Survive the Drive

"Are we there yet?"
-Every child, ever

We are less concerned about the actual drive, I think, than most families headed on a 7,500 mile trek with two teenagers would be. Much of our confidence is luck, really. We are ridiculously lucky to have two kids who actually get along. We had nothing to do with it, so don't ask how we did it. Twenty solid days of family togetherness may test that, but we aren't worried. We are lucky to have a car that is practically new and still under warranty, so car trouble is not really on our radar. (Though I feel like I should knock on wood having said that!). Also, we already spend a large chunk of our lives in the car.

Still, we have a few plans for the actual drive to keep us all sane. The aforementioned playlist is up to 177 songs. We bought an inverter for the laptop, and are downloading movies and games. We have our phones and my omnipresent camera. Not to mention the section of my binder full of paper and pencil games, and the pile of games and puzzle books pictured above that Amazon delivered this morning. We will see how long we can avoid the dreaded "Are we there yet?"

Plotting and Planning

"Think it'll work?"
"It would take a miracle."
-Miracle Max and Valerie (She's not a witch, she's his wife!)
We are spending the evening while the kids are at Grandma's working on the trip. We did a disatrous preliminary pack - we may need a UHaul if we don't think it out again. Then I scrubbed up some of our gear and made a shopping list for tomorrow while Scott works on the soundtrack for the road. (Although as I listen to him working on it, I fear for the children...)
In other news, we just found out that Yellowstone is under a norovirus warning. So we are wondering if it's better to bring food and get eaten by marauding bears or eat a restaurants and get attacked by marauding viruses. Decisions, decisions. Whatever we decide, we are finally getting excited for this trip!

Actual Itinerary

"Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience." - Francis Bacon

After several false starts, and more changes and rearranges than I care to think about, we are actually doing this thing.  My mom can't come along because my stepdad suffered a stroke and can't stay alone for that long.  We switched back to plenty of camping - perhaps more than we are sure we can do.  We added destinations, took them away, added more, changed plans a hundred times.

But now I have a binder of information.  And reservations for each and every night of the trip.  And wonder of wonders, four tickets to Comic-Con, after a frantic morning of waiting in a virtual queue with hundreds (perhaps thousands) who were not so lucky.  I have a budget that is just barely workable.  I have a car that has been babied and carefully maintained for the year since we purchased it.  We are really leaving, in only 31 days.

So, our itinerary, in brief, is a mixture of education, entertainment, and experience.  It involves quite possibly too much driving, tons of sightseeing, and a crazy number of stops.  Here's the "short" description:

Sunday, July 7 - Drive to Pokagon State Park in Indiana for a night of camping.
Monday, July 8 - Drive to Chicago.  See the Field Museum and Adler Planetarium.  Drive to Great Bluffs State Park in Minnesota to camp for the night overlooking the Mississippi River.
Tuesday, July 9 - Drive to Mount Rushmore. Stay in cabins.
Wednesday, July 10 - Sightsee at Mount Rushmore and the surrounding area. Stay in cabins.
Thursday, July 11 - Drive to Yellowstone. Camp, and see the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.
Friday, July 12 - See Old Faithful, Hayden Valley, and the rest of the lower loop. Camp.
Saturday, July 13 - See Tower Fall and Mammoth Hot Springs on the way to Missoula, Montana.  Stay in a hotel.
Sunday, July 14 - Drive to Bremerton, WA for a visit with my sister.
Monday, July 15 - More visiting with my sister.
Tuesday, July 16 - Drive to Patrick's Point State Park, and camp overlooking the Pacific.
Wednesday, July 17 - Make the impossibly long drive to Anaheim, stopping halfway to visit the Jelly Belly Factory. Camp at Anaheim RV Village - apparently an urban campground.
Thursday, July 18 - Go to Disneyland. Camp.
Friday, July 19 - Go to California Adventure. Camp.
Saturday, July 20 - See the California Science Center (with the Space Shuttle Endeavor) and the Hollywood area. Camp.
Sunday, July 21 - Attend San Diego Comic Con.  Stay at a hotel.
Monday, July 22 - See the USS Midway and go to Coronado beach.  Stay at a hotel.
Tuesday, July 23 - Drive to the Grand Canyon, and sightsee for an hour or two.  Drive further to Flagstaff, AZ and stay at a hotel.
Wednesday, July 24 - Drive to Amarillo, TX.  See various Route 66 attractions.  Go to the Texas! show at Palo Duro State Park.  Stay at a hotel.
Thursday, July 25 - Drive to St. Louis, Missouri.  See the Gateway Arch and the Westward Expansion museum. Stay at a hotel.
Friday, July 26 - Drive to Dayton, Ohio.  See Gaelic Storm at the Irish Fest.  Stay at a hotel.
Saturday, July 27 - Drive home.

