T-Minus...

...15 days and counting and we are onward to the West. It has long been my one of my wife's goals to go west of the Mississippi, on her bucket list even. My oldest will graduate from high school next year and we have been hoping to get one more "BIG" family vacation in before he spreads his wings and goes off to college.
   So, last year my wife and I talked about doing it. We went to our prospective employers and asked if this is something that could be feasible, taking a whole month off during the summer, as both of us are year round employees with our normal vacation accrual. Both of our employers were on board. Naturally, we got excited but still cautious. So, just before Christmas, we made sure that our employers were still okay with the notion and they were, so the reality became a little more concrete. Well, as mentioned already, it's just over two weeks until the surreal idea of two middle class Americans taking their three kiddos x-country becomes a full blown reality.
  Yup, we are all piling into the Caravan for a trip across the Northern U.S. No RV for us. Partly because neither one of us can see ourselves driving something that large and partly because we cannot see ourselves camping for 30 straight nights. We are planning to camp at the National Parks and are hopeful to crash at family members in California for a few nights but for the most part, we see Hotels in our future.
  Invariably, $$$$ signs start flashing abound. We don't dismiss that. We are two people who have always tried to squirrel money away for some unknown future endeavor. Well, I guess this as good as anything to spend it on. No, we probably won't be able to cover all of it, but  hopefully a good chunk of it before we have to rely on Mr. Plastic.
  We have done our best to pay our July bills this month and the ones we are not able to at this time, will have checks written out to have sent out when they come in the mail. What? We are fortunate to have a good friend of ours house sit, so to speak. I have yet to let her in this little secret but she's a trooper.  I suppose I could do online banking but I am a little old fashioned that way, where I still like to dictate how much I give everyone and when. I still reconcile my checkbook every month. Sometimes you need that extra day to cover that bill, you know?
  So, anyway, this blog has been started of my family's impending trip across the United States due to some interested friends and family who would like to be updated and have pictures to look at. Depending how we fair, maybe you could be doing the same thing in the future. We sure never fathomed this and now we are two weeks and counting until departure.
  Wish us luck!