It's GO TIME!

The day is finally here! I leave tonight for Indianapolis where I will be meeting the bus tomorrow morning. We (during this blog the "we" bit will mostly mean the bus and crew - our bus drivers, tour guides, US Travel representative and myself) will be visiting the Indy 500 race track and then rolling on to the next city tomorrow afternoon which will be Chicago! I am so excited to get to Chicago to see my step-sister Lauren and her husband John David, it has been way too long! And it's been even longer since the last time I was in Chicago... last time I was there was to see an NSYNC concert with my best friend Kelly (embarrassing to share I know).

So the nerves are kicking in today and I just want to get on that bus! I am so anxious to see what my new diggs are going to be like for the next three weeks. This is going to be an amazing experience getting to see parts of the US that I've never seen before but there is a lot of work to be done on this trip! My primary job while on the bus will be to make sure US Travel connects with local media in each city in order to spread the "Vote Travel" campaign. Last week we met with US Travel and I got to speak with one of the campaign coordinators who has actually been on the bus for a week. She said it was the most amazing experience ever but that she was completely exhausted. Luckily for me I will have a US Travel representative with me so we can tackle city after city together but I know this is going to be an intensive three weeks.

Now for those of you who know me so well you are probably wondering how the heck I packed for three weeks of traveling...on a bus...with limited opportunities for laundry... well I pulled out the good ol' LL Bean duffels I used while traveling abroad to Rome and filled them with as much stuff as humanly possibly. I put off packing all weekend because I was dreading it so badly and managed to power through two and half hours last night of organizing and neatly placing item after item in the bags (with some tips from Kathy George - master of road trips!) It wasn't the easiest process and I will admit I was on the verge of a couple of melt downs in between but I am glad all my bags are packed and ready to go!

I thought I'd share with you just how OCD I really am - toiletry bags below...

-Court