This feels crazy, and heady, and scary, and thoroughly amazing.  Now I just have to figure out a better way to pack the car...

Many Plans, Many Changes

"Well, back to the old drawing board." - Peter Arno

It has certainly been a year.  With one thing and another, and the band trip below that ate our budget, the road trip (which we had already decided to push back to 2013) and this blog took a far back seat. 

But now I am home for the summer, and other than VBS, my schedule is fairly clear.  And that means it's time to plan a vacation!  We are all extremely excited about the road trip, and I've spent several days plotting it out, but it looks very different from our original plans.

First, we need a new car.  Our old car is well beloved, but it's nearing the end of its usefulness.  Since we're planning to upgrade to a crossover, and our car will be practically new, it doesn't make much sense to rent an SUV for the trip.  Especially since we'll have a car payment to add into our budget soon.  So we've decided to drive our own car on the trip.  Of course you know, that means we have to add to our trip - we can't fly back home if we're driving our own car!  Here's the Chevy Equinox I've been eying at a local dealership:

Next, we've invited my mother along.  She will be a great addition to the trip.  She loves to travel, especially with us.  However, that means no camping, and we have to find hotel rooms with suites everywhere we go.  It will be worth it, though, to get all that quality Grandma/Mom time!

Last, and in the eyes of the kids and Scott, most important, we've decided on the exact timing of our trip.  Timing has become important, because one of our stops is now going to be the 2013 San Diego Comic Con (assuming we can get badges - we're going to have to get all four of us on the computer the morning they go on sale, methinks).

Reviewing the Situation

"I am reviewing the situation... I think I better think it out again." - Fagin (from Oliver!)

Life happens.  I am STILL planning this trip, oh yes I am.  I will still take this trip.

But some family members needed help, and the band trip and our own bills had to logically take precedence.

So we'll be travelling cross country in the summer of 2013, not 2012.

No reason I can't still plan, though!

In Search of Beautiful

"O beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain, For purple mountain majesties Above the fruited plain!" - Katharine Lee Bates

One of the main reasons we want to take this trip is the fact that we have seen so very little of our country.  Generally speaking, we find nearly everything we want to do in a very small radius of our beloved home town.  We're an easy drive away from New York City and Philadelphia.  We have festivals, like today's harvest festival in our historic downtown, pictured above.  We have amusement parks.  We're a couple of hours from the Atlantic.  We have woods, and mountains.  We can even manage a day trip of Washington, D.C. If we want to get really adventurous, we head south or north.  South, of course, will bring us eventually to our two favorite vacation destinations - the Outer Banks or Disney World.  North takes us to the banks of the St. Lawrence and Grandma's house.  To someone else, this may not seem very exciting, but we find plenty to enjoy, even in our limited travel circle.

But Scott has never been farther west than Chicago.  I've never been farther west than Wisconsin.  The kids?  Remember when we went to Cleveland in August? Yup.

Transportation Ponderings

"Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering? " -The Brain
"I think so, Brain, but this time, you put the trousers on the chimp." -Pinky

 Summer vacation is nearly over, so it's the perfect time (in my warped little mind) to plan next summer's vacation.   After spending most of the day preparing to go back to work, I rewarded myself with a little online research for the trip.

When we first discussed the trip, our plan was to drive across the country, passing through the following states: Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, and California.  We'd rent a car, and then we would return by plane.  But as I mentioned in my very first post on this blog, two of us are severe airplane phobics, and one doesn't like planes all that much.

And that's when I got my next great idea.  I looked into train routes eastward.  Turns out, there's a train that leaves California, passes through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Louisiana.  Once the train arrives in New Orleans, there is an overnight stop, which would thrill my daughter no end - for reasons I can't explain, she loves the very idea of New Orleans. 

Then we board a different train to head north through Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and back into Pennsylvania.

That would bring our total to 25 states in one road trip!  Not to mention, we wouldn't need to fly, and we'd get a night in the French Quarter.  The cost is only $300 more than flying, and might actually be cheaper than flying as the dates get closer.  (Especially if Amtrak offers a promo code, which they often do...)

