Day 4: Vail, CO (a.k.a. The Day I Lost 2 Kids at the Peak of Vail Mountain when I was at the Base of Vail Mountain)

Oh what a day!  You might want to get a cup of coffee and put your feet up for this one.  It’s a doozy….

The day started out well enough.  We woke up in Buena Vista, CO at our camp at the base of Mount Princeton and we were so thankful it didn’t rain during the night while we were sleeping because that would have made packing up camp an even bigger pain in the behind than it already is during the best of circumstances.  (Can you tell that camping isn’t my “thing?”)  Anyways, it took us about 2 hours to pack up and then we started the drive to Vail.  It was a pretty quick 90 minute drive through the Tennessee Pass (3 cheers for Tennessee!)  and we were all mesmerized by the ski village in Vail.  I have never been skiing and have never been to any type of winter resort town, so I was just as in awe of the whole vibe (Hello Switzerland-ish town!) as the kids were.  Michael is an old hat at Vail….he went several times in high school and college. 

We bought our gondola passes for the day ($109 for all 5 of us to have unlimited gondola rides all day and included a $15 voucher/person for food and activities at the top of the mountain at Adventure Ridge.) There are 2 gondolas (ski lifts weren’t running in the summer).  The employee at the ticket kiosk suggested that if we (the parents) wanted to take a little quick break from the kids today, we should let them ride the gondola round trip by themselves.  He said he lets his granddaughter do that and it’s just a fun little excursion for her and perfectly safe and only about 20 minutes round trip.  What a GREAT idea!  I’ve been needing just a little space from the kids.  More on that later.

After our ride on the gondola--such a perfect day! Nothing could possibly go wrong!

Relaxing while waiting for the boys to finish Disc Golf

We opted to ride up on the newest one, Vista Baun, and the kids pretty much thought it was the best thing ever.  (Well, I did too…it’s just a little better than the one at Ober Gatlinburg that I rode in 8^th grade.)  ;)  At the top, we had a short hike (30 minutes) to the next spot where we let the kids each pick an activity to do.  Maddy and Will did a trampoline bungee thing that was pretty cool (it looks like they’re jumping higher than the mountains!) and John wanted to do Disc Golf. 

Lunch was next and in true resort form, we got to experience what a $12 cheeseburger and a $10 hot dog taste like. 

$10

Here’s where the day starts to get interesting. 

Michael was dying to hike all the way to the top of the mountain where the black diamond slopes were. 

The kids were dying to NOT hike all the way to the top of the mountain where the black diamond slopes were.  There was moaning and groaning and lots of complaining (see, LWOW is not all rainbows and unicorns!) but he was pretty insistent that it would be worth the hike.  It was a 1.5 mile hike, almost straight uphill. 

Father of the Year:  piggy back rides for the whiniest

Carrying 3 backpacks at a time.  I am woman, hear me roar.

And I’m proud to say:  We did it.  It wasn’t pretty, but by golly, we did it.  There was some crying.  There was some flat out refusal to continue on the path.  There were even some mild expletives, if you know what I mean.  I had to go “Jillian Michaels” on the kids once or twice like a bad trainer at the gym, but hey—whatever it takes. (This was before Maddy started sobbing but after Will took his shirt off in protest and refused to budge one more inch.)  At the top, Michael lit a cigar to celebrate and the kids sat down and cried and said it wasn’t worth it.  Can’t win ‘em all…. 

Smoking on the top of Vail. Just like high school, he said
(just joking, kids!  Just say no! He didn't inhale!)

