Opening Thoughts

The Characters:

The Son: Sam, age 10, looking forward to the fossil dig in Wyoming
The Daughter: Gwen, age 8, budding park ranger and natural performer
The Mom: Marcy, just awarded Masters degree
The Dad: Dave, enjoying first real summer vacation in 11 years
The Ravioli: our Toyota RAV4, tasked with doing all the hard work

The Plan:

Take a real, live, long, family vacation. How often are both parents actually free in the summer? Not just for a week or two of vacation, but truly unattached professionally? It's certainly our first time since the Son and Daughter were born. So off we go: 6 weeks of wandering through the hinterlands of our country.

The Story:

The story that will take shape from this trip is intriguing. Will we find our nation's heartland still beating strongly? Will the kids' sense of wonder and discovery be forever expanded with life-enduring experiences? Will the adults find inner harmony? Will we find our natural landscape, and native American heritage, being well-respected? Will we survive the first 4 days of constant driving without going crazy? These are some of the questions on my mind.

For me (likely the principal author of the blog) the journey will doubtless be one of heart and mind as well as space, as I rebuild my world- and self-view. After more than a dozen years of running an Internet start-up, I am now changing careers, with the aim of using my technical skills to further my creative visions. In particular, I am aiming to become a professional creative writer. The writing part is fun and challenging; making it a profession is what's really puzzling and scary, but I'm determined.

The Travel Plan:

Leave June 21, right after the half day of school. Like a bullet, we will speed westwards for 4 days, slowing down finally in the Badlands area of South Dakota. I'll post detailed itinerary in days to come, but highlights will include a couple of days each in Yellowstone National Park and Glacier National Park; visits with friends in Idaho and Wichita; and as many of the various, incredible national parks in the southern Utah region as we can fit it.

I will duck out for a week away from the rest of the clan in late July, meeting up with a friend who lives in Wichita, KS, plus 2 other friends from Germany, and the four of us will play a week long World War 2 game, World in Flames. The Mom meanwhile will lead the charges through Colorado, eventually joining the crazy gamers in Wichita, from where we'll head back eastwards.

We expect to be back home in eastern Massachusetts by the first week of August. All in all, it will be a summer to remember!