Day 8

We have spent today descending down from Wyoming into Utah and we are now in Idaho! Utah we just slipped past north of Salt Lake city and drove the Interstate. An unexpected bonus has been the speed limit of 80 mph on all the interstates since we reached Wyoming, although with the tight suspension and additional weight in the Mazda it always has a bit of a Mad Max feel to the drive, especially when I look in the rear view mirror.

For some context on the altitude Rawlings is at 6,800 feet, the highest point of the pass through the Rockies in Wyoming is 8,600.

Tonight we are in Twin Falls, hopfully we will get to see the falls in the morning.

P.S. Still not identified the smell

Day 7

Day 7

Made it to Colorado!  Spent a great afternoon with Osgoods. Saw a great sculpture park.

Then we took a fantastic drive North through the Rockies on 287. Magnificent sandstone rocks red and purple foothills then into Wyoming - which is truly wild! Nothing at all no lights for over 100 miles. The into Rawlings for the night. Pretty cool. It's a modern day cow boy town with a feel of frontier.

I managed to get altitude sickness.  But Ruthie has encountered before and I am back up and going agsin.

Day 6

Heading back out of Columbia into... Kansas!

So we have almost made it through Kansas in just one day, we're 50 miles from the boarder and resting in a hotel with some sleeping children (hooray) and a well deserved paper cup of wine (classy, it is red after all.)

The car is now plastered with bug splatter, not sure when that started but they are not coming off! I blame the unusually hot weather for the bugs being out, it is almost 80F.

Kansas was very pretty, to begin with, however after a long slog up hill (80 or 90 miles) it gets flat, then quite remarkably, and without warning it gets flatter! After the first 200 miles of this new flatness I was VERY excited to pass under some power cables. The following miles, I have to admit, were not as exciting.

Due to data constraints we're not getting updates done as much as I'd like, I was hoping to do more during the drive but pictures are racking up the data use too quickly.

So as I mentioned we are now just 50 miles from the boarder with Colorado. Thanks to Google earth I can see that the first few hundred miles of that drive are going to be as exciting as the most recent Kansas miles, BUT then I can look forward to mountains and Wyoming (where I am lead to believe a 'decent size town' is over 1,000 people... so take from that what you will.)

 P.S. the car is holding up remarkably well, however there is a disconcerting smell coming from somewhere that I cannot quite pin point... I suspect small boy socks, cunningly concealed. I will let you know what I find!

Day 4

Just driving. MI to Il.  Truck stops...

Let us never speak of it again.

Great evening with the Loy family and some yummy Pizza. A chance to refill!

Day 5

Thanks to the Loy 's for there hospitality.! It was great to see you all.

We are heading into St Louis today. And a trop to the zoo. We will end up in Columbia MO.

Day 3

This is a late update due to traffic around Toledo. We were stuck for a couple of hours on the interstate on Day 3 after a truck shed it's load :-(

However we made it to Lancing MI and had a wonderful stay with Ruthie's Aunt and Uncle (Sue and Steve) where we also got to see Ruthie's Grandmother Davis and her cousins David & Claire - thanks for a great stay!

Day 3

Good morning!

Day 2

This was one of the longer days. We started in Vermont and just hauled our way through New York, phew! A few lessons learned:

1) My snack requirements equal 2 small boys and a mother
2) Just because the kids are quiet/asleep do not be tempted to pass that break stop
3) Driving out of a big storm, and seeing its edges, is very cool
4) Sticking two large neon orange signs, reading "Portland, OR Bust" attracts the attention of the state troopers
5) When you update the GPS make sure you have enough space (We will have maps again when we reach Ohio)

Tomorrow is a shorter day and starts with swimming! Michigan, seems like a dream to me now, but soon to be real...

Day 2

Away we go

We'll that took a little longer than expected. I am sad to say good bye to the house our babies took their first steps in but we're away and we just got an offer for the house! So no going back now.

As far as blogging goes; twice a day may have been over ambitious.

Goodbye Pepperell, hello Vermont and the open road!

The Journey

Prepearing

The whirlwind of activity before it all begins...