 

Hiking down was a heck of a lot easier than hiking up and the children were glad to get back to the REAL reason anybody whose anybody goes to Vail:  More Gondola rides!!!  We all rode down on one together and then the kids asked if we could ride again. At this point, we remembered that trusty employee’s tip to let them ride by themselves and decided they could ride again and we would just wait for them at the bottom of the mountain.  Will kept going back and forth about whether or not he wanted to ride with John and Maddy.  We all did our very best to convince him to stay with them, but in the end, he chickened out and stayed with us.  So, with a plan to see John and Maddy in about 20 minutes back at the same place, they took off in the gondola up the mountain and we went to a few gift shops (got me a new hat for when I’m no longer in Colorado having all these fabulous hair days).  Michael, Will and I went back to the gondola station to wait for the kids and we suddenly realized that the lift was not moving.  NOT MOVING.  Signs were up at the entrance saying the ride was closed. 

Oh. My. Gosh.

So…here we were at the bottom of the mountain, and John and Maddy were either stuck in the air on the gondola, or as we later found out, had been made to exit at the top of the mountain because a thunder storm had sprung up on the mountain and everybody had to get off and wait at least 30 minutes after the last thunder boom before the lift would open again.

And at that moment, I realized with great certainty that there truly is a God in heaven and that He truly does love my children because CAN YOU IMAGINE (can you imagine?!?) if Will had gone up with John and Maddy on this ride?  CaN YoU ImAgInE???  I shudder to think about what he would have been like (especially since he was already scared to begin with) if we’d made him ride with them?  Can you even imagine John having to be solely responsible for a “very active” 5 year old who was nervous about going on this excursion to begin with??? 

And to think:  I thought the Grand Canyon was going to be the place where I was going to have to be hyper vigilant about losing children (a la Carol Brady)!

SO….as it turns out, they were stuck at the top for about an hour. 

How did they handle it?  Oh just fine.  They played on a little ropes course, bought some $3.50 M&Ms, and hung out with a family from Denver who I think they are now going to be life-long friends with. 

How did I handle it?  Well, I said I wanted a break, didn’t I?  Be careful what you wish for, right?

The prodigal children have returned!

 

St Elmo Ghost Town

We woke up (early) after a pretty decent night of sleep and Michael had a full day planned for us. We got up and dressed and ate breakfast at our camp site. 

Here is our view from the campsite! I cannot even describe how majestic the Rockies are! This is Mount Princeton. 

We set off for our first adventure: St Elmo ghost town which was about 20 miles from our camp. The town was established in 1860 when silver ore and gold were discovered here. It felt just like we were on the set of Little House on the Prairie!  

School's back in session! 

We checked for Nellie Olsen in the mercantile, but she had stepped out. The bottom left pic is the jail! 

We found William's house.

The chipmunks were friendly. And quite hungry. We bought chipmunk food for 50 cents and fed the little rodents. (And by "we", I mean "they."  No thanks!!  I was glad to be the photographer and miss out on that experience.)

Here's city hall. The jail cell was in the back of this building. Michael and I are proud to announce that we took this moment to renew our vows on the steps of city hall.  (Not really.)

Other random thoughts on day 3:

1. My hair looks amazing in Colorado!!! Seriously-- looks like I got a $300 keratin treatment when i am without all the usual humidity of Nashville! If you notice a sudden onslaught of selfies, you'll know it's just that I'm having a really good hair day! 

2.  Camping is a TON of work!  Just to take a shower or go to the bathroom, you have to walk for a few minutes. So inconvenient!  

3.  The sun rises really early here. As you can see in this pic, by about 5:00 am, our tent was very well-lit. No flash was needed to take a picture. 

4.  I am LOVING seeing my kids play together and be creative making up fun new (albeit ridiculously silly at times) games and things to do.  When they don't have other friends around or the constant distraction of TV and video games, they actually get along quite well!  

There are a bunch of rocks and boulders all around our tent site (and thankfully we have no neighbors!) so they've played all over these things. This is them playing a game they called Jungle World. John is the dad, Maddy is the mom and Will is their teenage son who moved out and has his own rock to live on now. 

Day 2! Driving, more driving, and hey look: Colorado!

