Let the Adventure Begin!

We are packed and ready to go! It's been a project! We have our maps, our state tour books, our Atlas and our laptop with some kind of global positioning program loaded and ready to go! Mr. Jones has printed out detailed maps of our journey with computer directions, etc., put them in page protectors, and organized them in a notebook. Do you think he might be Type-A? I have a label for these posts that I've titled: "Journeys and other Misadventures." I've only labeled one post so far with this label, and that was my vacation with my sister. However, to use the word "misadventure" and Mr. Jones in the same context would be incongruent (sorry, sis!). However, once we are on the road I will use that label for our travel pictures and stories (sorry, Mr. Jones).

It took me awhile to figure out how to pack everything, but I ended up with one very large bulging suitcase, one extremely full backpack, one book crate, one book bag, and my very special "Grandma's fun and games" bag pictured above. I have crayons, markers, coloring books, sticker books, Ed Emberly drawing books, children's games, story books, paper supplies, and various other art supplies all loaded inside! So just in case we have a rainy day or find ourselves a bit cranky or tired, we can just open up Grandma's special bag and do some fun stuff together! I can't wait!

Dylan and I and Shane and their dad shared a meal tonight at Fire Mountain, and then Shane came by to pick up Thomas K., who will be staying at his apartment while we are gone. It was so good to see Shane, and Dylan too.

We leave first thing in the morning. I'm going to try to be a better travel partner for Mr. Jones. Staying awake in the car is a real challenge for me, so I've decided to read "Tom Sawyer" to him on the trip down; and if I finish it, we'll read "Huck Finn" on the way back. It's about a 24 hour trip to Webster, and since we would like to arrive by about 2:00 pm Thursday afternoon, we'll try to get 9+ hours in tomorrow and Wednesday. We've been routed through Mississippi and Louisiana on one of our map programs, so we're going to try that instead of going through Texarkansas and on down. I've never been to either Mississippi or Louisiana, so I'm kind of looking forward to that! I'll try to post some pictures along the way, but since I've yet to use the laptop and I'm not sure we will have internet access at the hotel tomorrow night, it might be Thursday before I actually get to update our trip for you.