First Post
With less than a week to go, it won't look too ugly on the index page if I post an update today.
So, this year's holiday is a four week drive along US-2, from Everett, near Seattle WA, to Bar Harbour, MN ... then a quick dash to Boston for the plane home.
This time we've prepared woefully. Yes, the plane tickets were booked months ago, and we've got them in our posession now. Yes, I've written some new software to make updating these pages easy. Yes, we know where our passports are (after a scary afternoon's frantic searching last weekend), but we've done none of the poring through books that we did last time; well maybe just a little.
Our primary source is still Road Trip USA (the book more than the Web site), we've looked at brochures from all the state tourist boards, and we've got a Rough Guide to Seattle. We've a motel booked for the night we arrive, and a couple of nights after that.
Oh yes, we've got a car booked. Well, almost a car. Debbie's excelled herself and booked a pickup truck. Fantastic! It's a Ford Ranger, and despite being a big ol' lump of American metal, it's cheaper to hire than an economy car. Yes, it's bound to eat a fair amount of petrol, but petrol's cheap in the USA, and my green conscience is eased by the fact that we haven't owned a car for two years.
Tonight Debbie tells me we have to select CDs to take with us. Last time's minidisc fiasco will not be repeated this year. The truck isn't likely to have a CD player, but we have a cassette adapter, and we'll buy a CD walkman when we arrive. If the truck doesn't have a cassette player, then we'll have to reassess the situation...
... anyway, we're old hands. It's a matter of packing the bags and getting going. As far as the journey goes, it'll be interesting to see what's changed since Sept 11th (when, so I'm told, everything changed).