ROAD WARRIORS!  3:57 am.  820 miles.  13 hours, 5 minutes

Let’s see…where did I leave off?  Oh yes!  We were in Kansas.  Boy, is that a long state.  When we entered KS, the mile marker said 420 and we were counting down to 0 in order to enter Colorado.  We hit the KS border at midnight.  I drove from 9pm-12am, Michael then drove from 12-3am, and I took over from 3-5am.  At that point, the kids had all started waking up because we had to stop for gas or coffee or something (all the stops are running together now), but both drivers were completely fried, so we had to stop at 5:00 for a mini-rest break.  We were at a rest stop for about half an hour before the sun started peeking up and we realized that Will was never ever going to go back to sleep.  YOWZA.  The kid has basically been up since 4:30 this morning.  Bless us all. 

Finally!  Made it to Colorado.  I had been waiting for a very long time to post a pic of “Welcome to Colorado” and I was giddy over my caption: “we’re not in Kansas anymore.”  [Rim shot]

Once the sun was fully up, and it was my real-life wake up time, my body kicked into normal gear and I felt fabulous.  I got a little caffeine going and was able to drive for a few hours and got us pretty close to Colorado Springs, our first official stop on our journey.

We went to the Garden of the Gods which is A.MAZ.ING. The rock formations there are nothing short of magnificent—they make no sense!  Physically speaking, most of them shouldn’t be able to stand/balance/remain upright.  We stopped at the visitor’s center first and ate breakfast out of the cooler (muffins! Yogurt & granola!) and did the most terrible task of my entire life:  cleaned out the van after a road trip.  UGH.  You couldn’t tell what color the carpet/upholstery in the van was anymore—it was covered with all manner of pillows, blankets, snacks, trash, coloring books, markers, headphones (I am paranoid of a headphone shortage, so we probably have about 8 pairs of headphones for the 5 of us!), and Apple devices. 

Look how strong they are!

With that out of the way, we headed to the actual Garden park and started hiking.  We spent a few hours there before eating lunch and moving on to the next thing.

Our other big excursion in Colorado Springs was a Cog Train Ride to the summit of Pike’s Peak.  It’s a 14,000+ feet mountain and my dad blessed us with the funding to be able to do that.  It was awesome!  Took us about 3+ hours to complete, round trip.  The train took us all the way to the summit where it was SNOWING and we were freezing in our shorts/t-shirts (because it was 90 degrees at the base of the mountain!).  Thankfully, we’d all remembered to wear a light jacket.

Now, we are on our way to set up camp in Buena Vista, CO.  It is about 80 miles from Colorado Springs and it will be the first time we’ve had real sleep since Wednesday night.  We. Are. FRIED.  Even the kids—nobody slept much/at all last night.  Michael & I each got a few little power naps, so we’re most definitely exhausted, but even the kids had a very short night.  Funny enough, however, we all fell victim to public napping today at some point.  The kids & I all ended up napping during part of the train ride up the mountain (it was about an hour & a half to the top), but Michael’s ability to nap in public put us all to shame.  Voila!

Yes. This is my husband, sleeping on top of a picnic table while waiting for a train.  We haven't been asked to leave the state of Colorado.....yet.

As we are driving toward our camp ground, I can see a HUGE rain storm on one side of the highway and a bright sunny sky on the other.  Let’s all gather in a word of prayer that our camp ground is on the bright sunny side?  OK? Thanks.

(UPDATE:  I just got WiFi again and could post.  It POURED during our tent set up. It was absolutely pouring while we were setting up camp.  Worst. Ever.  Anyways, it stopped now and we all have showers and are getting ready to hit the sack!)

(UPDATE UPDATE.  Lost my WiFi last night before posting, so this morning is looking great!  Rained a little on us an then everybody slept hard. HOWEVER....do you know how early the sun rises in CO?  Started getting light at 4:30 this morning and the birds!  THE BIRDS!  They love to sing.  Loud.  Next to our tent.  Starting around 4:30 as well.)

