Required Introductions

"What were you doing?" -Samwise Gamgee
"Sneaking." - Gollum

I am a curious person.  No, that's actually far too polite.  In some ways, I am downright nosy.  As I started planning this quite-possibly-impossible trip, I searched the internet looking for other people who had made similar journeys.   I found a few sanitized magazine articles about cross country road trips with kids.  I found quite a few college and twentysomething bloggers who had made amazing yes-I-can-tell-you-don't-have-a-day-job treks.  I found one or two families who combined a move with a vacation. While I know they're out there, I'm still looking for the blogs of other families who would plan a two week cross country road trip for no other reason than George Mallory's. 

Blog searches are a rather typical tool of mine. Whenever we are travelling somewhere new, I want to know about it before I get there.  So I look for people who have done it before. 

This is where the nosy part comes in.  When I find a blog where people have described their trip to wherever, I tend to go back to the beginning of the blog, and look for some kind of introductory post.  I want to know who the people are.  I want to know if I'm likely to agree with their travel review.  Call it inquisitive, call it curious.  Conversely, call it intrusive and ill-mannered (although I must point out that these bloggers have in fact posted this information on the internet).  Yes, most of my readers will likely be friends and family who wander here during our actual trip to make sure we haven't driven into the Grand Canyon.  But in case you are a curious soul like me and wander here by accident, here's the brief introduction to our family.  I promise, the introductions will be shorter than the explanation of why I have written them.

I am Jenn.  I will turn 37 on this trip.  My husband Scott will not turn 37 until later in the trip, much to my great and eternal chagrin.  We are American Baptist and involved members of our church. I teach, he programs.  I scrapbook, he researches geneology.  We are geeky in the nerdy and uncool sense, professing love of multiple well-known fandoms.  We blush to say that we are on the computer more than we read,  read more than we watch movies, and watch movies more than TV.  We love football, but disagree on NFL teams.  Most importantly in terms of the success of this trip, we are actually best friends, and yes, we know how lucky that makes us.

Our kids are Kairi (kay-ree) and Nick.  It's hard to describe your kids, as a parent, and not come off sounding like you are bragging.   Suffice to say, Kairi is 16. She's a talented musician, and a good student, who is possessed of a dry sense of humor and a solid dose of common sense.  Nick is 13, and he is also a talented musician and a decent student. He has a goofy sense of humor, and a strong empathy for others.  They both got a good solid dose of our rabid fan geek gene, and have even introduced us to some of our more beloved fandoms. They get along surprisingly well, for the most part.

(I went back and edited the ages after our trip was pushed off two years, FYI.)

Curiosity satisfied?