Schlitterbahn!

Today we're spending all day at Schlitterbahn, a big water park. From our KOA in San Antonio, it's only about 34 miles to Schlitterbahn. After we're done at the park, we'll get the kids dressed for bed and then drive about 100 miles to a hotel in Columbus, Texas.

After breakfast, we got packed and headed to Schlitterbahn. We sunscreened in the car.

I must admit, we were a bit shell-shocked when we first got there. We’re so used to Disney World and Islands of Adventure that we know the drill. We know how it all works, we know what to do, what not to do, what to wait for, what to bypass, etc. But here we didn’t know how things worked. Even though there were maps of the park, it was hard to tell where the lines started and where the rides ended. We had no idea how long the lines would take. Carry a tube around or not? We spent a good hour just walking around trying to figure things out. By the end of the day we were pros, but it was a slow start.

The park, by the way, is fabulous. It’s huge, great stuff for Bella’s age, very family friendly (you can bring in coolers!) and plenty to do. Like all great theme parks, you can’t really do it all in one day. Our favorite aspects also included how many lifeguards were present (it just felt safe) and the friendliness of the staff. Our only disappointments were the long waits in some of the lines (and no signs to let you know how long the waits would be) and at times the layout of the park could have been better. It wasn’t always easy and intuitive to get around. Overall, we had a blast, we didn’t get sunburned, and we decided we definitely wanted to come back another time.

We stayed until closing time at 8, got showered, and headed to Columbus, Texas.

We got checked into our crappy hotel and were immediately reminded of how much we prefer KOA cabins. But none were available in this part of the trip, so the hotel had to suffice. After the family was all in bed, I drove a mile down the road and filled up the tank and bought a few overpriced bottles of water. They had 16 oz. cans of Coke, which I had ever seen before. I was really craving a cold Coke, but it was close to midnight by this time, so I resisted. I bought one but I didn’t drink it.

Don't Mess with Texas

Another 430 mile day, from Van Horn to San Antonio. This will be the longest day of driving that doesn't include more than one state. Texas is just cruel that way.

By the way, the general pattern so far has been that at the end of the day, when we're settled in our cabin, and the kids are in bed, I update the blog and post a few pictures. But I've already scheduled a blog to post each day, showing where we're driving that day. So if all you read is a short bit about what our route is that day, check back later and there will probably be more.

Back on track

After breakfast, I rented a couple of bikes for the two older kids. They chose those funky, lay -back-and-steer-with-your-body bikes and had a lot of fun racing around the campground. They had one Bella's size, but she declined the offer.

We got to Carlsbad Caverns just in time for a big lightning storm which required the natural entrance to be closed. There is the elevator entrance into the caverns (750 feet under ground) and then there's a natural entrance that is about an hour and a half hike down. We wanted to do that, but it was closed due to lightning.

But we spent well over 2 hours walking around the "big room" and got some great pictures. I figured out how to use the time exposure-portrait flash combo on our camera, so it flashed to light us up in the foreground, but stayed open for several seconds to get the background. I'm pleased with how they turned out.



After a day in the caverns, which were a cool respite from the desert summer heat, we drove the short jaunt of 118 miles to Van Horn, Texas, right off Interstate-10...the road that takes us all the way to Florida.



We got settled in the KOA, and ate dinner at Papa's Pantry (the waitress talked me into the Big Will burger, which had everything but the kitchen sink on it. It was yummy.) I took the kids to the pool, which though quite small, was surprisingly 9 feet deep.



Tomorrow is a big driving day to San Antonio. With the time zone changes, the kids didn't get to sleep until after 10. But it was a good day. As we were going to bed, Sofia mentioned that she had 3 work outs today: the bikes, the caverns, and the pool. She's right. It was quite an active day.

To the caves

Thursday, we got out of town by 7:30. Later than I wanted, but oh well. We got half way to Tucson and realized that we forgot to pack blankets. We packed sheets for the KOA cabins, but no blankets. Sometimes the AC units can be tricky to get just right, so the thought of freezing under just a sheet was not a pleasant thought. We stopped at the evil empire (Wal-Mart) and bought some cheap blankets. They're polyester (yuck) but they'll be warm.

