Ithaca to Toledo

Finally our epic vacation is underway and everything is great! There's nothing like waking up at 4:30, completely restless  and eager to go. I was loading the bikes on the roof before sunrise, and the boys were patiently waiting in the car while we tied up all of our loose ends and headed out by 7 am.

The ride was very uneventful, but travelling past Allegheny State Park brought back a flood of wonderful memories of cross-country skiing adventures with Leslie in the '80s and '90s. I think I have the boys convinced that we need to rent a cabin there this winter. It's about time that they learned about the joys of nordic skiing.

It was hard to imagine many feet of snow on the ground on a day like today, with temperatures close to the 90s. It's a dry heat...yeah, right! Actually, it felt a little odd to be so insulated from the heat. I don't think I've ever travelled  cross-country before with a car that had completely reliable AC, and between that and the very comfortable seats, today reassured me that it will be pretty painless to drive 1600 miles in four days. We all enjoyed the audiobook Boom! by Mark Haddon today, though we missed a critical bit at the very end, due to a CD data transfer problem. Now we have to find the book at a bookstore somewhere and read the last few pages. Definitely a recommended read.

Somewhere in Ohio a blue van passed us and a friendly looking guy was beaming at us and waving. It took a couple seconds to register that it was our friends Tom and Bridgid from Ithaca. Tom must have recognized my bike!

It sure was nice to see some giant wind farms in southwestern NY and at some brown fields in Cleveland. I was reminded of Steel Winds in Buffalo. Hopefully the Ithaca area will really get its much-anticipated wind farm as well in the near future.

We're all looking forward to some swimming tonight, and it's off to Iowa City tomorrow.

Reality Check: Does it Fit?

Today was our reality check day—we loaded up the van with just about everything we have packed thus far, and to our great relief, everything fit with room to spare. I even have room for my guitar and I'll be able to see out the rear view mirror. Miracles never cease. The bin system works well, and all of our clothes are rolled up and rubber-banded together.

We have seven bins—two for clothes, one for bike-related items and our stove, one for kitchen items, one for books, and finally the ever-popular miscellaneous items bin. I'm glad that I saved all of my old bike tubes, since they are a terrific alternative to bungee cords. It shouldn't be at all surprising that we have one bin crammed to the top with books for the whole family. Also, the boys have their own tent, which is definitely worth the extra space. They will love their autonomy, though I predict that they will be joining us in the big tent if we have big rain or thunderstorms.

Pictures

Due to the fact that this blog allows pictures, I will be posting a variety of pictures along with my blog posts. This way, my blog posts will be loaded with cool pictures of our car rides, hotels and locations.

Leaving

Our trip will be very exiting, but I will miss many things including my cat Poe.

Staying Connected

Remember back in the day when we didn't blog or use social media, and often went weeks without going online? It really is hard to imagine in this age of living online, and certainly there is great merit in disconnecting completely for a long stretch. On the other hand, I used to always dread having to wade through hundreds of email messages when returning from a long trip. I'm not a big fan of surprises, especially ones that induce stress and anxiety.

After pondering the options for the last few months, I finally decided to take the more connected approach, especially since I wanted to keep close tabs on some friends and family members with health problems. Initially we were going to just activate the 3G service on my iPad, which would have meant having one connected device, but instead, I settled on a Verizon mobile hotspot, a very generous birthday present from my mom. This little device is pretty impressive, connecting to Verizon's 4G or 3G service and transmitting a wifi signal to our two iPods, two iPads and one laptop.

This doesn't mean that we'll be online very much, but it will be most convenient. We won't be streaming much video, since it uses lots of data, but it will be great for occasionally chatting or skyping with family and friends, as well as checking in with Facebook and email, posting blog entries and listening to Pandora on rainy days (if we get any).

Now that we have the technology figured out, we are in the process of list making using the very cool Paperless iPad app. List making is typically Gail's domain—it's one of her specialties, but I'm starting to get into it. I'm realizing that every time I augment a list, the stress level goes down. There's so much to remember between now and July 1st, so the more we write down, the easier it will get.

Now that school is out for all of us, we just have Saturday's bike race at the Watkins Glen speedway, then a solid week of organizing, cleaning, planning and packing. This next week will really go by fast!!

Armin's done the posts thus far. Now I'll take a shot at one.

 We're just over a week away from our departure date. There's so much to do! We're at the point of making many lists, trying to anticipate what we'll need but not wanting to haul everything we own with us.

The sky over Arches; Photo by Dan and Cindy Duriscoe

We're also trying to calm some anxiety on the part of the boys—they're concerned about carsickness, snakebites, getting lost in the backcountry, missing their friends, not getting enough s'mores... At the same time, we're all getting excited about all of the adventures ahead of us. We're reading up on good hiking trails, wildlife, breakfast spots, things to see. I can't wait to look up at the stars from our campsites!

 Our first few days will be pretty much consumed with just covering ground. We'll make it to Toledo the first night, Iowa City the second, and Mitchell, SD the third. I've never been to the first two, but have fond memories of the Corn Palace from our trip out west in the '90s. Our first camp site is in the Black Hills, and I'm really looking forward to hearing what the boys think about the Badlands, Mount Rushmore, and Wall Drug.

Lists and Lit

We're closing in on three weeks to go before our great Rocky Mountain family adventure. July 1 can't come fast enough, but in the meantime I'm starting to think about list making and good choices for audiobooks to while away the long hours in the car on the way to the Black Hills and Badlands. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated, by the way.

Since we're headed straight for Lakota country, I thought it would be appropriate and perfectly timed to learn more as a family about the Lakota culture. I found the book The Lakota Way: Stories and Lessons for Living by Joseph M. Marshall III, and luckily Amazon has the MP3 audiobook, so at least we have a start to our road trip audiobook collection. I wish there were more obvious choices, but this is a good librarian challenge.

After mulling over the iPad list making app options (and there are seemingly endless choices), I settled on Paperless. It's elegant, easy to use, and gets great reviews. I've been creating several lists (camping gear, bike accessories, my clothes), and with each list you can check each item off the list, which changes its' status to "complete," meaning that your items are packed and loaded. Very cool and highly recommended.

While the to-do list is still sizable, it is definitely manageable and getting smaller.