My heart fell when I wrote the most amazing start to my road trip entry DAY ONE and Safari unexpectedly quit. I've had some issues in the past with Squarespace and Safari so why did I not save those golden words before I tried to add a picture? All that was left after the crash were the words Road Trip in the title. Don't you hate it when that happens?

Ok, recovering from the disaster. We shall start again. I am now using Google Chrome without problems.

Joe retired at the first of the year. It's been a joy to have him around the house. He cleans toilets and does dishes and will even dust and sweep. He lets me work on City Creek stuff or working on my book, Keeping UP, (I'm inserting pictures and adding finishing touches). I am up in the sunroom-office so I don't even know he is home some times. I like that we both cherish our alone time. Then when we feel like some socializing. There we both are!

Once Joe got free from the FED, we dreamed about getting away from the frozen tundra of the great north. At least one month of relief would shorten those dreary winter days. We thought it made sense to travel by car so we could have some wheels when we arrived in sunny Florida. Also, the new Thule rack on our Rav4 would allow us to bring our bicycles along.

Packing was a breeze without the limits of air travel. I packed a duffle with just shoes, and one with just coats and sweaters. The rest of my clothes went in the these clever little packing cubes that fit perfectly in my suitcase. By the way I love the Swissgear Vector Hardside 24" suitcase that I bought at Target. It's a rolling dream, lightweight, and fits alot of stuff for its size.

I heard about the packing cubes from a Facebook ad by E-Bags. I wanted to start packing right away so I drove over to Target to get something similar. The only kind they had weren't deep enough. I thought it could contain 2 shirts at most. Then I went to Dick's Sporting Goods, JC Penney's, and Walmart. Huh? Was the answer to my request for packing cubes. What are those? No stores seemed to have them. I hate that feeling of time-waste going from store to store looking for something they might not even have. I came home and read the reviews on Amazon and decided on Shacke Paks. They arrived in two days. One click. Love love Amazon. I love Amazon for shopping but also because they sell a boatload of Times Tables the Fun Way Books for City Creek. Amazon sales now comprise about 70% of my business.

I decided on the brand Shacke Pak because the cubes were the deepest ones available. This set has 4 different sized zippered bags and a laundry bag. It was easy to gather the correct amount of each item when I assigned a category to each pack. I could see exactly what I was putting in my suitcase instead of just willy nilly picking clothes from the closet. The paks let you get more in your suitcase because they compress the clothes. I liked rolling my shirts. This is how I organized my stuff: 1. pants and skirts. 2. underwear, socks, jammies, 3. shirts long and short sleeved. 4. excercise, sports clothes and swimsuit. The set even comes with a chart for which items to include for a 3 day, 6 day, or 10 day trip. When I open my suitcase, it's super easy to locate a specific item. In the past, I got tired of digging around for stuff and messing up all the folded clothes. We will, after all, be living out of a suitcase for a month so the paks make the suitcase more functional. I also love the laundry bag that came with the set. Easy to stuff worn clothes in there, keeping the dirties separate and ready for the next washing machine we happen to encounter which happens to be Kiona's house in Gainesville.

So this road trip thing is a relatively new experience for us. The last time I remember going on a road trip was in 1997 when I took Tessie from Salt Lake City to Minneapolis so she could start her first year of college at the University of Minnesota. By the time we got to East BumLuck, Wyoming our little car was puffing along at half speed up the hills and finally limped into a gas station and died. We were unable to get the car fixed for several days and Tessie was due on campus. We also weren't sure if the parts ordered would actually get the car running again so we sauntered over to the Nissan car dealership and traded in the worthless piece of crap for a brand new car. Only trouble was— all they had in stock was a stick shift. Tessie had never driven a car with four on the floor. We pulled out of the dealership with a jerk and jolt. At the first stop, she let the clutch out too fast and killed it, which was followed by a snort and a giggle from Tessie. I was glad she was amused. This would be one long trip to Minnesota. We tried avoiding stop and go traffic while she was driving. We arrived in time for her orientation. Before springtime thawed the frozen ground, she would meet her beloved CJ at a Mormon singles ward. Now we are four kids later.....

