Louis Vuitton Commercial About Traveling

In my Travel channel viewing I saw this commercial by Luis Vuitton which pulls on the heart strings a bit and gets you pumped up to travel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5xCGZuvhWI

Introducing Zena & Zuma...the dogs

Here's Zena and Zuma. They're both boxers; Zena is the brindle on top and Zuma is the fawn on the bottom. They're both huge, Zena is 80lbs and Zuma is around 60lbs. We're packing up enough dog food for 15 days so with the regular food plus the left over beef bones, they will be well fed.

These two young ladies have been treated like royalty their whole lives...they sit on the couch, sleep on the beds, sit in the front seat...they get treated better than us kids. They love riding in the car and this road trip will be a slice of heaven for them.

Entry 2 - The Plan

Once Mom and I committed to taking the trip it was time to come up with a plan. One of my favorite parts about traveling is the preparation and research you do before the trip. A trip might only be a couple weeks long, but if you put in weeks or even months of research and planning it extends the trip and makes it that much more fun and fulfilling.

First was to pick the dates. We settled on the Christmas and New Year's break - Dec. 25- Jan. 7. Second, was to pick the major destination cities. We live in Los Angeles so driving to the midwest was a trek. None the less, we knew we had to hit Kansas City and Memphis as those are two of the best known BBQ cities (North Carolina is a bit far and all those TV shows say they have so much BBQ it warrants its own trip). Because of time restraints we decided Memphis was as far east as we could go.

We'll be hitting (start in Los Angeles):
* Santa Fe
* Amarillo
* Oklahoma City
* Wichita
* Kansas City
* St. Louis
* Memphis
* Little Rock
* Dallas
* Austin
* El Paso
* Phoenix

I mapped it out so you can see the route we'll be taking.

Entry 1 - Mission Statement: USA BBQ Road Trip

The USA BBQ Road Trip started as an idea about a year ago after watching too much Food Network and Travel Channel. Various shows debated over which cities had the best BBQ and although the culinary experts of TV have quality opinions, I had to see for myself. The plan was to fly into Kansas City and sample BBQ across America's heartland - Memphis, Oklahoma City, Dallas, Austin, St. Louis, Kansas City, New Mexico and more. It was just an idea; no date was set and no definite plans had been made. However, in August 2008 my Dad, who was a shining light in all of our lives, unexpectedly past away in his sleep. It was a tremendous loss to our family and it changed things forever.

In an attempt to get away and get some freedom, I mentioned the BBQ trip to my Mom and she loved it. However, she said, "We're not flying. Let's make it a road trip...and we can bring the dogs." I agreed and from there Matt and Mom's USA BBQ Road Trip was born.