>So, last month marked Jeff’s fifth year working at eBay. He is now eligible for a one month -well more like 4 work weeks off- paid sabbatical. A few years back, he promised that I quit nagging him for yearly trips to Virginia to see my family, he would be willing to take his sabbatical off to go visit my family for the whole month. Roughly. We haven’t picked a time of the year to go yet; however we’re thinking to shoot from mid-April to mid-May. Not too hot, not too cold.. just right.
So at this point, we’re now at a crossroad so to speak. Do we fly and spend $1,200 on plane tickets, plus another $700 or so for a car rental and get there in about 8 hours? Or do we take one of our vehicles -most likely the Mazda for comfort- and it’ll take us a few days to get to Virginia, yet we’ll be able to stop along the way and see some friends? Sure, we’d have to factor in gas, food expenses as well as possibly accommodations, however, it’ll be a better experience.
If we drive, we’d most likely drive from Salt Lake and then stop in Denver to visit with some friends and stay the night. That’s roughly an 8.5 hour drive. Then we’d leave Denver and stop someplace in Kansas -possibly Kansas City or thereabouts- and stay there for the night. And then at that point, it’ll be a straight shot from Kansas to Atlanta, GA where we’d most likely stay a few days to visit with a dear friend of mine, and after we leave Atlanta, it’s a straight shot up the coast to Virginia Beach. I know for a fact that’s roughly a 6-9 hour drive, depending on traffic and whatnot. I know while in Virginia, we’d most likely go visit some family in the western part of the state, and then we’d even hit Washington DC to visit the capital.
On the drive home, I know we’d drive up from Virginia to Indiana and stay with my sister and her boyfriend, and then from there up to the Chicago area in Illinois and then come home from there. Not sure how much time that route would take us, but I’d imagine probably quicker to get home than to leave.
One thing we’re considering as a long term investment if we drive would be to purchase a compact tent trailer. That way if we don’t have a place to stay, we’d at least be able to pull up into a camping ground area and stay the night there rather than spending money for motel or hotel rooms. This would not only be beneficial for road tripping, but also for fishing and camping together as a family after we get home.
It’s too soon to make concrete plans; however I know there will be alot of expenses into driving.. we’d have to get our car tuned up before leaving, and then we’d have to tune it up before coming home. We’d have to make sure we have a spare, we’d have to definitely upgrade our GPS’s software to have more up to date maps and a laptop with wireless internet capabilities. I guess it’s a good thing that we have Allstate as our insurance company, since they are nationwide, and we’ll have coverage while we drive. And hopefully, I’ll have my driver’s license at that point, and Jeff will be confident enough to let me drive so we can switch driving and he won’t have to drive the whole entire time.
We’ll have to have a backup contingency plan in case things, but I think it’ll be doable.
It’s just a matter of weighing the pros and cons and deciding which way we’d want to go. Either way, I’m excited!