Uneventful drive to Benson. Got to give the new GPS a nice trial run. We like it so far.

Friday morning, Bella woke me at about 6:30 needing to go to the bathroom. As I walked her to the potty, we saw some rabbits scampering around the campground. She was very excited. They were little cottontails, but in the distance I saw a huge jackrabbit loping along into the woods. I thought it was a dog at first. It was so huge!

Bella with one of the smaller bunnies in the background

We ate breakfast (yogurt and granola), got packed up, and hit the road around 10 am.

Today's trip is a bit heavier on the driving. Our destination is Carlsbad, New Mexico. A bit off the beaten path, but ever since last summer, the kids have been dying for me to see Carlsbad Caverns. We decided to work out the driving so that we could spend the bulk of a full day there. And to do that, we need to get from Benson to Carlsbad today. About 430 miles.




We stopped in Las Cruces, New Mexico for lunch. We made a goal to only eat out one meal a day, and never at a chain restaurant. We prefer to explore the mom-and-pop joints. Sure, they're sometimes greasy spoons, but sometimes you get a real diamond in the rough. With chains, you know exactly what you're going to get. That's no fun. So we ate at a place called Dick's Cafe (I'm not making this up). The service was not so great, but the food was plentiful, if greasy. And cheap too, which is always a bonus.

We had the kids race each other outside the restaurant while we were waiting for the food, and also after the meal, to burn off excess energy.




We got to the KOA in Carlsbad around 6 pm. It's an awesome campground. They even had some entertainment at 7:30. A group of girls from grades 6-10 from some kind of performing arts school in California performed a patriotic song and dance show. Pretty cute. We munched our egg salad sandwiches and carrots while watching the show.

This KOA also has rabbits all over the place. Bella tossed one a carrot and it sniffed it and then hopped off! Dumb rabbit! We also saw a few tarantulas. I'm not making that up either. The girls from the California school had one surrounded near the bathrooms and were freaking out, taking pictures, and tossing little things at it. Bella was very concerned that they were going to hurt it. The whole walk back to the cabin I had to convince her that the spider would be alright. I hope those girls didn't hurt it. To conclude this episode of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, when we got back to our cabin, there was a bat swooping back and forth in front, no doubt feasting on the plethora of little annoying bugs everywhere (we're definitely not in Phoenix anymore!) The kids weren't scared, but after I told them what it was, Bella quietly requested to be held. She's so cute.

Tomorrow, the caverns.

The Journey Begins

Despite our usual delusions that we can actually pack leisurely and ahead of time, we were up till 2 am last night packing for the trip. The self-imposed deadline of swim class was becoming tricky because of car trouble. I took the Subaru in for emissions testing on Monday in order to renew my registration and it failed! It actually passed the emissions part, but it failed the pressure test, meaning there's some kind of slow leak in the gas system. So I had to take the car to the shop, where it was diagnosed with a cracked roll-over valve (the valve that closes the gas tank off if the car rolls over). They couldn't get the part until Thursday (cue nail biting) which is, of course, the day we leave. But he assured me he could have it done before we leave. Great. But it adds complication to the day's schedule because I work until 2:30 and swim class is at 4. We figured out that it will be practically impossible for us to pick up the Subaru, drop it off at home, and get to swim class by 4, ready to leave from there on our trip. If you don't see why that isn't possible, just trust me. With rush hour traffic, last minute loading of the van...we'd be late for swim class. I guarantee it.

If I didn't have to get a ride to pick up my car it'd be different. That part really complicates things.

So we'll have to go home after swim class, negating the miles and time we could have saved by leaving for Benson straight from the pool. But at least we can have dinner at home instead of on the road. One last chance to clean out the fridge...

Here's this evening's route:


Our first destination is the KOA campground in Benson, Arizona. About 150 miles from our home in Phoenix.

