Hi, my name is Aaron and I like Roadkill

I figured I better I introduce myself before this trip gets started. As Marty stated, I've known both Marty and Jon much of my life. We all share an interest in vehicles and that is something that has kept us in touch over the years. About 11 years ago I was able to purchase my first home; a small house with a very large garage (the garage had more square feet than the house) and so it's been the meeting place for us many many times in these last 11 years. I think every vehicle that each of us has owned over the last 11 years has been in that garage. 

The idea for this trip came from the a YouTube show called "Roadkill". I think I stumbled across one of the videos about a year ago and have been subscribed ever since. The premise is that two guys (Mike Finnegan and David Freiburger) get into some automotive related adventure and post roughly a 30 minute episode of their adventures every 4th week. These guys work for Motortrend so they have the experience (and a film crew) to keep things interesting. There are 28 episodes so far and another one will be posted the weekend we launch for our adventure. I highly recommend you check it out and subscribe; every 4th week is a new adventure! I've embedded the first episode below. 

This first episode is the one that gave me the idea for the trip. I mentioned it to Marty and Jon as one of those things that would be "fun to do" but Marty latched on to the idea and wouldn't let it die. He'd randomly text me and ask when we were going to go. When it was clear he was serious I had him pick a date and started looking at destinations. I found what appeared to be a smoking deal on airfare to "Dallas, Nevada". My guess is nobody wants to go to this location as the one-way tickets were less than $150 per person and it's a two leg flight. At this point Marty and I had been texting and Jon hadn't been in the loop. I texted Jon, mentioned the proposed dates and asked if he was willing to go as I was ready to pull the trigger on the tickets. I think he was driving to Chicago at the time so this exchange took all of maybe 5 minutes. I pulled the trigger on the tickets and then told Marty that we should just keep it a secret from Jon as he'd agreed without even asking where we were going and that's how it all got started. That was January 14th, 2014. 

A decent amount has happened since this trip was planned. For me, the biggest thing was when a semi-unsolicited offer was received on my home which forced me to get serious about looking for a new home. The net of that is that May 16th is also my moving day. That's right. I'll move to a new home and then immediately leave it for this "epic trip." Thankfully I have an understanding wife!