Time to go!

Tak here. Chris asked for a bio from everyone on the trip, so I'll delight him with one.

As of last year, I finished my university studies in Marketing.  I spent years studying and working at the same time and never had time to do anything else.  Now I'm on a one-/two-year hiatus from "real life" to explore and live a little.  Planning for this trip was one of the things I've been doing during this time.

Grand Slam version 1 (read: insanity)

Chris and I originally conceived the idea three years ago at a smoothie bar we worked at.  In one of our many crazy conversations, we drew out the most outrageous road trip on Google Maps.  Stretching from one end of the continent to the other, the whole journey would take two to three months to finish.  At that age, we laughed it off and it eventually became a running joke between us.

Fast forward three years later to a January Sunday afternoon in downtown Montreal, where Chris and I were having one of those life-altering discussions while stuck in traffic.  I said we should do something amazing this year and casually brought up the trip as a joke.  Chris stopped the car, turns to me with a serious look on his face and asked, "do you want to do it?"

For once, I contemplated on the feasibility of the idea.  That took about three seconds.  I knew the answer already and it was yes.

THE Grand Slam

We knew we couldn't go at this alone and the only other person we know who is crazy enough to attempt this was our friend Alexei.  We called him out, grabbed some maps, and drew out a route at Scores over supper.  After several revisions, we decided that the map on the right was the one we wanted.

This is going to be our last major road trip before we go on to tackle other responsibilities waiting for us in the coming years.  There is no better reason than that to go all out in the next 3 weeks.

When I was kid, there was an awesome show called the Magic School Bus.  Ms. Frizzle, one of the show's main characters, had a catchphrase that everyone should follow, even for someone like me in my late twenties.  She would exclaim, "Take chances, make mistakes, get messy!"  I'm going to take on that quote as my motto for this trip and I hope all three of us will follow through with it.

T-minus 9 hours!