Ice, ice baby...

What happens when you are driving 76mph through Illinois with Rachmaninov blaring through the six speaker stereo? Well, your brain goes into "smart" mode and you start remembering the things you "should have done". Hence the result of the first picture. I remembered that I had fogotten to put the drain plug back into the massive cooler that we keep in the back of the van. After stopping and discovering that, yes the cooler had drained it's "ice melt" over night soaking the tent and everything around it, we dismantled the trunk. Oh well, small set back. Everything will dry in time to camp tomorrow evening in Denver.

We made it through TN, Kentucky, Illinois, and most of Missouri today. Staying in Kansas City, MO tonight, and will be conquering Kansas tomorrow (yawn) on into Denver.

Jenny had some phenomenal "drive by" shots of the "Archway to the West" today. We couldn't find a good spot to park as "the hat" eliminated us from hitting any parking garages. Even so, the Arch proved to be one heck of a monument to Louis and Clark's westward exploration. We hope to do them justice with our westward exploration.

And for those of you interested in ADV riding, I finally saw a couple of BMW ADVr's today (blurry picture included). Many Harley's were seen, but of course no pics:-).

So, hopefully Kansas will be good to us tomorrow and we'll post more than just straight road pics. There should be some good long distance shots of the Front Range if we are lucky enough to loose the "haze".

Hope you are well, and look forward to seeing you soon!

The Adventure officially begins!

We are off in search of adventure:-). The van can take no more! Today's leg was Greenville, SC to Nashville, TN. Nothing really exciting, but did see flowers at full bloom in NC and TN. Beautiful drive through the Smokies none the less. We met up with family in Nashville for a great visit. Tomorrow it is on to Kansas City via a visit to the "Gateway to the West". Now that the trip is finally underway, it is a bit surreal due to us planning this over the past few years. It will all hit home as soon as we see the Front Range of the Rockies. More groovy pics to come tomorrow. Until tomorrow, we bid you adieu.

Everybody has to have a trail name...

A quick aside to our out west blog here. My sister had a baby boy (Griffin) on Thursday, and we wanted to congratulate her and her husband on a handsome young scout. Mama and baby are doing well. "Ain't he just so cute?" I'm talking about the baby, not the Cuban guy holding him. All jokes aside, that is my dad and he isn't from Cuba, as far as we know.

OK, back to business. Due to the fact that we will be spending much of our time on various hikes, the kids and I decided that we all had to have trail names, as most hikers gain over time. Therefore, we came up with what we feel are extremely appropriate names.

Ironman (Bryan), Hot Mama (Jenny), Sissy Prissy Pants (Catherine), Skinny Long Foot (Maddie), Heed (Bennett), Chicken Butt (Ella).

If you've been around us for any length of time, you know that the names fit. If not, then you need to hang around us more often. We hear that we are a pretty cool gang:-).

More preparation to come today. We are on a house cleaning warpath!

Preparation, preparation, and more preparation...

Four more days until the Starks' crew officially hits the road in our westward assault. As we lay all of our gear out, the same question repeats itself over and over. How do you fit enough gear, clothing, food, entertainment, and necessities for a two week road trip including two adults and four kids. Jenny refers to the 21 cubic foot Yakima Skybox that will adorn our Odyssey as "the hat". I just hope "the hat" will hold it all, as it was the largest that I could find!