More from the open road

The blowing snow seemed almost alive.


After living in Austin and the Midwest I have gained a greater appreciation for any rock formations higher than my knees. I really felt like I had come home again.






A couple of shots of the Great Salt Lake.

Visibility zero

Black and white pigeons
peppering the electric lines, warm
horses layered with frost
in a barren, cold landscape
Whoosh! Suddenly
there is nothing but white
all sights are obliterated
mountains, trees, this very road
in this second only you and I
exist, just us, in a cloud of snow
we could blink and disappear
if not for the noise of children
from the backseat

1104 miles into our trip this thing happened-- we made it as far as Laramie, Wyoming and the interstate was closed. Sure, the road was icy and with the intermittent blowing snow, and then real snow on top of it, there were times we couldn't see a thing. Honestly, I was happy to stop. We found some vegan grub at Sweet Melissa's cafe, watched the trains roll by, and just relaxed for the next sixteen hours until the interstate reopened.

6,000 miles

Whew! We made it!

Mid-December we piled Christmas and the kids in the car and went traveling for the holidays. 27 days, 2o US states, 3 small children, and 6,000 miles later we are finally out of our flippin' minds home. It was quite an adventure-- sort of our last hurrah to hug everyone we love before we take the plunge and move to Europe in a few months.

We got some serious hugging on and shot over 900 photos. I'll be sharing the best of those as I warm back up to being home, homeschooling, blogging and getting ready for the big move (every thought I think now is prefaced by the "Big Move"-- seriously, it's almost like some kind of disease the way it proliferates every corner of our lives these days.)

However, I've resolved in 2008 to make the most everything. I'm going to enjoy this moving process if it kills me as much as possible. I'm going to do as much as I can with what little time I've got and plow ahead. Smiling. :-) <-- See!

So Happy New Year and on with the show!