"On the road again..."

I have decided something! The newest addition to my bucket list is to drive the entire Pan-American Highway, from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, to Ushuaia, Argentina in one trip. Start to finish, that's roughly 29,800 miles. Snap. While I'm traveling this road, I plan on stopping by all the LDS temples that are on the way. There are actually quite a few, but I don't know all of them because I'll have to piece together a bunch of maps to make one surefire route. I am super excited about this, as I usually get about any new, exciting, spontaneous ideas that I have. It will probably be quite a long and potentially pricey expedition, but it would be an incredible experience. I would love to complete this trek with Girlfriend, but that depends on whether or not she'll be up for this almost 30,000 mile voyage. I'm sure I can probably convince her though.

As with many of my grand ideas, this idea requires a car, and I think I have already determined which car I should use. I've decided on the 2004 Subaru Forester XT with a number of after market add-ons. I read an article explaining how to basically turn the Forester XT into a Forester STi, which my car aficionado friends will recognize as a true wolf in sheep's clothing.  The under-hood upgrades would run less than $1000, which is a heck of a deal. Subarus are exceptionally good at getting over most any terrain, which will come in handy when I'm traversing the frozen arctic tundra and the muggy rain forests. The Forester also has quite a bit of cargo capacity, which is useful for carrying spare car parts, food, water, and clothing. Going through customs will be a nightmare because of all the gear, but oh well. The experience will be so incredible, and to share it with someone as special as Girlfriend will be such a blessing. I cannot wait for this expedition.

Ciao!

Update: I figured I should write down all the countries that will be visited in the trek, so here goes:
1) Canada
2) United States
3) Mexico
4) Guatemala
5) El Salvador
6) Honduras
7) Nicaragua
8) Costa Rica
9) Panama
10) Colombia
11) Ecuador (hey!!)
12) Peru
13) Chile
14) Argentina

I believe that the highway will travel through the major cities in each country (well, in the US it goes through Denver, and that's about it), so the temple count goes to at least 18. Dang. That is wonderful. The list of temples includes:
Calgary Alberta

Billings Montana

Denver Colorado

Albuquerque New Mexico

Ciudad Juarez Mexico

Colonia Juarez Chihuahua Mexico

Oaxaca Mexico

Mexico City Mexico 

Tuxtia Gutierrez Mexico

Guatemala City Guatemala 

Tegucigalpa Honduras  

San Jose Costa Rica

Panama City Panama

Guayaquil Ecuador

Trujillo Peru

Lima Peru

Santiago Chile

Buenos Aires Argentina.

Bam. Now I really, really cannot wait. :D

Another update: Well, turns out I took a wrong turn just looking at Google Maps, so a couple of those ones in Mexico might not count, and there is at least one new one, Monterrey, Mexico. But still, that's a heck of a lot of temples. And it's still a heck of a trip. :D