Day 1

So we finally got underway and surprisingly we were darn close to the schedule – 4:06pm was when I send a text to many of you that are following this trip – actually we left Chase’s school a minute or two before 4pm. Packing went well (but I never found the shorts I was looking for – I will do a post on lost clothing items in the future) no big fights prior to departure –little N was a little whiny but was a trooper helping to get the final items done prior to departure. I have gotten a lot of emails from friends and coworkers after I sent out my final blast – we got a bunch of unexpected responses including one from Taiwan and one from South Africa wishing us well – I leave it to you to determine who wins the prize for farthest distance. Additionally I have received a number of great emails suggesting fun place to stop: Summerfest in Milwaukee and Taste of Chicago as well as Lava Hot Springs Idaho. It already looks like there will need to be a second trip to explore some of the things we will obviously miss this time through

So as we hit the road and the song “Born to be Wild” came on and I knew we were on our way. My initial impression is how brown and rural much of Washington State is – for those of you that never drive east of Ellensburg – there is plenty of sagebrush. Little N kept saying "I can’t believe we are still in Washington" and I was kinda agreeing with him. Where I-90 crossed the Columbia river there is a place called the Wild Horse Monument – we stopped there and took a couple of photos – it was one of those unexpected stops - neat and worth the 5 minutes to stretch and look over the mighty Columbia... I will get some photos up in the next couple of days I'm still working out the bugs.