Tick Tock

Well after two weeks of pretty much doing nothing, it is starting to dawn on us that indeed time is running out. We spent this past weekend in Denver without the kids (Thanks Art and Donna), and whilst it was most certainly a wonderful weekend (my mild case of food poisoning aside) I think we have come to the realization that we cannot afford to do too much more relaxing for the next nine weeks and five days. Yep that’s right just 68 days till we leave Colorado! Our home for the last 14 years. (minus a three year hiatus in Vermont).

Since I’m throwing some dates out there, I think we have finalized most of our plans for between now and July 27. Our first yard sale is the weekend of April 27 – Yes that’s the one we are not ready for. :) in 11 days!! The last day of work for both of us will be June 15th, Going away BBQ/party at our (hopefully empty of contents) house will be June 16^th.  As mentioned previously, we will be leaving Colorado Springs June 24^th then the road trip begins.

Following our California change of plans due to some unforeseen events, we had to make a choice. Either do more travelling and see more of California, or basically slow down the itinerary. As much as we would have loved to see more of the country while we are still here, we have decided the latter is the better choice. The plan is still broadly the same as before, but we are now driving less per day and spending more time at a few specific locations (more details will follow).

The new plan schedules us driving (with the exception of day one at 8 hours) no more than 6 hours per day, and some as few as 2, and has about 13 days scheduled with no driving at all. The thinking behind this is to enhance the family bonding part of the trip. Since the kids will be plugged in to DVD’s while driving this way we can spend more time together out of the car. We now have at least 13 nights planned camping out. The rest will be hotels/motels and staying with friends. With that said, the plan still gives us about 5,000 miles of driving!

The first few nights have been booked. Night one will be in Cortez, CO going through Silverton and Durango via the Million Dollar Highway. Day two will go through Four Corners, which for those of you non-Yanks, is the only place in the USA you can be in four states at the same time, and terminating at the Grand Canyon.  Day three will take us from GC to Phoenix where we will spend two nights in a hotel, and catch up with our good friend Nicole. Day five will take us to Joshua Tree National Park. We cannot make reservations for Joshua Tree so will just get a campsite when we arrive. From there we will head to the Pacific. Likely Huntington Beach, but that’s as far as we’ve gotten. Watch this space.

Cliff