Oh, as if getting only 3 hours of sleep isn't enough before a big trip...I had to go work out this morning. I'm taking a fitness class at the community college which requires me to log a certain number of hours in the gym. It's a relatively low number (17) due to limited summer session hours, but since I'm going to be gone for a significant chunk of the summer, I'm trying to squeeze in my 17 hours while I'm here. After today, my only chance will be the week I come back in July for the workshop training. You can only log a max of 2 hours a day, and the gym is only open Monday through Thursday. Which means the most I can log during the week I come back is 8 hours. As of yesterday my total was 8 hours. So to get 17, I had no choice: I had to go in this morning and work out for an hour.

Picture "Night of the Living Dead" set in a fitness center. That's how I felt.

Oh! And I'll sweeten the pot even more. When I crawled into bed at 2:30, Bella woke up and had trouble falling back asleep. So she kept me awake for about an hour, tossing and turning, talking, getting water, etc. So I didn't fall asleep until about 3:30, and my alarm went off at 5:30, so that I could be at the fitness center when it opened at 6, so that I could work out for an hour and be at work by 7:30. Nice!

Weird thing. I'm writing this at work, and after the crazy week (I had an evening class for the past 3 nights which I haven't even mentioned yet) and the crazy morning, here I sit basically killing 5 hours of time. It's like the eye of the hurricane, the calmness in the middle of the storm. Cristina is frantically taking care of last minute errrands and packing, and I'm sitting in an air conditioned room, deciding what movie we're going to watch.

One thing is for sure. I will sleep well tonight. As long as we're in Benson.

Same heat, different desert

Cristina is growing a little tired of recounting our newest plan to people, and I don't blame her. I've told it to a few people as well, even though it would be much easier to just blog about it. So for those that haven't heard yet, here's our newest plan for the next few years.

First of all, in case you haven't heard, the economy is bad right now.

If you have read my blog somewhat regularly, then you probably know that next summer (2009) we had intended on moving back to Florida. The way the economy is now, it would be very hard to sell our house and buy a new house, while taking a $20,000 pay cut to teach in Alachua county. We're willing to deal with the pay cut, but without selling our Arizona house for enough to cover a decent downpayment on a Florida house, it would be hard to make the numbers work. This is a conundrum that I'd been tossing around in my head for the past few months, when, at a district training in May, I heard something interesting.

At lunch, a curriculum person in my school district was talking about her daughter, who teaches English in Saudi Arabia. I was kind of eavesdropping on her conversation and it made me remember that years ago, Cristina and I had thought about teaching abroad. I even interviewed for a teaching job in Costa Rica in 1998. But then kids were born, years went by, and our life went in different directions. I had heard that teaching jobs in Saudi Arabia paid very well, but I thought having kids was the deal-breaker for being hired overseas. This person, however, was talking about how her daughter just had a baby last year. I entered the conversation and got some more info. Her daughter and her son-in-law both teach at an international high school in Dahran, Saudi Arabia. They taught in Columbia for 2 years, then they went to Saudi Arabia, where they've been for 2 years. And they recently signed another contract for another 2 years. They have 2 kids, both under the age of 4.

Armed with this new idea, I mentioned it to Cristina. My mom was visiting at the time, so she heard the discussion as well. It was just a half-baked thought at this point. But, intrigued, we continued to research the feasibility of such a plan. We got in email contact with the daughter in Saudi Arabia and she answered dozens of our questions. Then she put us in contact with an administrator, who called us on the phone from Saudi Arabia. Not an interview, just information-sharing. We talked to him for over an hour.

Consideration #1: The job. Each school offers different salary and benefits packages, depending on your degree and experience. We don't know what school we'd be at if we moved to Saudi Arabia, but based on the school in Dahran that we've made contact with (ISG), I could expect about $40,000 a year salary (tax-free), free housing, utilities, and healthcare. The school pays for us to move there, they pay for us to fly home once a year each summer, and they pay for us to come home when our contract ends. About the only expenses we'd have would be long-distance phone and groceries. ISG is a private school that follows an American school calendar and college-prep curriculum, and the students are mostly children of ex-pats working in the oil industry. All classes are taught in English. They have AP classes, they have sports and clubs, band and drama. It's pretty much like any American private school.