Unfortunately, it would mean three nights sleeping in coach.  We've done two nights in coach before and it was somewhat less than pleasant.  It would also mean that Scott would have to get three solid weeks off instead of two.  Still, it's worth pondering!

Mixed Success

"A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying... that he is wiser today than he was yesterday."
-Alexander Pope

Our camping trip last weekend was somewhat successful. Some of the lessons that we learned (which may or may not be pertinent to our epic road trip adventure) are as follows:

1. It is really, really important to make sure you clear ALL the rocks from under a tent site. Really. In the battle of sleeping bag cushioning versus rocks, the rocks win, every time.

2. It doesn't matter how much firewood you bought, brought, or found.  You don't have enough.

3. For a decent sunset shot, I have to focus on the sky, and then bring the camera down to my subject.  Otherwise, my camera just keeps washing everything out and eliminating the colors I'm trying to capture.

4. Not everyone will be amused by every roadside attraction.  For example, Pymatuning Lake is known as "where the ducks walk on the fishes' backs" in roadside attraction lore.  You can feed these rather freaky looking carp, who will swarm like pirahnas.  Nick thought it was hysterical.  I thought it was pretty darn funny.  Kai liked it, but was vaguely grossed out.  Scott was just disgusted.  So I guess the actual lesson learned here is you can't please everyone.

5. Keeping the whole family together anywhere where there are interactive toys (such as a hands-on science center) is a losing battle.  They're young enough to want to play with everything, but old enough that it would look pretty stupid to hold their hand when they wander off!

6.  I find this rather shocking, but... apparently everyone is not a Packers fan! Why do they say "cheesehead" like it's a bad thing??

Okay, being somewhat more serious.  We also learned that it's very hard to keep everyone awake on a long car ride after a busy day of adventure.  On the trip home, both kids slept quite a bit.  I tried to stay awake, because I felt bad that Scott had to drive, but I kept nodding off, too.  That is a bit of a problem, if we're planning to have Scott driving 4-8 hours every day (or in some cases, every other day).  He does not like to be a passenger, and I don't like to drive, but we will need to find some way to give him a break from all the driving.

One other thing we learned?  It always rains when you are camping.  At least once.  And we can't always let the tents dry before we put them away, which gets really messy, and would be highly unhealthy for the tents if we weren't able to dry them out at our next destination.  So we'll have to keep an eye on the forecast on our big trip - or risk tossing the tents in the dryer!

Travelling Light?

"We're gonna need a bigger boat."
-Chief Brody

We usually pride ourselves on travelling light. We can pack for two weeks in Florida in three small suitcases. But throw camping into the mix and suddenly the kids are jammed in the backseat with their backpacks full of clothes and a pile of precut firewood.(No, I don't trust Scott with an axe.) Not to mention the coolers, tents, sleeping bags and supplies filling every corner of the trunk. Good thing we plan to rent a minivan or SUV for the cross country trip.

Road Food

"Never eat more than you can lift." - Miss Piggy

It's hard to decide where to be frugal and where to indulge on a trip of this nature.  We want to experience as much as possible, and that includes food, to an extent.  I certainly plan to indulge in a Chicago-style pizza, a brat at Lambeau field, a cowboy steak in Yellowstone, and a Mickey Mouse ice cream on Main Street in Disneyland.  Breakfast, however, has never been an important consideration on our vacations.  We often stick to a cold pop-tart or a hastily inhaled granola bar before running off to the amusement of our choice.  I have no problem with being cheap about breakfast on this trip.  However, I think two weeks of granola bars might be a bit much, even for me.

So this weekend, as we get ready to head off to Ohio for a camping trip and Packers pre-season game, we put together a couple of options for a road food breakfast or snack.  First, we made this really tasty trail mix:

It has peanuts, raisins, golden raisins, dried cranberries, dark chocolate raisins, and M&Ms. Yum.  Ever since we made it, the kids can't wait to leave, because it will be time to eat the trail mix.  Then Nick and I whipped up a batch of pumpkin chocolate chip muffins:

Yes, I know.  The common thread of our food is chocolate, and chocolate doesn't do so well in a hot car.  We're most likely going to bring a cooler with us on the trip, and I will buy a few of the giant plastic bags to keep food like this dry and cool. Conversely, both of these recipes could be made without the chocolate elements.  But what would be the point of that, really?