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!