Night 1.... Update from the road

Dinner on Night 1 at a rest stop right outside of St. Louis

We left our house around 1:30 on Thursday (Ummmm, that's today. Feels like it's been a week already.)  Anyhow, we left our house and actually made it about 2 hours before the very first "WHEN ARE WE GONNA BE THERE?" hit.  That's a new family record, folks!

We packed our picnic and stopped right outside of St. Louis to eat at a rest area.  It was awesome to have food ready to go.  Typically, we eat out at restaurants on the road--almost always, which means we usually overeat after fighting about where we're going to eat and spend way too much money on food that's not all that great.  The rest stop was quick (food was ready!  Just pulled it out of the cooler and BAM! Eat a wrap!) and the restrooms were clean.  We packed a bag of "fun stuff" (frisbee, football, tennis ball, etc) and grabbed that out of the back.  Everybody ate and then we ran around playing for about 10 minutes before hitting the road again.  

We had not planned on stopping in St. Louis to see the arch since we had just stopped for dinner, but we just couldn't help ourselves.  I mean, seriously--it IS the "Gateway to the WEST!"    The arch is pretty awesome.  About 2 years ago, we did a family trip to STL and actually went up inside the arch so my big kids have great memories from that time.  Will wasn't with us on that trip, so we wanted him to see and experience the grandness of the arch too, so we made a U-turn after we passed it and headed back.  Took up about 20 minutes total, but the detour was well worth it!  We took a quick video, a few pics and got back in the car headed toward Kansas City. 

Seeing the arch from the highway

Sitting on a bench by the Mississippi River


We have now made it through TN, KY, IL and MO. At midnight, we drive into KS. I drove the last 3 hours and now it's Michael's turn. We are 400 miles to CO-- our plan is to take turns driving a 100 mile shift and rotate the rest of the night like that. 

I'll close tonight out with this funny picture. I bought eye masks for everyone to help keep the lights (street or sun) from interfering with their sleep. Here are the 3 guys.... Notice Will's slipped over his mouth. He is REALLY knocked out! We just stopped for gas and coffee (midnight) and he never even stirred. 

Day 1: departure day

A few observations about our departure day:

1.  At first, I was scared and frightened to think of the night time temps in the Rocky Mountains and Grand Canyon. It's supposed to get down to 40 degrees several nights. However, after packing the car in 96 degree temps, we're quite looking forward to the cool air. 

2.  When you are counting on the laptop to be your one and only DVD player for your journey, you should probably check to see that the new system upgrade you did a few weeks ago contains an app for playing DVDs. Otherwise, you can't play DVDs. Lesson learned as we rely upon our dinky verizon wifi hotspot to install a media player on the laptop. We hope we will be able to watch a DVD sometime before we get to Arizona.

3.  Yes, a trip to buy a nice car top carrier at REI on the day you are leaving is an excellent investment.  Especially if NOT buying one means possibly leaving one of your children at home to make room for all your stuff.  So, yes. Go buy one on the way home from work, hubs. 

4. I'm grateful for my husband's vision and excitement for this trip. Before we left, he had all the children get out of the car and we circled up in the driveway for a word of prayer. 

5.   Speaking of my husband....I just asked Michael if he had anything to add to this list.  His reply? "I'm just glad we don't have a 4th child."

6.  For our first night on the road, we are driving all night. I have eye masks, Benadryl, and ear plugs for everyone. (Well, except the driver!). Will wanted to "practice sleeping" as soon as we got in the car: 

7.    Made it into our first state! 1 down, 12 to go.  More from the road later! 

LWOW Eve

'Twas the night before LWOW and all through the house.....
every creature was running around like a chicken with their heads cut off. 

 

SO....it's finally here.  I think the first time I ever mentioned the possibility of an LWOW was April 2012.  That was 15 months ago!!!  That's like being pregnant twice (well, nearly...).  And the similarities don't stop there.  The thing is....at the end of a pregnancy, you get no sleep and that's what's going to happen on this trip, based on our current itinerary.  WHEW!  Let's don't think about that today.  I'll worry about that tomorrow.

