And They're Off...

We lifted off on our crazy adventure shortly after 5am today.

Yesterday was spent packing items in every nook and cranny of the van. The van, which seems larger than a school bus when parking it at the grocery store, suddenly took on the proportions of a Pinto when we tried to cram 30 days of stuff for 4 people inside. We made a few tradeoffs on what made the trip and what didn't, but in the end we THINK we packed everything we really need. If we forgot something, I'm not too concerned. At least 20 people have told me that "...they have lots of Wal-Marts along the way..." for whatever we forget.

Today was a great day to travel. It may be the best day we have, but we cruised through
Memphis around 8am with little difficulty, stopped at a not so clean rest area in Arkansas for a quick breakfast, and raced through the morning to Missouri. We took a small detour for lunch and hit the Trail of Tears state park north of Cape Girardeau, Missouri. The break was nice - about an hour and a half off of the interstate to enjoy a picnic lunch, a quick hike and a few moments to toss the football around.

We cruised into St. Louis around 3pm and settled in at the Drury Inn downtown. Steph took the kids for a soak in the pool while I negotiated with some "entrepreneurs" near Busch Stadium for tickets to the Cardinals game tonight. We enjoyed a quick happy hour at the hotel and walked the couple of blocks over to the stadium for the game. The stadium was amazing, and we enjoyed cheering the Cardinals on to victory.

Trey was wiped out from hitting the road so early, so he crashed midway through the 2nd inning, but managed to rally for the 7th inning stretch...

Lemonade - $5

Hotdog - $6

Baseball cards - $10

Ticket - $30

Catching some zzz's during a game.... priceless!

Our hotel is next to the St. Louis Arch, so we'll wander down there in the morning after lunch. Who knows what else we'll get into on Friday.

Not much more to report here. We have pics on the web - the link is http://picasaweb.google.com/MarionGrayCPA/

I'm off to bed.

Getting A Little Closer

The days seem to be ticking by a little bit faster now. The kids wrap up school on Friday, so we're dealing with the rush of year end activities for them. Taylor had her early birthday party over the weekend, and we had a nice visit from my Mom Saturday night and Sunday AM. My Mom's a bit of a Yellowstone warrior (I've lost track of how many times she's visited the Park), so we took some time to flip through the Yellowstone and Teton guide books and make notes on the "must do's" at each park. Steph and I did a little more shopping today and started marking stuff off our list of things to buy from the trip. We've turned the guest bedroom into a staging area for everything we've got to pack for the trip. I hope it all fits in the car...

I spent most of today knocking things off of my list of things to get done before we can hit the road - fun things like a new windshield, inspection sticker, getting the tires rotated and balanced. Hopefully tomorrow I can make it to the Honda dealer so they can give the trusty Odyssey the once over before we leave town next week. The Odyssey isn't even 4 years old yet, but she's got a ton of miles on her - emotional and otherwise. She's made the trip to Disney in Orlando, the beach in Destin, and also served as a means of fleeing hurricanes Ivan and Katrina when we lived in New Orleans. We seem to have created a lifetime of memories in the short time we've had the Odyssey, and we're hopeful this trip will add a host of new memories and experiences to the log book.

We've been watching the weather in Yellowstone, and it looks like we're going to be in for a bit of a shock after experiencing 90+ degree days here in Madison. There's still a lot of snow on the ground in the park, and they're expecting another round of light snow this week. By all accounts the snow seems to be melting at a rapid pace, but I imagine we'll be in for a few chilly nights in the park in June. Better dig out that long underwear after all.

Getting Ready...

The countdown is on - 14 days until we leave on our great (crazy, perhaps?) cross country adventure. I'm not sure how the blog thing will work out (or how current we will be able to keep it), but we decided to give it a shot. After all of our moves, we seem to have friends in most every time zone. We're hoping this is the best way to keep everyone in the loop as we make our way out West in June. If we have to rely on me and Steph to get post cards out to everyone during the trip, we may be in trouble...

As a little background, our family is going to attempt a driving trip to Yellowstone, the Tetons, and many points inbetween during the month of June. I made this trip several times with my family in years past, though I haven't been to Yellowstone since 1988 - the year the park burned. (Only 20 years - I'm getting old fast...). Anyway, Steph and I decided in late 2007 or so that we needed to bite the bullet and take our family out West before the kids got much older. (Trey just turned 8, Taylor will hit 10 (double digits!) in early June.) We put the last 2 weeks of June 2008 on the calendar and starting making a few reservations. In late 2007, I couldn't really see how I would be able to take 2 weeks off of work, but I figured I could find some way to make it work...

I guess things just have a way of working out if you pray about it and are patient enough. Just be careful what you ask for. I left my job at the end of March and decided to take a few months off to recharge my batteries and catch up on my family time (and a long list of unfinished projects from our last move). The ability to take several months off is a luxury that probably won't pass my way again anytime soon. When I look back on my life, I've been working at least one job (sometimes 2 or 3) since I was 16. I figured after almost 22 years of continuous employment, a few months off wouldn't be such a bad thing. It's a long story I suppose, but needless to say, it became evident that taking 2 weeks off for this trip wasn't going to be a problem at all. Our family decided to make some lemonade out of lemons and extend our trip from 2 weeks to 4.

Over the past month our so we've been pouring through travel books, the internet, and almost worn out an atlas. I guess I am my father's child - I've been working on a meticulous list of everything to take and everything to get done before we hit the road. Every day I seem to think of something else that needs to go on a list. I'm sure we'll forget something important, but there are a lot of Wal-Mart's between here and there.

Our plans seem to change a little every day, but our current plan is to leave Madison on May 30th and spend a night in St. Louis, MO and Sioux Falls, SD on our way out West. We'll spend a few days in and around Hill City, SD to see the Badlands, Mount Rushmore, Deadwood, and anything else of interest. From there, we head to Cody, WY for a few days, then on to Yellowstone. We'll spend about 2 weeks in Yellowstone and the Tetons. Our itinerary gets a little iffy after Jackson Hole, perhaps because I'm not sure if our family will still be able to be civil to one another after 3 weeks on the road. If we're all still sane (or adequately medicated), we'll head from Jackson Hole to Las Vegas, then Hoover Dam, the Grand Canyon, Roswell, NM (so Trey can photograph some aliens), Carlsbad Caverns, friends in Austin TX, then back to Jackson. Then straight into some intensive psychotherapy...

The kids will either love this trip or be scarred for life. Either way, the trip will be memorable...