What I am trying to say is that Road Tripping is a relatively new thing for us. We are used to short trips upnorth. That's only two and a half hours. Whenever we go somewhere far, we fly. But since we wanted to have a car with us on our snowbird adventure, we decided to drive. Hence, we plan to cover 4000 miles and be gone for 30 days.

I found a cool program to map out the trip. Its called Rand Mcnally Trip Maker. It shows you how long it will be to each place in miles and hours and you can rearrange your stops by clicking and dragging. To the left is your list and to the right is the mapped out route, numbered in sequence. The program also calculates the cost for gas for each leg. You set up a free account and it will remember your trip.

This is the current plan.

Perfect day for a morning walk in Galva. It feels balmy at 60 degrees. Especially after a few days in the Minnesota sub-zeros.

Oak Grove, MN -Head out
Galva, Illinois Feb. 18 Joe's sister Terri and Terry
Champaign, Illinois Feb. 19 Joe's son Aaron
Herrin, Illinois Feb. 20-21 Joe's sister Sandra and David
Nashville, Tennessee Feb.22 Judy's great niece Rachael and Dom
Gainesville Florida Feb. 23 Judy's daughter Kiona and Raj
Isla Morada March 1 Judy's brother John and Lorraine
Key West March 3 Friend Paulette
Kissimmee March 4 with Jeff and Mary Ann
Gainesville, Florida March 11 Kiona and Raj
Orange Beach, Alabama March 15 with Joes' sisters Laurie and Bill, Sandra and Dave, Terry and Teri
St. Louis, MO March 20 Homewood Suites
Oak Grove, MN March 21 Home Again

Joe was worried about leaving the house unattended. What if a pipe breaks, a storm causes damage, or the furnace inadvertently kicks off in the subzero winter weather? Joe asked his friend and former employee, Diana and her husband Rob to check on our house twice a week. They will plow the driveway, take in the mail and send it to us at Kiona's twice during our trip, water the plants, and check the house to assure all is fine in our absence. It is a blessing to have them helping out.

At 10am on February 18th, we pulled out of our driveway and headed south. We covered 428 miles this day and arrived in Galva at about 5 pm. We had packed egg salad sandwiches, and a box of snacks for the road. When we got to Galva, Terry had a lovely dinner ready for us: roast turkey, ham loaf, asparagus, baked potatoes and key lime pie.

In the morning the wind was howling but it was sixty degrees—really felt warm and luscious to me. I took a walk down Division street and over towards the railroad tracks. There is no shortage of green space in this farming town.

The unmanned bakery has fresh bread and pastries sitting on a shelf. You just help yourself and put your pay in a small tin box that sits on the counter. I don't think this system would work in Minneapolis, but it's been a working model in Galva for several years now. Galva has good, trusting, and honest people is what this says to me.

On my walk, I loved seeing this train roll by full of different shaped cars. I dreamed about being a hobo and hopping a car when I was a kid. How exciting that would be. I kept my eyes peeled for barnacle people hitching a ride but only saw cars painted with graffiti. I wondered when the artists were able to sneak out and color the cars.

On Day Two, we left Galva at about noon and headed for Champaign, Illinois to visit Aaron. The wind was blowing large chunks of field debris across the highway and our bikes were rocking back and forth. We stopped to check on them and decided we should get rid of the detachable cross bars and thread the Thule rack through the frame. We did accomplish this and it makes the bikes much more stable. We had the cable lock around them and through the frame but realized when we got to Gainesville and took them off that the lock was still attached to the frame and the bikes came free without unlocking it. Hmm. I said to Joe, "I guess we didn't have them locked right." No worries. Nobody bothered them overnight in Champaign or Nashville. Lucky us.

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Road Trip DAY ONE

Judy Liautaud