 

I cannot wait to actually get on the road.  I'll probably cry tears of joy/relief/exhaustion because it has been such a busy busy week getting ready to go.  On top of doing LWOW prep, I've had to tie up a lot of loose ends at work, the kids have carried on with their usual golf lessons and VBS, so the rest of my life hasn't necessarily been put on hold to finish LWOW prep and I'm not feeling like "fun mom" this week.   She'll be back in a few days, though.....because I got this GREAT idea.  Let me know what you think: 

I got BIG plans for these moon pies.... BIG I tell you!

 

I was thinking about taking a bit of Tennessee to the rest of America and what better piece of Tennessee to take with me than MOON PIES???!!!  My big idea is this:  I want to spread the LWOW love to others--so, I thought we'd put a sticker on a Moon Pie with our blog address and the tag line:  "Bringing back the great American family road trip, one mile at a time" along with our instagram hashtag #2013LWOW so people can track us and pass them out!!  (My original idea was to peg them at people at rest stops, etc--at first they'd be mad, but then they'd be all like "oh wow...no wait--LWOW--this is such a gift!!!")  I've since decided that we might get hurt if we do that and since the only "weaponry" we're taking with us is a hatchet and some bear spray, it's probably not my finest idea. 

I hit the grocery store today for our last minute grocery items and have already made dinner for tomorrow night and lunch for Friday.  Our first meal on the road will be dinner (we're leaving mid-afternoon) and everybody's got a chicken wrap, fresh fruit, chips, and something sweet in their bag.  I thought it would be easier to go ahead and assemble everyone's dinner so I can literally just pass them out instead of trying to make sandwiches in the car or at a rest stop.  Friday morning's breakfast is going to be a banana and my healthy LWOW muffins. 

What's for dinner Thursday night?  I'll tell you what's for dinner.  It's in this brown sack.  Boom! And Friday's lunch wraps are right in front of it all foil-y.  Boom Boom!


A dear friend (Hey Jana!) took all three of my children to the pool, dinner, and a movie last night, so I had 5 glorious hours all to myself to get the packing done.  Each person has a duffle bag with enough clothes for the first 6-7 days.  We will then be doing lots of laundry (either at the Grand Canyon campsite or in CA if we can make it to Pasadena before we run out of clothes).  I'll be sure to label all of our pictures with when/where we were because you sure won't be able to tell based on our wardrobe since we'll be recycling all our outfits about 3 times. 

Just got a text from my husband and all it said was "24 hours".  Guess that means I better sign off and get back to work! 

Command Central:  T-1 day until we go.  Notice the duffle bags packed! Progress, people!
 

"Way out west trail mix for the tired, fussy, fighting children of America who also have a gluten free sister"

Psst! Hey you--yeah, you! Come here.....  Can I tell you a secret?  I'm secretly terrified of taking my kids on a car ride as long as 5000 miles (literally!) because we almost don't make it to church in one piece on Sunday mornings and it's only 6 miles away! There's the whole "his leg is on my side of the car...." quickly followed by the "she won't quit doing the cup song" to the "he won't stop singing"  right after the "quit looking at me!" complaints and quite frankly, I'm a little terrified about what it's going to look like a few hours in (especially since we don't usually get out of our neighborhood before the first "are we there yet?" happens.)  

So what am I going to do about it? 

I'm facing my fears head on with a big old Tupperware full of the very best trail mix you ever had! 

This is likely going to be the key to our road trip success.  

Kids are fussy?  Trail mix! 

Kids are tired? Trail mix! 

Kids fighting? You guessed it! Trail mix!

I got trail mix and all my worries have melted away.... Not unlike the M&Ms that are nestled so cozily throughout the trail mix at regular intervals. 

