Looking Forward

I am excited, but after taking the time to create the header map that traces our route across the country, I can't help but feel a little queezy. In the past we have taken long road trips, Rocky Mountains Colorado in 04, East coast up to New Brunswick in 05 and Tetons and Yellowstone in 06. The current planned adventure will be quite a bit longer, over 5500 miles just to get from point to point with no tooling around. I would bet we cover 7000 by the time we get home in late July. While admittedly this much sitting in a vehicle with Michelle, and the boys or me sounds slightly insane, the destinations we have in mind are quite worthy of any familiar discomforts. We are raring to go.

We leave on Monday the second of June and still have quite a lot of prep work to do before that time. We have not had to purchase too many new items this year but we did decide to ditch the inflatable queen air mattresses and try our luck with four 2" thick Thermarest pads. The air mattresses are a pain to inflate, are very bulky and while comfortable they do not offer much in the way of insulation from the cold. (comfort at night is key to successful camping)

For Michelle and me this trip will be an overdue return to one of our favorite places. As youngsters we spent the summer of 1990 working in Sequoia National Park. It was a great experience and obviously one that left its mark on us. We have dedicated a good portion of our trip, from July 7th to 19th, to revisiting some of the beautiful places there. Here are some shots from that trip.
Michelle at a nice overlook

Me on a hike to BearPaw

One of our earliest pictures together, at Alta Falls, ages 21 an 23


I will be posting photographs and updates when I can along our journey so check back and see what we are up to.