Ok, not really statistical analysis.  Here are some awesome numbers though.
Driving distance:  15578.8 miles
Driving time: 247 hours, 58 minutes
Trip Duration if we were driving 9-5 each day and only stopping to sleep: 31 days.


Allllriiiight.

-Joey

 

There was a day, not long ago, when our itinerary waned and rambled like the Wandering Aengus. We had so much time to play with, and so many days to fill with sites and American sound.
Those days are gone. Today, our journey is brimming with adventures near and far, on a schedule that seems to grow tighter with each passing day. Today, we're on quite the opposite end of things. We've extended the route to include all 48 states, boasting more plotted stops on the course than we'd ever thought possible.
In our 100 days, we've got to cover a lot of ground. And with merely a day, or sometimes even just an afternoon to spend in a particular locale, we've got no time to waste. This means that, from time to time, we're going to have to wake up at the crack of dawn in order to get on the road, and offer the next destination the attention it deserves.
Let's have us a look at a few of those situations.

1. Athens, Maine to Burlington, Vt.

We're leaving Maine and shooting westward for some fun times in Burlington. But on the way we have a stop in the Concord, N.H. area which we can't miss, and which you'll learn more about when it comes. But this leaves us with roughly a 2 or 3 o'clock arrival in Burlington, which might just necessitate a few extra hours in town the next day.

2. Williamsport, Pa. down the Blue Ridge Parkway

Here's a big one. It's a 4 1/2 hour drive from Williamsport to Shenandoah National Park - the starting point of the Blue Ridge Parkway. From there, we've got another 400 miles or so of the most astounding drive we could ever hope to encounter. We cannot do it at night, which means we've got to hit the road from Williamsport at an uncomfortably early hour.

3. Baton Rouge, La. to Memphis, Tenn.

Sure, we've got some time to spend in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. But I don't doubt that we'll wish we'd spent longer in town by the end of it. And our next stop is nothing to sneeze at, either, as we've got an obligatory visit to Graceland ahead of us.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, the most notable rushes we'll encounter during the first half of our excursion. I'm sure that as we approach the dates, as things become clearer, we'll be encountering more of these shenanigans.

-Tom Stanley

 

Early on in our planning, we were concerned about whose car we're going to be using. It was between my 2006 Hyundai Sonata and Joey's 2001 Nissan XTerra... for some reason, we never really gave much thought to Sarah's car. Sorry, Sarah. 
There were intelligent arguments coming from both sides of the discussion. Joey's car had much more space for storage, sleeping, and essentially living out of for a summer, but only gives us 20 miles per gallon of gasoline. That's on the highway, with a minimal amount of extra weight. It will be driven down somewhat with the addition of our weight and all the stuff we're bringing along.
My car, on the other hand, offers a solid 30 mpg highway, but offers considerably less in terms of storage space. And as we watched the price of gasoline sink lower, and lower, and lower, we decided that we'd go for the XTerra and pay the price of extra fuel.
But thinking on a less personal level, this means we're burning more fuel, creating more pollution and, maybe worst of all, giving more money to the fat cats at the oil companies. Man, I hate those fat cats.
So this is something to come to terms with. Will we be able to enjoy the trip to its fullest extent, knowing full well that we're contributing to the gradual destruction of our natural environs in doing so? Would I be able to sleep better at night if we were driving something with slightly better fuel mileage, or would that just be a lesser degree of the same evil? What would Kant say? There's no way this trip would fly with him, if he had known about global warming back in the late 1700s.
See, on occasion, I find karma to be a very real thing in this world. And I would hate for anything terrible, untimely, or unfrtunate in any way to befall us during our trip, simply because we decided to go pedal to the metal and not pay any mind to how we were affecting the environment.
This, my friends, is something for us to consider and act upon. From simple things like keeping our recycling separate from our trash, to more intense things having our car's emissions offset, we'll be looking into a handful of ways that we can be friendly to the world around us.

-Tom Stanley