The change in the trip

So, as you may know, this road trip was intended to be a Great American Road Trip. After I lost my waitressing job I wasn't able to save as much money, followed soon after by an emergency root canal taking 1/5th of the money we had saved. Because of this, we had cut off all of New England before heading out. We suspected in the back of our heads that that would not be the end of our cuts, but we set off anyways with high hopes. In our detailed planning we'd done for a year or so, we had estimated the mileage for each "leg". Leg One was Seattle to Los Angeles, and we had estimated it at 1,700 (plus 30-40% for wiggle and such).
Well, in our time in Los Angeles, we assessed the money we had spent and the miles we had done. We were at over 3,000 miles, and though we had spent less on gas than estimated and we were right on track with food and recreation spending, we found out that we were at the halfway point in our journey. And so, now the trip is expected to be ended around the first week of November (as opposed to the first week of January) and we won't make it east of New Mexico. So we planned out the last 6-8 weeks and re-worked our budget. We will do loops of the beauty Utah, Colorado and New Mexico have to offer, and then head back up to Seattle.
Surprisingly, we aren't sad about it. Right as the trip started I realized the trip I had spent a year+ dreaming about and planning was a completely different thing than the actual trip we were on. The trip turned itself into more of a "Wilderness and National Parks of the West" trip. We'll be in Chicago and Florida in the next year for weddings, and someday maybe we'll take a train down the east coast. Eastern USA is probably not best seen with an old van and a dog anyways. I am a little bummed I won't be reading Huck Finn as we drive down the Mississppi, but hell, this trip is epic wicked sweet anyways! So just a little "bummer" on the loss of the second half of the trip.
Now, onward to the second half of the trip!!