The Countdown Begins (Continues, Really)

T minus 49 days and counting until our departure.

Really too soon to start collecting things like food stashes, piles of necessities, etc. But there are a few things niggling at me to get done, but I'm not feelin' the love, so to speak. One thing we need to procure is a hardside cargo carrier for the van. Because we'll be camping, and at the beach, and staying with friends, we have to be flexible enough to have bedding, air mattresses, sleeping bags, tents, beach towels...There's no way to fit everything in the van and still have room for us to be comfy. And we certainly want as much family harmony as we can have!! Anyone knowing where to get a good deal on a car topper, or better yet, who has one we can borrow!! I would love suggestions.

I am also considering buying another camera. I have had a love-hate relationship with my last 2 cameras. I think because I loved the one before them so much, and it took such great photos. But while now it's the Skipper who has the primo camera, I'm not sure if I want to rely soley on him for all the pics of this trip. My present camera is huge and bulky, Kodak, and I really haven't been all that enthused with the photos from it. Just OK...

In addition, I really do need to give the folks we're visiting a heads-up on exact dates, and work on the budget, and what we've paid for and what we haven't.

In case anyone is wondering about funny little trivia with regard to this trip, here are some interesting facts:

• According to the routes I've mapped out using Mapquest, and adding 25 miles per day for each day we're in one location, we'll be travelling over 8,000 miles during the course of our 28 day trip.
• In hours, again according to Mapquest, it's over 134 hours of driving time, with no accounting for traffic jams, detours, etc.
• At the risk of being too public about budgetary issues (sorry if you're offended by money talk--don't read this part if you are!!), the budget for this trip is $7,000. This includes our portion of the beach house in San Diego for the Professor's family reunion. I really don't think that's a huge figure for a trip of this proportion. For those of you who are math-impaired, that's $250 a day for the 5 of us; $50 a day each. The amount includes lodging, food, gas, Legoland (our 4th and final Legoland location to visit!!), other attractions entrances, and National Parks entrances (btw if you're traveling to a lot of National Parks in the course of a year, get the $80 National Parks pass--it does save you!!) Currently, I am about $475 under budget, but again, we need that car topper and maybe a camera. AND I've only budgeted $2.85 a gallon average for gas, which I'm afraid, seeing the price of gas climbing as it is, that's too low. But I can pull my normally budgeted money that we won't be using at home for groceries, kids' activities, etc. if we're over the trip budget...We're planning to get a prepaid Visa card and put an amount of $ on it, say for all the food and "fun" expenses, and give it to the Skipper and say, "You're in charge of keeping us under budget in this area." It will be a great practical lesson for him. It's never too early to teach about good money management skills.

I've been quite wordy; so until next time, TTFN!!

The Genesis of a Blogger

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip;
It started from this southern home in a Chrysler minivan.
The mate was a mighty ten year old, the skipper in high school;
Five travelers set off that day on a 28 day tour, a 28 day tour.

On June 16 our family is beginning a trip of gargantuan proportions: a tour across the United States to see a few of the many wonders our great country has to offer. After living in Europe and seeing most of the "major" attractions there, we really felt that we needed to do the same thing in our own country, before the kids got too old and began leaving us.

While it's exciting to think of showing these things to our kids (and in some cases, seeing them for the first time myself), 28 days in a van, driving over 8,000 miles with a fidgety, infinitely inquisitive 10 year-old boy, an ordinarily easy-going, but has-her-moments-with-her-brothers 12 year-old pre-teen girl, and a 15 year-old young man who vascilates between being hilariously funny one moment and a prophet of doom the next, fills me with foreboding that all of us will end up locked in separate padded cells as a result of this trip.

However, although many of our friends and family members are viewing this as an adventure that they are glad NOT to be taking, at the same time they want a window into the life of our family on the road for their entertainment purposes. So the other day a friend suggested that we blog our journey to insanity. I am sure we'll be able to fill their daily laughter quota for at least 3 of the 4 weeks on the road...Plus, then I'll print it off after our trip for each of the kids, so that they have a keepsake and rememberance. Maybe they'll even be able to pull it out for their own children and say, "You think YOU have it rough!! Let me share what MY parents did to us!!"