Consideration #2: The lifestyle. Living in a conservative Muslim country will have some challenges. It's against the law for women to drive. There are no movie theaters. No alcohol (no problem for us). We couldn't teach our faith. It's another hot desert, with the added bonus of humid summers (which we would mostly avoid by coming home).

Consideration #3: Waldorf kindergarten. As much as we are both ready to get out of Phoenix, we both would like Isabella to at least have a Waldorf kindergarten experience. If we moved to Saudi Arabia in the summer of 2009, she would just be about to enter Kindergarten. So that means starting this adventure summer of 2010, 2 years from now. That would allow Sofia to finish up her middle school years at Arizona School for the Arts, and Alex would complete 3rd grade at Desert Marigold.

Consideration #4: Cristina, the teacher. In order for a school to be willing to pay for an entire family, they will want to employ both spouses. While Cristina does not want to teach elementary school, she wouldn't mind teaching high school for a few years. Since she has a bachelor's degree in Anthropology, the logical subject for her to teach would be social studies. She just needs a teaching certificate. There are several options for post-bac teacher certificate programs here in Arizona which she would have 2 years to complete. She could do the coursework online and do her student teaching in a local high school. It may take a little bit of creative scheduling, but it can definitely be done in 2 years. As of right now, this is still the biggest questipon mark in the whole plan.

So what are the major benefits of this plan to teach in Saudi Arabia? There are many.

1. We could keep our Arizona house as an investment property. We'd hire a property manager to handle renting it out. Hopefully the rent would cover most of the mortgage payment, but even if we still have to pay some, it's money invested, not lost. The lousy housing market becomes a non-issue.

2. We could pay off our student loans within a year. It's been hard to imagine paying off our student loans at all, let alone within a year or two. We could return to the States completely debt-free.

3. We could actually save up some money. In addition to keeping our house as an investment, we could save money for retirement, a house downpayment, kids' college, etc. Things we've never had the ability to do.

4. Travel. Not only would be be able to come home every summer (to the east coast) but we'd have the time and money to be able to travel to Scotland, Germany, and other places we'd like to see during winter and spring breaks.

5. From what we've learned about ISG, it's a school that our kids would benefit from attending. If we like the school for our kids, we might stay longer. We'll take it a year at time, but if we all really like it, who knows?

6. Strangely enough, we'd see our family more often than we do while living in Arizona. As it is now, we don't come east every summer. But if we worked in Saudi Arabia, we'd come back to Florida/North Carolina every summer.

7. The kids would be exposed to another culture, and they'd reap the benefits of traveling more around the world.

So there's the new plan. Nothing is for sure. Just ideas. But it's looking like a pretty good possibility. Two years from now, we might be heading to Dahran to teach at ISG, or maybe some other school. Or maybe some other country. It's too early to make any firm predictions. But we feel good about the concept and it's definitely the way we're leaning.

Cristina's birthday gift

Here's what I got Cristina for her birthday. It's also my birthday gift. And our anniversary gift...


It should come in handy during our cross-country drive. I almost got a Magellan (I actually purchased it but didn't open it) from Costco, but then discovered that you can't put world maps on Magellans. And we'd like to be able to use this thing in Costa Rica, Europe, or elsewhere. Had to spend a little more for the Garmin, but I'm happy with the choice. I think it does everything but wash the dishes and give us a foot rub.

Alex's new "do"

Alex's hair grows really fast. Always has. When it gets to be summer and we're in the pool almost every day, I try to talk him into getting a buzz cut. Makes it easier to shampoo, no combing bedhead necessary in the morning, etc. He's always been reluctant, but this year I finally talked him into it. And here it is:

The "Before" picture. We did the cutting in the garage to make clean-up easier.

I started off with scissors.

Then the razor...

It was pretty easy. Around the ears was the trickiest part.

Bella swept up. I didn't even ask her to; she just volunteered.

The "After" shot. I like it.


Ready for summer!

Home Stretch of Summer School

This is the second summer I've taught summer school. It's not a bad gig, but to finish off a long and tiring school year with 5 more weeks of teaching is a bit mentally exhausting. The pay is respectable, though, which helps finance our summer plans in July.

