On The Road Again

It has been close to ten years since I've been on a long road trip.  Edwin liked to drive so the longer the better.  Andrea says she took after Edwin because she likes to drive.  I hope she feels that way when we get home from the trip were planning. 

Andrea takes her road test on June twentieth.  We'll spend a few days getting the van serviced and getting things squared away around here.  After that, we hit the road. 

Our trip has had many incarnations.  We put everywhere we thought we may want to go into Streets And Trips and then clicked on "Optimize Trip".  Our optimized trip was over five thousand miles lasting over three weeks.  The only thing that concerned us was boarding Sparkles for such a long time.  We'd get a room two nights; the nights before the campus visits in North and South Dakota; if we weren't staying with relatives we plan to sleep in the van in Walmart parking lots.  Hotels in Galveston are too expensive so it came off the list. Next went the University of North Dakota, tuition is up there.  Merritt announced her marriage and Holiday moved to Kansas City, so no go to KC.  Then we learned the ASB Alumni Convention will be later in the year so we can attend.  Add it to the list.  Lechelle wants us to meet up at Myrtle Beach the first part of July. 

Now for fine tuning.  If the ASB thing is the last of June the University of South Dakota (USD) thing can't be the middle of July.  If our trip is optimized I'll miss church in Pine Bluff, something I don't want to do.  Our optimized trip will also put us on the road on the fourth of July, no way.  We decided we want to spend the fourth in Pine Bluff.  To make that happen we head for USD after the ASB thing, then drive to Pine Bluff for the fourth and church.  So I call USD to reschedule our visit.  The person I need to speak with stepped out but the lady gave me her direct number.  I was told to try back in fifteen minutes.  I call back in half an hour and get the voicemail.  No return call yet.  I'll try again tomorrow.  After we've had our fill of Pine Bluff and wishing for even more Irish Maid Do-nuts we'll head for Texas to visit Edwin's family.  I'm going to set andrea on researching things to do while we're there.  Then either head home or to Myrtle Beach depending on dates. 

We plan to take it easy and enjoy the trip.  Andrea asked me to schedule a break every ninety minutes.  That sounds like a lot but if she needs them we won't fall behind schedule.  If she doesn't need them we'll have time to visit some extra places or get a few more pictures.  You know I'm taking my cameras, right? 

We may have to rely on paper maps.  The cigarette lighter doesn't work and I don't know how much it will cost to fix it.  We have no way to keep our electronics charged in the van.  If we don't get it fixed this will be our first lesson on the Life Skills course I'm going to teach next fall.