I’ve had two dreams for most of my life. They’ve always been on my bucket list as things that I want to do, but figured I would never really get to do them. You know, unless I won the lottery or something. I recently developed a 3rd dream over the last few years. I got to thinking that these 3 dreams actually mesh really well together, and I’ve started working on what I’m calling my Passion Project.

The first dream is to visit all 50 states in the US. I’ve had this dream since I was a kid. Next is to take a cross country road trip. This one I added in my 20s. The newest dream is to visit special bookstores or libraries (like Nora Roberts’s Turn the Page in Boonsboro, MD, The Strand in New York, Powells in Portland, OR, Leah Johnson’s Loud Mouth Books in Indiana, Jenny Lawson’s Nowhere Books in Texas, City Lights in San Francisco, etc.). Do you see where I’m going?

My Passion Project is something that is currently completely out of reach in it’s desired form. I would need to come up with around $200,000 to make it happen the way that I want it to. Especially if I want to do while I am still young enough (I would love to time it around my 55th birthday, but that’s only a little over 2 years away and I currently have no income, so saving that much money without a lottery win is a big ask). Ah, but if I could somehow pull it off it would be amazing.

I want to take a year and drive across the US hitting all 48 contiguous states visiting and promoting independent bookstores. I would feature the bookstores on my blog and social media with videos and interviews. And also visit and share any interesting and fun libraries or literary destinations along the way. I would also write about the road trip portion as well on a separate blog to talk about any non-bookish sites I visit.

So far, I’ve been crunching numbers and my $200,000 estimated budget includes a new vehicle, gas, car maintenance, food, hotel stays (though I can camp along the way as well), phone and data plan, insurance, storage, books, souvenirs, shipping (because I don’t know that I’ll be able to fit all of those books in the car) and an emergency fund. Everything is looking at an average US price with adjustments for inflation. It should also leave me a little to cover any bills until I find a new job when I arrive home.

The year-long time frame gives me just over a week per state, though some states may need more time, others less, depending on the size and number of independent bookstores in the area. I could adjust this time frame as well, if I have the funds to accommodate it.

If I’m still living at the house with my mom, I wouldn’t need to worry about a place to live when I get back (or storage for that matter). Though honestly, depending on my living situation, I could decide to live anywhere if I fall in love with somewhere else on the trip I just accidentally typed “someone” so I don’t know if that was a Freudian slip).

I’ve already started looking at potential stores to visit, though obviously this can change over time, but I wanted to get an idea of what cities to try to fit into the trip. And listing the things that I will need to pack into the car with me. The next thing I plan to work on is mapping out a potential route. I want to hit every state without a lot of backtracking, so that could get a little tricky in some places (New England, I’m looking at you). After that comes the money… and how to get it. (If any of you have ideas, I would love to hear them).

This seems like a far-fetched dream that I am putting time and energy into but will never come to pass, but I really want it to. I’m determined to try every possible (legal) option to come up with the money to fund the trip. I feel like I need this.