Away we go!
Trip Start
Jan 01, 2007
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2
141
Trip End
Ongoing
McLean,
Virginia,
United States
Sunday, October 8, 2006
Preparing for our cross-country journey from Virginia to California and back!
We decided to begin our world journey with a cross-country road trip of the US to visit friends & family, camp and hike. Frank quit his job and we leased out the condo in mid-September. We spent the next couple weeks traveling around New Jersey and Virginia to spend time with our families.
We also spent several days at the beach on the South Jersey shore. While unwinding at the beach, Frank lost it! His hair, that is. In a bit of reverse logic (i.e. quitting your job after completing your MBA), Frank shaved his head and started growing a beard. Kay, in the meantime, spent countless hours fishing off the pier with no luck. Maybe Frank's bald head scared the little guppies away?
During our transition time off, we also had the opportunity to babysit the cutest monkey in town, Kay's niece Bella. Hours of playing in the park and chasing Uncle "Hankie" (Frank) around the house, we failed to reach our goal of teaching her all the four-letter words we knew. In another reverse logic, we instead adopted her 3-and 4- and 5-letter word language. Several weeks later, we still find ourselves conversing in Bella-speak (Mo. Mo milch. Peeze, mo milch. DerYouGo. AhlDone. Uppie-uppie. Apoh Jus).
We initially planned on using Ted's (Frank's brother) jeep for the cross-country journey. Then Frank's parents kindly offered up the use of their 1998 red Dodge Ram 1500 pickup truck. They said that it got better gas mileage (18 mpg versus 13 mpg) and was recently completely worked up with new brakes, new tires, new everything else. The truck also would give us more room for storage, so we would be able to bring our mountain bikes, snowboard and other toys on the road. After a quick switch of cars in New Jersey, we headed south with Big Red the Truck.
The original itinerary included:
Camping & hiking in the Shenandoah National Park, Virginia
White-water rafting on the Gauley River, West Virginia
Visiting Kay's cousins in Dayton, Ohio
Toasting the former prezs Mount Rushmore, South Dakota
Badlands, South Dakota
Visiting our friends in Billings, Montana
Hiding from the Grizzly Bears in Yellowstone NP & the Grand Tetons
Shivering in Glacier National Park
Crater Lake, Oregon
Visiting Kay's family in California
The Grand Canyon
Bryce, Zion & other Utah parks
We planned on leaving by Thursday, October 4th and spending 3 nights camping in the Shenandoah National Park before driving to the Gauley River in West Virginia. Unfortunately, a stalled rain storm over the region delayed our departure several days. During this rain delay, we were able to squeeze in another round of Hand-and-Foot Cards with Kay's parents (the ladies won, again!) and the new movie "Departed" (very good! highly recommended!) Kay's mom also gave her a lovely handmade gift - a beautiful white knit scarf - delicate and gorgeous!
We finally left on Sunday and decided to drive through Skyline Drive, but not camp out because we had reservations for White-water rafting at 7am Monday.We stopped along Skyline Drive for a 3 mile loop hike to an overlook at the highest point in the Shenandoah National Park. The photos in this blog entry include shots of the overlook and the cloud cover over the valley.
Skyline Drive 2
Halfway through the drive on Skyline Drive, we realized that the scenic but snail-slow 25 mph pace would mean we would arrive in West Virginia in the wee hours in the late night. So we decided to get off on the next exit ramp and opt for the quicker 70 mph lanes of Interstate 81. Coming off of the exit ramp, we noticed a really strong burning odor. A few minutes later, this was followed by waves of smoke coming from under the hood of Big Red (our truck). Frank pulled over to the side of the road by the runaway truck lane. Frank made a quick phone call to his dad who said the brakes were brand new - less than 1000 miles, so they were probably smoking from newness. He said the brakes should be fine if we wait 15-30 minutes for them to cool down. So, we pulled out a deck of cards and passed the next 30 minutes on the side of the highway playing Gin. (Frank won 2 games to 1!)
30 minutes later, we were on our way to West Virginia. We made it into the campsite around 9 pm, setup our tent and went straight to bed to rest up for White-Water Rafting the next morning!
For those interested our packing list, it includes:
- 4 person Tent & rain cover
- Sleeping Bags & Fleece Blankets
- Air mattress & sheets
- 2 Coolers
- Pants, shorts, short-sleeve and long-sleeve shirts
- Marmot Precip Rain Jackets
- Ski Jacket Shells
- Snowboard pants
- Ski gloves/mittens, fleece hats, scarves
- Daypack backbacks (the "Stowaway" by LL Bean - we love them!)
- Gore-tex Hiking Boots/Shoes
- Trail Running Shoes
- Flip Flops
- 5 Nalgene bottles & lots of water jugs
- Camp Radio
- Lantern and flashlights
- First Aid Kit (band aids, neosporin, 1st aid cream, tape, gauze)
- Ziplock Bags
- Propane gas stove with 2 burners & lots of propane
- 1 Digital SLR Camera & 1 small pocket digital camera & lots of memory cards
- Laptop computer & iPods
Some of the gear we already owned, some was recently purchased, and some was lent to us by our loving families. We also acquired a couple great deals at the local Goodwill store! A perfect 2 quart pot & lid and Coleman cooler.
Skyline Drive 1
