Where Have We Been?

We didn't just disappear off the face of the earth. Unfortunately, we had a real internet problem. Our ATT data card, which is supposed to work wherever our cell phones work, doesn't. On the trip, it only worked in large cities (and not all the time there), which seriously limited our time to post. Sorry about no posts!



At any rate, we are back and have just finished celebrating Thanksgiving with our children and my mother. The trip was great -- in fact, so great we are doing it again next week. Only this time, we're doing it my way. GB has admitted we took way too much stuff. We didn't use even half of it. For one thing, we took cooking supplies, including gourmet stuff because we like to cook. We didn't use that stuff once, since we discovered we so very much enjoyed eating at all the Mom and Pop places along the way!



We've also discovered that other people seem to be fascinated by what we're doing. My cousin, who stopped by tonight to wish us a Happy Thanksgiving, told us there is even a term for it: funemployed. I googled it, and sure enough that's what we are. The funemployed have decided to take a sabbatical from being gainfully employed in order to have some fun. I think it's because we grew up in the 60s and 70s, and there is a little bit of hippie in all of us who were young then. On our first road trip, we often chose the back roads over the interstate, we talked to people in shops and got tips for the local food joints and at night we slept in the back of the van in our sleeping bags. (Along the sleeping line, coming from the South, we did not anticipate that about 90 percent of the campgrounds in Minnesota and Wisconsin would be closed for the winter. So guess what? We spent several nights sleeping in a Wal-Mart parking lot. No one ever questioned our van being there overnight, and we felt perfectly safe.)



So, next week we're starting out again. This time, we'll head toward Gettysburg and Philadelphia. After that, maybe Canada or maybe we'll come home. When you're funemployed, who knows where you'll turn up next?

Road Trips USA: Going First Class in the Used Minivan

Road trips across the USA? Turn the extremely used minivan into the poor man's RV? (Well, it was new when we got it, but with 118,000 miles it's used now.) Taking road trips sounded fun to both of us; converting the minivan into an RV sounded fun for only half of us. I'll let you guess which half. Didn't matter, though. Apparently, road trip planning was in my near future.



We just moved back to Alabama, and GB (husband) decided it was now or never for the great American road trip. A psychologist by trade -- yes, I'm married to a shrink and yes, it is weird sometimes --he wanted to take three months off before opening his new practice We've always enjoyed car tips, and we used to camp frequently, so he put two and two together and came up with three months. Once he broached the idea to me, I started searching the web. Much to my surprise, I discovered there is a whole breed of people out there who do this.



So, good idea, GB.

For weeks ahead of our trip, he haunted the storage aisles of Target and Wal-mart, comparing sizes, prices and products. He wanted to measure the inside of the minivan, but since he was still in Tennessee, and I was in Alabama with the van, he could only guess. This suspense was painful for him, given the precision needed to obtain a Ph.D. Not to mention, he's male, and they measure everything.

Honestly, I really thought it was a good idea at that time. I'm not saying this to make my husband feel good. Even when he said he wanted to go to Minnesota, I didn't flinch much. I hate cold weather. I mean, I really hate it. But I borrowed boots from our daughter, ordered a down coat from Lands End and bought Toastie Toes feet warmers in the camping section of Wal-mart. I can be a good sport when I put my mind to it.



But now, I'm having my first inkling of doubts. We're packing the car. I mean, we're packing the sort of RV. We've been trying to leave for three days, but life keeps getting in the way. Now it's noon and pouring down rain. We've taken all but the front two seats out of the van. GB has played with all sorts of variations on how to pack in a way that will allow us to also sleep. He's got all these rectangular bins, and he's piecing them together like a jigsaw puzzle. A few very large bins? Many small bins? A combination of both? Oh, what will we do? If only NASA was available for consultation. He finally decided on several all the same size. We'll lay camp mats on top of them, open up our sleeping bags and nighty-night.


Okay, I like a firm mattress anyway. So that's settled.



Now, what to pack? GB is pretty much hell-bent on taking everything we own. I think we should see this as a practice road trip. This first one is only going to be a couple of weeks. We're coming back for Thanksgiving. But, no. We've got pots, we've got pans, we've got canned goods, we've got enough fishing stuff to open a store. But then, he only brought his fly fishing equipment, not all the other fishing stuff. He said he would have to leave me home if he brought it all. And he debated that for a few seconds. With the current flood and the vision of Yankee snow in my head, that might be a good idea.

But now, we're off on our great American road trip. The minivan is packed to the brim -- actually there's about two feet left between all our junk and the roof of the car-- and we're ready for anything. Minnesota, here we come. But wait, GB forgot the binnoculars. Let's turn around and get them. Both sets of course, the astronomy ones and the field ones. Oh, yes, the freedom of not having to choose.