"Way Out West Trail mix for the tired, fussy, fighting children of America who have a gluten free sister"

Chocolate chex

Vanilla chex

Sunflower kernels

M&Ms

Almonds

Craisins

Dried pineapple

Chocolate covered raisins

"Let's Get Serious"

Just posted this status update on Facebook:

"We leave for our LWOW trip in 5 days, making this our last Saturday before we head west, making my list-tackling sense go into overdrive, making me go around the house yelling, "lets get serious!" at everyone.

They all love me right about now."

It's true.  I woke up and put our LWOW playlist on the speaker dock and started shouting (lovingly) "LET'S GET SERIOUS!" around 7:30 this morning. 

But truth is, we're all so stinkin' excited about leaving in a few days that they don't mind one bit that their mother/wife has lost her mind.  Everybody's working today and has little jobs to get us ready to go. 



Will is counting quarters for us so we can all take a few of the $2.00 showers at the camp site.

Here's my "to do" list for today:
1.  laundry.  do ALL THE LAUNDRY.

2.  Pack the kids' clothes for the trip.  I'm putting their bags in lock-down after that and I don't care if this leaves them without their most favorite shirt ever for 5 whole days..... 

(I'm not letting them pack their own things....no way. This week, I took them to KY to visit my family and gave very detailed directions on what to pack.  For a one-night trip, John brought 3 pairs of shorts and absolutely no shirts.) 

3.  Buy a decent set of head phones for Maddy.  Buy a duffle bag for John.

4.  Print out all our pre-purchased tickets for different attractions and camping reservation confirmations.

5.  Print out directions to everyplace we're going in case our trusty smart phones have a moment in which they do not do their job.  (I'm talking to you, Siri!!!)

6.  Start gathering items we're taking and put them in "command central" (a.k.a. the dining room). 

"Command Central, Day 1 of Serious Packing"

Master packing list

PERSONAL LUGGAGE:

6 outfits

6 socks

6 underwear

1 pants

hat

flip flops/sandals

swimsuit

tennis shoes

jacket

pajamas

toiletries:  toothbrush, deoderent, toothpaste

string backpack

CAR ENTERTAINMENT:

2 ipads

2 iphones

3 ipods

3 kid headphones

ipad headrest case

CD book of DVDs

Aimee’s survival kit

apple chargers

laptop 

camera & charger

deck of cards, uno

audio books/playaways

CAMPING ITEMS:

tent

5 sleeping bags

3 air mats

2 sleeping pads

5 pillows

3 blankets

tent fan

flashlights

ground cover tarp

vestibule tarp

Phillip’s 12x12 tarp

Kevin’s tarp poles

50 foot cord

tent stakes

tool box

boat battery

bungee cords

boat plug adapter

contractor bags

bear spray

jumper cables

Tarp cables

Zip ties

quarters for laundry & showers

laundry soap pods

shampoo

conditioner

soap

first aid kit

AAA batteries

AA batteries

D batteries

camping chairs

S’mores sticks

Head lamp

PAPERWORK:

Directions to places

Reservation copies

Alcatraz ticket voucher 

CAR SNACKS:

Small cooler

cheese sticks

trail mix

apples

bananas

fruit cups

Clif bars

Aldi’s granola bars for Will

Gogurts

water bottles

jug of water

apple slicer, cutting board

CAR MEALS:

big cooler

neat sheet

unsweet tea

stevia

muffins

wraps...grilled chicken or turkey (5)

fruit salad

milk

black bean salsa

tortilla chips

wraps....turkey & cheese (5)

almond butter

peanut butter

carrots 

green pepper slices

ranch dip

water gallon jugs--frozen

yogurt

granola

paper plates

plastic utensils

paper towels

baby wipes

cups

trash bags

zip lock bags

good knife

scissors

dish soap 

MISC:

bath towels

beach towels?

sunglasses

sunscreen

bug spray

fire starter

Road Atlas

ear plugs 

eye mask

MEDICINE:

Benadryl

Zyrtec

Ibuprofen

Tylenol

Liquid ibu/tyl for Will

Liquid Zyrtec for Will

medicine dropper/cups

Epi Pen

hydrocortisone

Aloe

Details, Details: Part THREE: Days 7-11...Hooray for Hollywood!

