The Great American Road Trip 2002: 7,700 Miles, 26 States, and 24 Days

The Summer of 2002 was a pretty big transition year for me. I quit my job in Boston (on the 4th of July) and will join the U.S. Air Force in August. Given that I might never get this much time off every again (not to mention that gas is about $1.40 per gallon and is only predicted to go up), I decided that it was now or never to take my All-American Road Trip.
Create your own roadtrip map at www.amcharts.com.

This was the original plan

This is where I actually went.

Total Miles

The grand plan is to depart on 24 July in my VW Jetta from Boston to New Orleans to San Francisco to Chicago and down to Alabama to start military training in late August. To keep costs low, I planed to crash at friends' places as much as possible or camp when I needed to. I even printed off some commemorative T-shirts with the above logo for the "official sponsors" who provided me lodging. Maybe I should have made custom license plates?

All-American Roadtrip 2002 Itinerary
Day	Start & Stop	Daily Mileage
1	Boston, MA to Washington, D.C.	446
2	Washington, D.C.	-
3	Washington, D.C. to Knoxville, TN	598
4	Knoxville, TN	-
5	Knoxville, TN to New Orleans, LA	642
6	New Orleans, LA	-
7	New Orleans, LA	-
8	New Orleans, LA	-
9	New Orleans, LA to Houston, TX	349
10	Houston, TX to Copper Breaks, TX	487
11	Copper Breaks, TX to Albuquerque, NM	439
12	Albuquerque, NM	-
13	Albuquerque, NM to Grand Canyon	459
14	Grand Canyon to Death Valley, CA	436
15	Death Valley, CA to San Francisco, CA	572
16	San Francisco, CA	-
17	Napa Valley, CA	101
18	San Francisco, CA to Salt Lake City, UT	810
19	Salt Lake City, UT to Denver, CO	621
20	Denver, CO	-
21	Denver, CO to Topeka, KS	568
22	Topeka, KS to Chicago, IL	613
23	Chicago, IL	-
24	Chicago, IL to Knoxville, TN	577