First leg...

Yesterday was my launch day. I was mostly packed up on friday so I got up and went to have breakfast with Amy and Alex. Amy made a delicious egg scrabble in which the eggs were nearly overshadowed by the red and yellow peppers. We had a good long chat after which I left so that they could go line up in the rain for the Obama rally.

I got back home and packed up the car,
had some lunch, said goodbye to Mom and Dad

and hit the road. I had a full tank of gas and the drive to New Jersey is not very long so I made it without stopping. I got an enthusiastic welcome from Gonzo

and it appeared that Joe and Mel were not too disappointed to see me either.


We went out to dinner and the retired back to their house for cookies and Arrested Development.

In the next couple days I will try to outline my plans and goals for the next two months of road tripping. In short climb hard in new places and visit friends that have been too far away for too long. Long version to come soon...

Time to hit the Road

I spent today packing up and getting things ready for take off tomorrow. Got the rear shocks replaced on the car. And you know what I am tired of? This conversation:

"Hi, I'd like to get the rear shocks replaced on my car. Or maybe struts..."
"Well which is it? Shocks or Struts?"
(Well one of us is a professional auto mechanic... perhaps he should answer that question.)

On a packing note, how many T shirts does one need for two months? I started out culling the herd pretty sharply, but then I found that I still had packed 7 cotton T shirts and 15 synthetic. Total overkill. Now I am down to 5 and 10 but I sure it is still too much. Ah well at least I will not be carrying the results of this decision on my back.