More Route 66 planning – crossposted from Twaxifare.com

The trip is a year off. More than a year.

The key date(s) is the weekend of 15-17 April 2011, when the Annual World BookCrossing Anniversary Convention is to be held in Washington DC. This blogger intends attending.

Based on a fantastic half day travelling Route 66 between Oklahoma City and Tulsa, driving the whole road from Chicago to Santa Monica is something along the lines of 100001 crazy adventures to do before you die. Read the books, sing the songs, drive the roads.

This blogger wants to do it. Do it with friends. Do it for a good cause. Do it soon-ish.

Get your kicks

Last April, six BookCrossers drove from Wellington in New Zealand down to Christchurch for the 2009 convention. We had a fantastic time. One of the very best days of my life, especially the Hanmer Springs part. Just having fun with good friends was wonderful. The spectacular scenery, the comfortable hostel, the hot springs, the seals, the sperm whales, the glorious sparkling day crossing Cook Strait. It was marvellous.

Driving from Kansas City to Oklahoma City last October with more good BookCrossing friends salivated me up for more. That was fun. Especially the hog jowls at Lambert's Cafe. It's pure Americana.

In 2011 we do the whole thing. That's myself, my co-driver PeskiePete, and whoever wants to come along. Discoverylover (who will be an over-25 driver by then, hooray for insurance premiums!) has energetically stuck her hand up and, well we're recruiting for more.

In following posts, we'll talk about cars and routes, attractions and accomodation, speed and expenses, fund-raising and fun. Jump in, sign up as a contributor, make a comment.
– PeterMac

Strategy – crossposted from Twaxifare.com

Here's how this one works:

1. Buy a used cab in New York City. One of them famous yellow cabs.


2. Drive it down to Washington DC for the convention (one day)


3. Drive it to Chicago after the convention (one long day or two shorties)


4. Drive to Santa Monica along Route 66


5. Optional drive up the coast to San Francisco.


6. Sell the cab, possibly by an eBay auction along the way.

The big plus with this plan is that it affords extra visiblility, extra opportunities to support a chosen cause.

The big drawback is that it's going to be an elderly cab, and probably not one suited to long stretches of highway driving. It might not be terribly comfortable, it might not make the distance.

The Mustang option

Instead of buying a cab in New York and driving it across the country, we hire a Mustang (or similar car) in Chicago and drive it to LA/San Fran after the convention.

This has various pros and cons:

Pro

• We don't have to lay out big money up front to buy an ex-cab.


• It's going to be a lot more reliable


• It's going to be a lot more comfortable


• We don't have to spend time checking it out and physically driving to Chicago.


• If more than one person joins us, we can just hire more cars.

Con

• Not a taxi (or twaxi).


• Not as visible for purposes of media and fundraising


• We might have to pay a big one-way fee

The Corvette route

A further option building on the previous two:

We hire a Corvette (or Mustang or similar) in California and drive it to Chicago. This may be cheaper because we are going against the flow of the song and the usual direction of hire car travel.

We would do it before the convention.

–PeterMac