Help me research my novel!

This is where I sell you on my idea, tell you who I am, and why you should help me reach my goal.  I am many things.  A single mom.  A writer.  A grad student racing towards graduation this May.  I have had the people in my life tell me for years I should write a novel, and never had the inspiration, could never quite get "the idea" I needed in order to make it happen.  A few weeks ago, it finally did though; the idea that I had been waiting years for finally came to me.  It is a story of eight women, five adults, a teen, a pre-teen, an older child, and a German shepherd who protects them all.  Each woman is searching for something more in their lives, and embarks on their journey, on a converted school bus, across the country.  The story is one that any woman will be able to relate to, the journey each of the five adults takes is one that we, as women, will likely find ourselves going on, even if it's less drastic than a cross country road trip to find themselves.

Why should you help me raise $20,000?   The money will be spent visiting the places that the women in my tale will go, so that when the reader holds the book in their hands, they are transformed to that location too.  The sights, the people, the food, the feelings evoked from each place.  No corner of America will be left out, the women travel the entire country in a summer, choosing their next destination as they go.  My usage of the funds will be much less chaotic than that, but I am a single mom in grad school without the liquid assets necessary to embark on such a trip.  This book will tell a story that people will love, the characters, in the short time I have known them, have become family and each has a transformation they need to undergo, much like we do throughout our lives.