I've started the preparations for my journey on the "mother road" today. I'm so excited! This has been a life long dream (or at least the real life version of it) and I'm finally setting off, to make it come true (if only in VL). Find out, what this is all About and read the First Post of this blog!
Just like any Real Life (RL) journey this Virtual Life (VL) one affords some preparation too. Obviously I need to know where I'm going, what to see along the way, what to eat and so on . I want to be a good virtual tourist.
➪ The beginning of a dream ...
The post will be divided into sections as follows:
The ride | The Route | The Music | The Food
Of course my real vehicle is Google Earth, but come on! That's not exactly flashy, right? So I thought, what's it going to be? It's a virtual trip after all. I can afford whatever I want. So I decided on a Harley-Davidson. And not a huge travel monster either. After all I don't have to put up with all the hassle of a RL trip. I don't have any luggage and my VL a** is not going to hurt after 300 miles on a hard VL spring saddle. The thing doesn't have to be comfortable nor practical. It just has to look goooood! So I decided on my absolute favorite HD, the Model 1 by Brass Ball Bobbers.
▸ The route ...
I'm using mainly two sources to plan the trip. The first is the excellent website Historic Route 66. The second is a .kmz file I found for Google Earth that depicts the whole historic route. I don't know how much of the real Route 66 is still accessible, but I don't think I have to worry about that much on a VL trip and for now that is what I'm going to go by. My Travel Reports will contain loads of info and links to websites where you can get more.
▸ The music ...
Of course I'll need some good travel music ... A mate of mine over at Google+ (+randy mccumber) already provided me with the song I'll start the adventure off with. Route 66 by the Rolling Stones! Could there be any better choice?
To determine what other music I'm going to play during my trip I'll consult road trip music playlists like the one by The Jetpacker or the one at Mel's Music.
▸ The food ...
I will try to find out what the traditional dish is for each area I travel though and I'll cook as many of them as possible at home. Food is a large part of a journey for me. When I go on RL vacations I always try as much of the local cuisine as possible. On this VL trip I'll obviously have to cook the stuff myself, but it'll enhance the experience significantly.
➪ Join me! ...
Ok, this is the preparation bit done. Tomorrow I'll be off. Leaving Chicago sometime around 8pm local time (CDT). If you want to follow me on this adventure, let me know! You can either Follow me on Google+ and I'll keep you posted there or you can subscribe to this blog via Email or RSS Feed! I will post about all the stuff I mentioned above. At the end, once I get to California, I will probably post a YouTube playlist with the best of the road songs I listened to on my trip. You will find recipes for the dishes I cooked and loads of information on Route 66. I will post coordinates of all the interesting stuff I find, so you can easily locate it in Google Earth. Don't miss it!
➪ Keep in touch! ...
Got some information for me? Do you live somewhere along the route and know of landmarks I should check out (as long as they are on Streetview) or do you know what I should eat in that part of the country where you live? Any great road music you can recommend? Any other ideas how I could make this journey more interesting for me and those who follow the travel reports? Let me know in a comment!
