2 Days Out!

Here we are!  Two days before embarking on our huge journey!  To fill in those who may be out of the loop Jonathan and Kate will be making a 5-week, approximately 9,000-mile trip around the country in a minivan.  As Kate has finished her Master’s degree and Jonathan will be starting medical school in August we decided to do something drastic before we have to start our “adult” lives of responsibility and no more summer vacations. 

The entire two-year span of our relationship has been spent long-distance.  Every other weekend of the last two years either Jonathan drove to see Kate in Columbia, SC or Kate made the opposite 4 hour trip to visit Jonathan in Blacksburg, VA.  So driving is nothing new for us.  The big clincher of this trip is that we will be making the drive together.  We have never spent more than a week together at any one time so five weeks in a minivan is sure to be a true test.  We anticipate this will bring it’s share of challenges but are optimistic that we will truly enjoy getting to know each other more deeply through conversations that are not separated by cell phone waves.

We have spent the last few months hammering out all the trip details and gathering supplies while both working 12+ hour days, Kate in the ER and Jonathan with his dad’s Company, Peninsula Drywall, in order to fund this beast.  We have a created a tentative itinerary and made many housing arrangements but are leaving much everything else unplanned.  Both being Type A most everything in our life has been over planned.  We’re looking forward to just hitting the road head on with no expectations and the only goal being to enjoy the ride!

Though we are making this trip alone, it could in no way have been possible without the love and support of so many of our friends and family members:  Jonathan’s parents lending us their van (including funding its pre-trip tune-up and four new tires), Kate’s mom taking us to COSTCO to stock up on a five-week supply of granola and peanut butter, Kate’s dad lending us his fancy camera, Jonathan’s Grandmama agreeing to be our Weather Expert and alert us to any tornadoes we may need to dodge, the many people opening their homes along the way as reprieve from our pallet in the back of the minivan and the countless monetary donations that will go directly towards funding our anticipated $2000 gas bill.  And perhaps the greatest piece of support will be coming from all of you-following our blog and sharing in what we anticipate to be an amazing journey.  We hope to update you every day-to let you know where we are, what we’ve done, who we’ve seen.

So thank you, thank you everyone!  We are so blessed to have this amazing opportunity and to be able to share it with all of you.