I do want to protect my family's privacy, though. To that end, we've (well, I'VE) decided to go with a Gilligan's Island theme for our trip. To that end, here are the cast of characters (and I do use the word charcters tongue and cheek!!):

The Professor:

The kids call him Dad. Our family's Professor is a career Air Force man, currently serving as Professor of Aerospace Studies at a local university. He is intense and focused on big picture, but he cares that the details get done. Just not by him. He loves wife and kids with the same intensity as he operates with in the rest of his life.

Mary Ann:

That's me--the Mom. Like Mary Ann, I am a very practical, sometimes quite naive Midwest girl. I am the one the Professor's details usually fall to. And if this trip turns out to be a total disaster, it WILL be my fault. I started hotel reservations for this trip last September, and I view planning just about as much fun as actually taking the trip.

The Skipper:Our oldest. He will have just finished his freshman year of high school. Our plan is to enlist him to do as much driving as possible, since his is in possession of a temporary driving permit! The apple doesn't fall far from the proverbial tree with him: he's intense like his dad. But he can be a real source of comic relief...

Ginger, the Movie Star:


While I wouldn't call her glamorous, she does love her makeup and her clothes. Recently got a couple bikinis for this trip's venture to the Pacific coast. She is generally the moderator of her brothers. Even-tempered (most of the time), she is very intelligent, and natural leader. She is revered for her ability to go with the flow. I pray this doesn't change on this trip.

Gilligan:

He's the inquisitive 10 year-old. He's Gilligan because it seems that, to our Skipper, if something goes wrong, it's Gilligan's fault. Seemed appropriate. Our Gilligan LOVES to travel!! I think he would travel all the time if he could. We'll see if he still feels that way when we're 4,000 miles in, across the country...

Setting:

Not a tropical island, but our mini-van, I'm sure, will have the same ability to make one feel trapped and stir-crazy at times. Stops on our roadtrip include:

• Oxford, Mississippi. AF friends we knew in Florida, 14 years ago now live there.
• Breckenridge, Texas. More AF friends, this time from when we lived in Germany. Prost!
• Albuquerque, New Mexico. No friends, but that drive thru Texas sure is long.
• Grand Canyon, Arizona.
• Bryce Canyon, then Zion Canyon, Utah. Fond memories there from when the Professor lived in Las Vegas.
• Las Vegas. Friends from DC there, but also where we spent the first year of our marriage together. I haven't been back since we left 16 years ago!! We're not staying with the friends, as they'll have just moved there and are expecting baby #4--Staying at the Hard Rock at the request of the Skipper.
• Oceanside/San Diego, California. This is the spot for the Professor's Family Reunion. We'll be there almost a week.
• Monterey, California. More friends from DC, unless they have already moved to some foreign country by then. Who knows, with the military?
• Somewhere in Oregon. Can't remember, but we're camping there.
• Dupont, Washington. More DC friends. We'll be spending the 4th of July with them, as we did for a couple years while we were in the Nation's capitol. As an aside, we might have had crappy housing in DC, but the awesome friends made up for it.
• Missoula, Montana. A stopping place, but I thought it was fitting, since the kids all participated in the Missoula Children's Theater twice while we lived in DC.
• Yellowstone National Park. I've never been to the "Northern Tier" of our country--I'm very excited for this part. We'll be camping 2 nights at Yellowstone.
• Near Mt. Rushmore, South Dakota. Self-explanatory.
• De Smet, South Dakota. This is where many of the Little House books took place. We're actually staying in a covered wagon near the Laura Ingalls Wilder Homestead! My sister gets a laugh out of that...
• Fargo, North Dakota. Attending Sunday worship where our beloved pastor from DC now lives.
• Somewhere in Wisconsin.
• Clayton, Ohio. That's where the dog will have been visiting his doggie cousins while we've been gone.

With all that said, bookmark us, so that you can check in during the weeks to come to see how the preparations for the Epic Roadtrip are coming, and then of course, for the main event. Ahoy!