Philadelphia! almost....

It was smooth sailing through Massachusetts and Connecticut as we cruised along on our way to Philadelphia. By 10:10 the first argument had broken out and by 10:33 we found ourselves stuck in our first traffic jam. As we approached New York City, we were making great time but Emmett would not stop asking about when we would see the Statue of Liberty. We had no real plans to stop there and were hoping to catch a glimpse as we rushed along the interstate but what's a road trip without a few intentional detours, right? So, by 1:45 we found ourselves lunching at Liberty Park...mmmmm. Of course we managed to find the one 'for fee' parking lot (we passed all the 'free' ones as we we drove back to the highway) but I assured James that our $7 would be well spent by the New York State Park Authority. At least it wasn't Joe's Parking Palace that was going to benefit from our 7 clams. He still wasn't content but on to Philadelphia we went. At 4:15, 297 miles after we left Millis, we arrived at the beautiful Residence Inn Marriott and rushed to the desk only to find out the cleaning lady "left to have a baby" and it would be another 30 minutes before we could access our room. Hmph. So now we're in the pool, soaking up some rays and enjoying some fresh New Jersey Turnpike air. Ahhhh!

And....we're off!

For real this time.... Woke up at 6:30, got the cooler packed and we're just about to pull away, only 15 minutes behind schedule - not too bad. The kids have been waiting to leave in the car for the past half hour. James and I are wondering how long they'll stay in there before coming to find us. Meanwhile, we're enjoying the quiet in the house as we hide in the kitchen having one last cup of coffee....
Thanks Michael for this picture you took last night and thank you Claire for the beautiful card! But how long will those smiles last.............

We're off

It's 12:22 a.m. Had a barbecue with some wonderful friends this evening and got back a couple of hours ago to finish the packing (finally) and empty the fridge (it's a good thing we take these trips to see family every couple of years otherwise this would never ever get done). Hoping the headache is not too bad when we wake up about 5 hours from now. First stop - Philadelphia.

Final Preparations.....

10 days to go now. The cargo rack is in and the camping gear has been inventoried. We've finally booked all of our hotels and campsites and even some sights we'll see along the way (Hello Elvis). We're in the final stages which will involve putting the house to bed for the summer, figuring out how to give the dogs enough space to roam in the house without causing too much damage (Charlie will be home with them, but you probably haven't met our new dog Jasper who was eating ornaments off the tree at Christmastime and hasn't really looked back) and reviewing all the packing lists we've spent months preparing. Extremely excited and a bit nervous too.