Welcome to the Haunted Road Trip blog

For those who don't know (or have blocked it from their minds), I am insane. As such, I am going to attempt a semi-interesting feat. This October, I plan to drive through all 48 contiguous states in 16 days. On top of that, I plan to visit a haunted locale in each state.

This blog will eventually be a journal of my travels but, for now, it will be a sort of record for my preparations. I have about two and a half months to pull all of this together so let's look at where I'm at so far...

First up, I had to get the time off. Done. Next up, I had to figure out if it was going to be cheaper to rent a car and pay with a gas card or use my company vehicle, which provides free gas but charges me for excessive personal mileage (cross country=hella personal miles). I have figured out that, even if the personal mileage thing is brutal, it will still be cheaper than paying it out of pocket. Plus, it spreads around the expense.

Next up, what route am I taking? I had a pretty decent route planned out but then I looked into this idea and found a guy who wrote about his efforts to ride across all 48 states in 10 days by motorcycle. He made a map that sort of demonstrates the best way to conquer the states (hint: lots of skimming). So, generally speaking the order will be as follows:

NC, TN, VA, WV, MD, DE, PA, NJ, CT, RI, MA, ME, NH, VT, NY, OH, MI, IN, IL, WI, MN, ND, SD, IA, NE, CO, WY, MT, WA, OR, ID, UT, NV, CA, AZ, NM, TX, OK, KS, MO, KY, AR, LA, MS, AL, FL, GA and SC. Or, to steal this guy's map...


Then, I had to go to Shadowlands and a few other websites to find all my ghost targets. I am mostly done with that (Kentucky is proving to be a problem, especially the corner I am hitting).

Hopefully, I will have the day by day breakdown up this week for everyone to peruse and make recommendations on.

Here is my question...do I take anyone with me? If so, who? No one else can legally drive my car so no one can help with that. Having a second bladder to pull over for may slow me down. The advantages would be having someone to help pay for the hotels but I would also miss out on getting to stay with some of my friends who have volunteered couches. What to do...? Comment below and help me out.

Josh