My Road Trip Book

I'm going to start publishing chapters from the Road Trip book I was writing the last two years on here. So much has changed and the story needs to be rewritten almost entirely, so I thought you might like to see what it use to be. Enjoy.


Introduction- aka Meet Larry

The plan started out as nothing more than a small idea that popped into my brain. This idea would sit there, almost uselessly, waiting to be developed into a master plan. This little idea (lets call him Larry for story telling purposes) was nothing more than something I really wanted to do: go on a road trip.

At first, Larry only consisted of me getting a big, old bus the summer after high school graduation, kidnapping all my friends, and forcing them all to go on a road trip with me. Larry was not a very detailed or meaningful idea to say the least, but still, he was there in my mind, and he refused to leave.

I think the main cause for Larry was a lot of reading I had been doing at the time of his birth. Some of my favorite books involved road trips that were exciting, fun, and somehow changed the characters lives forever. Like in Paper Towns by John Green were Q, Ben, Radar, and Lacey go on a last minute, majorly rushed road trip to go to Angelo, New York to find the “manic pixie dream girl” Margo Roth Speigelman. Said road trip included the fun of breaking speed limits, being forced to pee in energy drink bottles, almost dying, and completely missing their own high school graduation. Sounds like a good time to me!

Another book that helped towards the creation of Larry was another book by John Green (you get the feeling I like John Green?), An Abundance of Katherines. In this book, Colin and Hassan go on a road trip in the hope that it will help Colin get out of his slump after being dumped by a Katherine for the 19th time. Their road trip included carving “god hates baguettes” into a table, huge burgers, and a visit to the grave of the Archduke Franz Ferdinad that lands them in Gutshot, Tennessee with the quirky girl Lindsey Lee Wells. Another road trip leading the main characters to something new and different that somehow changes their lives.

And, just to mention it, there is also the entire book long road trip across England in 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson, and the movies Wild Hogs and RV. Just three more examples of the made-of-awesome road trips that happen in books and movies.

I never really knew if road trips in the real world actually happened like this, but my crazy, idea-filled mind, and the newly formed Larry, would like to believe that they did. I had always wanted some adventure without the disaster, sadness, and teen angst involved in the camping road trip of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling in real life.

A few times I brought up my amazingly well thought out Larry to my friends and most had found Larry to be an awesome idea. Once in class, I started talking to a couple of my friends about it and Larry began to grow with more details. It was decided that we would, of course, need to stop in Great America on this road trip, as well as a stop in Disneyland. Stopping in Disneyland for a week actually by one of my friends opinions. And then that was all it was for a while. Larry crawled back into the deep recesses of my my brain. Always there, and always waiting, but not moving or growing or doing anything productive. He was overthrown by impeding tests and stresses of life.

And then, Larry was re-awoken. 

As Larry moved around in my head, I decided to bring him into the world and mention him in an online chat with my friends. There it was reconfirmed that Disneyland and Great America would have to be included in our trip.  And the, Larry began to be fed. Our way of transport would not be a bus, but an RV (or two, depending on how many people are coming). One main goal of our trip: get lost and discover something awesome. And of course there was the small discovery that a lot of money would be needed for this trip. But that was a minor detail at the moment. The point was Larry was growing and beginning to look a lot like a plan. Now all that was needed was a name for out journey and details for things such as who will drive.

It was in the same kind of chat room where our adventure got a name. And that name was “Operation: Scandalous Road Trip.” Everything was starting to come together. Other details would be worked out between Larry and myself with input from my friends whenever needed. I was going to make this road trip happen, even if it was the last thing I ever did. 

At the point I am writing this right now, we are still not driving, moneyless Freshmen in high school (This is is now a lie. When I wrote this on paper this was true. Now we are still not driving, moneyless Sophomores). We don’t have an RV, we don’t have a fully formed Larry, tools for kidnapping are still sitting, un-bought, on hardware store shelves, and we have no time to make this happen. For now, Larry would have to go back into hibernation to slowly be built up later on. But Larry was fully awake in my dreams, daydreams, and ever working imagination. And of course, in my imagination, the road trip could work itself out in anyway it wanted with all the circumstances perfect for what I want to happen. And that of course is how the imaginary story of Operation: Scandalous Road Trip, that you are about to read, came to start.

But the planning of the real road trip still continued. Upon hearing about my road trip plans, a friend of mind procured a large map of the United States. On this map we began to...

(And there is where that sentenced ended until Sophomore year when I found it again. So, now continuing on November 29, 2010...)

...plot the points of certain places we wanted to stop. Along the way, we planned to get lost. Our trip spread out across the entire county, and we planned to enter every state, (excluding Alaska and Hawaii) (“Aww, why can’t we go to Hawaii?” “Because RV’s don’t float, Ben!”) even if that meant just driving into the state and driving right back out. We have our map, we have our destinations, and we have hope in our hearts.

Sooner than we could ever imagine, the trip of a life time would begin.

One last note: Everyone in this book are based on real people that I know in real life, really. To protect the innocent and make things funny though, everyone has been given ridiculous code names, and have been slightly fictionalized. Total list of characters is below.

Glowstick (That’s me.) (Named because I’m so pale I glow in the dark.) (Part of the three musketeers) (Neko’s girlfriend)

Star Frog Space Monkey (name from online code name generator) (Part of the three musketeers)

Hunny-senpai (she is slightly older than us so she was given the japanese title “senpai,” meaning “elder.” Hunny because she is small and adorable like the character Hunny from an anime we watch.) (Part of the three musketeers) (Ninja’s girlfriend.) (Occasionally the fake “mom” to Glowstick, Kitty, and Cheesepuff)

Neko (Given the japanese name “Neko” meaning “cat” for his very cat-like qualities. Name fits him far to well. It was either this or “Lollypop Sassy Love-Sponge” that an online codename generator gave us.) (Glowstick’s boyfriend.) (Occasional “uncle” to Cheesepuff, because she insists that he is.)

Ninja (Named because he is a ninja) (Hunny-senpai’s boyfriend) (Occasionally the fake “dad” to Glowstick, Kitty, and Cheesepuff.)

Sniper (Named this because he didn’t want to be called “Hatchi” and “Assassin” was already taken.)

Truffle (so named because he is a “silly little truffle.” ....yeah, long story.) (Called “uncle” by Cheesepuff sometimes.)

Kitty (The guy this character is based on will hate this, but his hair is super soft like a cat. So we call him this while trying to pat his hair.) (Princess’s boyfriend.) (Acts as brother/nii-san to Glowstick.)

Princess (Named because she loves Disney Princesses... and I couldn’t come up with anything better.) (Kitty’s girlfriend.)

Otaku (“Otaku” is japanese for “obsessed fangirl” basically.) (Younger sister of Pepper but is in the same grade as the rest of us.)

Pepper (Named because the person she is based on hated peppers. MUAHAHA! Love her though!) (Older sister to Otaku.) (Acts as brother/nii-san to Glowstick... long story.)

The Fairy (She is very fairy-like. And EVERYONE loves her.)

Assassin (Named because “Assassin” was in his username, so I used it. No other explanation.)

Cheesepuff (... I really don’t remember why I decided to call her this.) (Acts as older sister/onee-chan to Glowstick.)

Ducky (Named because... well, someone just suggested it and it sounded right. Plus, it’s cute.) (Sniper’s girlfriend.) (Won’t appear until chapter 6.)