SO......I'll pick up where we left off in the Canyon that is so Grand.  If you missed reading about that part of our trip, I'll direct you here.  If you want to see what we plan to do in the Rocky Mountains before that, click here.  

I'll wait for you to go read those before moving on.  Go ahead......
...
...
...
Now that we're all caught up, let's talk about what it's going to be like when the Livingston's head to HOLLYWOOD.

I admit, I've been kind of lazy when it comes to the planning of this part of the trip because we are visiting two families who have lived there for many years and I'm relying a bit on their expertise.  Michael went to college with these peeps and so we've known them for over 20 years.  WHOA.  That makes us old, but, whatev....  (Hi friends!  Can't wait to see you!!! I didn't just call us all old, did I?)

DAY 7:  We will start the day in the Grand Canyon.  We will pack up our tent and camping business that morning and start driving west.  It should take us less than 8 hours (flash in the pan!  ONLY 8 hours?!?  That's a piece of cake compared to our original 20 hour trek to the Rockies!) and so we hope to be there mid-afternoon.  That night, the 3 dads are taking most of the kids to a MLB game:  Angels vs. Cardinals.

[side note: I will probably cry tears of delirium as they drive away because this will be the first time in OVER.A.WEEK. that I will have been away from my husband and my 2 oldest children.  I love them, but....come on. You know you would too.  Let's also note that this is the first night I will be sleeping under a real roof in over a week.  Take a moment to soak that in:  7 nights.....6 will have been in a tent, 1 in a car.  Again, the delirium: it will set in.  Not sure how it's going to manifest, but you're going to get to watch it unfold as I live-blog this whole trip in a few weeks, so stay tuned.]

DAY 8, 9, 10:  wake up in Pasadena, CA:  I have basically given my friends a "bucket list" of things we want to do and we're going to try to work some of them in. 

• take the train from Pasadena into Hollywood.  See the Hollywood sign, Rodeo drive, the Chinese theater, walk of fame
• go to the beach: we may go to Balboa Island/Newport Beach, or we may to go the Santa Monica pier, Annenberg Beach House or may do both!
• Take in a MLB game (tickets have been purchased, so this is a go)
• Have heard "The Queen Mary" ship is cool in the Long Beach area....maybe check that out

Day 11:  Wake up in Long Beach, CA:  We will go to church that morning where our friend is a pastor before taking off that afternoon for the next part of our journey...... 

Lists & more lists

I'm currently in the list-making stage of packing. 

Also: I need a list to categorize my lists.  Just so many lists!  And some of my lists even have sub-lists! 

For instance, there's a "Food to buy" list.  But within that, there's a "food to buy for the cooler" and a "food to buy for the car/non-perishables" lists.

There's a "camping needs" list.  There's a "things to bake/make ahead" list. There's a "food menu" list for the times we'll be driving, and of course, there's a big daddy master "grocery list".

There's even an "obscure things to pack" list for all those random things you know you'll forget lest they appear on the list (and even then....well, sometimes you'll still drive right off without it.)

I have a "things to do before we leave" list which includes the VERY important item "HAIR CUT & COLORED" 3 days before we leave.  Yes, we will be hiking and camping and be very grimy much of the trip, but halfway through, we land in SoCal for  a few days to visit friends we rarely see or haven't seen in years and they must not discover that I have acquired just a wee bit of gray hair in the past few years.... so the hair appointment:  it is as important as remembering the flash lights and gluten-free snacks for my wheat-allergic daughter.

Also on my list:  need to finish my blog posts about the details of our trip!  This post is now officially over....going to work on Hollywood now.