detours and go off the itinerary and see other things that catch out eye on the way. i made the itinerary for more as a strong guidline... i am not super obsessesd about staying on track for every single minute. that is how life is, isn't it?

okay

blessings to your mondays... if you are worried about it, i recommend wearing a helmet.

oooo.... i have just added bryce canyon as a stop after zion!!!
fun stuff