9 Hours to Go..

For the past two days we've been busy with last minute shopping trips, packing the van, fine-tuning the program and webcam we're using to make a time lapse video of the drive, ironing all our clothes before shoving them back into the suitcase (that would be Kate..) and some non-trip related chores such as mowing the lawn and cleaning out the basement.  We also managed to make our first call to AAA before even starting our drive!  While loading the van yesterday we left the doors open for too long and the battery died.  Luckily we realized this last night and we called AAA at 9 this morning and had the van jump-started and running by 9:30!  Let's hope this early visit does not prove to be a bad omen.

We thought we would let you all know our itinerary in hopes that we'll get some suggestions of things to see along the way.

5/29          Depart from Alexandria, VA
5/30-5/31  St. Louis, MO
6/1-6/2      Denver, CO
6/3-6/4      Gunnison, CO (home of the "Black Canyon")
6/4-6/5      Mexican Hat, UT (Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park)
6/6-6/7      North Rim, AZ (Camping in the Grand Canyon)
6/7-6/9      Las Vegas, NV
6/9-6/12    San Francisco, CA
6/13-6/14  Crescent City, CA (Redwood National Park)
6/14-6/16  Siuslaw National Forest, OR
6/17-6/20  Ferndale, WA
6/21-6/22  Yellowstone, WY
6/22-6/23  Cheyenne, WY
6/23-6/24  Omaha, NE
6/24-6/25  Chicago, IL
6/25-6/27  Grand Rapids, MI
6/27-7/1    Hamlin, NY
7/1-7/5      Thomaston, ME

We plan to head out around 8 or 9 tonight.  We have a 14 hour drive to St. Louis so we're hoping a night drive will cut out the majority of Memorial Day traffic.