D-Day - 1: Itinerary and Utter Panic

I'll post the first leg's itinerary below. But today's real issue is all about Utter Panic. The Son & Daughter in their own ways are feeling it; bad dreams for the boy, expressed nervousness for the girl (this is a gender thing right? girls just seem better at expressing than boys, in my observation of the youngster crowd). The Mom is too; you can see it in the double-caffeinated drinks and high speed action that follow.

Me? What me worry? I'm not panic(k)ed in the slightest. Should I be?

And THIS is what has me worried. That I should be worried. And that I probably (no, definitely) have about seventeen things to do right now other than to go a-blogging. But what's the big deal? Part of the neatness of The Plan is that on day #4 we hit Wall, South Dakota, for a visit to the famed Wall Drug store. Where you can get anything. Perhaps fall-back plan, if you ask me. Not that I made the plan; I'm not that clever ~ probably because I'm not worried about needing to be clever. Which is worrisome. Anyways, here's the plan.

D-Day: tomorrow: scoop the kids after school's half day; give them exactly 22 minutes to run around in the after school picnic in the big field across the road; then we bullet off to Buffalo for night number one. Driving time expected to be about 7.5 hours (not including stops). It'll be a late arrival.

D-Day+1: destination is Marcy's Uncle & Aunt's house in north west Illinois. This is the loooong day of driving. We'll take off from Buffalo early (like by 5:30 am) in the hopes of dodging the worst of the Chicago commute traffic and arriving at stop #2 by 5 or 6 pm. Total time of travel might be a low as 10.5 hours, but it might be a bit more, too.

D-Day+2: blasting off early again, ending this time in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. What is in Sioux Falls? I have no idea. A lot of water right now, judging by the news of storms and floods. It is another long day's driving (about 8 hours) as we continue our westward ho! bullet train approach. I guess I've been playing too much Mario Cart Wii, because I keep thinking of that bullet bonus thing you get, and how this is exactly how we are approaching the first few days of travel. The only sights we're seeing are those outside the car window!

D-Day+3: now the fun begins. We should make it to the Badlands area in time to take in some of the views of that national treasure. Plus that visit to Wall Drug. Then we'll camp out (for the first time), enjoying a night sky experience of star-gazing that the campground offers. The idea of being far far from city night lights is exciting.

D-Day+4: from the Badlands we wander around to take in Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse monument-in-progress. (I'm told you should see them together, in that order, for maximum effect.) Then we arrive at a campground nestled under the tall shoulders of Devil's Tower. (Cue the music from "Close Encounters"; memo to self: don't order mashed potatoes!)

D-Day+5: after exploring some more of Devil's Tower, we'll drive to Cody, Wyoming via the Big Horn National Forest.

D-Day+6: our first full week concludes with some time spent in Cody's museums, followed by a drive over to Thermopolis, WY. One of the really exciting events starts tomorrow, but we'll have to wait for the next blog post for that. I'm not worried at all. But I am deeply concerned at my high comfort level, so I need to go have a snack and think this through....