All Aboard!!!

Can you believe we have a 2.5 year old boy who has never seen Thomas the Train and doesn’t even know his name?  I’m kinda proud of that one.  I even saved Cars until after his sister was born…although now I’ve seen Cars so many times it’s not even funny (the frequency…I actually still like the movie).  Anyway, that’s neither here or there, except in my blog title…today we are LEAVING on our ROAD TRIP!

Packing was an all day affair yesterday.  It started out poorly with the touch screen on our phone (not a smart phone, just one of those pay-as-you-go phones) no longer responding to touch.  It just gave up, I guess.  And since there aren’t any buttons, we swapped out the SIM.  My father-in-law had a stash of old phones from the same carrier…anyone remember the Treo?  We now have one…and we can’t figure out how to turn it off!!  Ha ha ha…I suppose we have some sitting time coming up to figure it out.

The challenge with packing for this trip is that our car is this:

…and we have four of us and a month’s worth of stuff…clothes, toys, snacks, MAF supplies, emergency gear, two car seats, etc.  We haven’t finished packing the car, but Matthew is a master of real life Tetris and has test-packed it and everything *should* fit.  We’re simply wearing the same four things all month long and to everyone who is lovingly opening their homes to us, please note that I will have laundry to do.  🙂

My mother-in-law treated me to new shoes (adorable Africa-friendly sneakers in my favorite coral color) and the use of her Costco membership to stock up on snacks.  My parents lovingly shared any other trinkets we needed for this trip: two-way radios, emergency supplies, their grandchildren, etc.  They even offered the use of either of their (much larger) vehicles, but sadly, the gas milage is king on this one…and our little Taurus is in excellent condition and ready for some cross-country winter driving.

Anyway, it’s 7:30am and I am the only one up (yay for quiet!), but I should probably finish packing those last minute items that are essential to bring and often forgotten.  I am working from at least three lists that are mostly redundancies, but saving my sanity.  We maxed out my little iPod Nano and hopefully in just a few hours we’ll be hitting the road.

Today’s destination: Walla Walla, Washington