I'm actually writing this blog at school/work. I brought my class to the computer lab to type up their papers, so while they're working away, I have a moment to blog. After today, there are only 4 more days of summer school. We have a lot to do this weekend to get ready for our big trip next Thursday.

The kids are doing well in their afternoon swim classes. This is the first season Bella has had classes where a parent isn't in the water with her. The first couple of weeks were challenging. In fact, the first day had some tears and serious hesitancy. But as the days went on, she got a bit more accepting. She still didn't like going to lessons, but at least she got through them. By the time the third week started, she was really coming around. She loves her teacher, Brandy, and no longer was she the clingy, whiny kid who had to be comforted by the teacher (there were others that filled that role). She was getting into it. In fact, the other day Cristina noticed after class, when the kids get some free play in the pool, that Bella was lying on her belly in the shallow section, doing "bobs" on her own. (Bobs are when you go underwater and bob back up.) She said she was practicing for her next class! So she's done a complete 180 and is now a swim class pro.

That said, our plan was to leave town Thursday as soon as I got done with school at 2:30. Technically, the last day of swim class is Thursday at 4 pm. I wanted to skip the last swim lesson so we could get on the road as early as possible, but Bella is enjoying it so much, I think we'll leave town straight from the pool. The pool is on the south side of Phoenix, which is the way we're leaving town anyway. So the kids will shower off after their last lesson and we can be in Tucson in time for dinner. We're only driving about 3 hours that evening anyway.

I'm going to try to post blogs during our travels. Most of the KOAs have Wi-Fi, and we'll definitely have our laptop with us for dumping pictures. Not to mention that I'm taking an online PowerPoint class that I'll have to work on during our trip.

We're considering buying a GPS thingie for the car. We've admired them ever since Mom and Dad had one in their first Prius. They've gotten pretty inexpensive, so now would be the time to buy, before embarking on a cross-country trip. GPS systems have pretty much made the AAA trip-tych antiquated and obsolete.

Sofia goes to camp

This morning, Sofia left for Girl Scout Camp at Shadow Rim Ranch, near Payson. I volunteered to be a bus chaperone, so I was able to snap a few pictures. Here she is on the bus. I sat in the front row. She sat a couple of rows back, next to a girl she just met. I saw them chatting quite a bit, but at one point they were both reading books. Sofia didn't take any books, so her neighbor must have given her one to read. Unless Sofia snuck one on...


When we arrived at the camp, the counselors unloaded the bags. Then, each girl was greeted by their specific counselors. I'm sure I was embarrassing Sofia a little to be taking pictures, but she'll forgive me someday. If you're not familiar with Girl Scout camps, the counselors go by nicknames, which are printed on the backs of their shirts. So I guess one of Sofia's counselors is named Peanut.

Right before I headed back to Phoenix in the empty bus, I peeked in to the mess hall, where all the girls had gone. Sofia's group was playing some kind of name game. She looked happy. I tried to get her attention to wave goodbye, because I hadn't had a chance to say goodbye or give her a kiss or anything. I couldn't get her attention, so I just had to go.

She'll be back next Friday. I know she'll have a great time, meet some new friends, and learn something new about camping and backpacking (her session is called "Backpack Beginnings.") I'm so glad she greets adventures like this with openness and joy. She's awesome!

There's no cell phone service up there, but the campers can receive mail. It's always comforting to actually get mail during mail call (my nephew Steven can probably attest to that). Since the camp is only 6 days, it's not too practical to mail letters via snail mail, but they have an email service where you can set up an account, buy credits, and then send emails. The counselors will print them each morning and then deliver them to the camper at mail call. I set up a basic account so we could send a few emails. Hey, you all can do me a favor. If you would like to send her a little note (or make it as long as you want) please do it as a comment to this blog (write it as if you were writing her) and I'll copy and paste it in an email we send her. That way none of you has to sign up (and pay for) an account. I know she would love to hear from others! She won't be expecting it, so it will be a nice surprise. Thanks in advance!

Bella's 4th Birthday

Our youngest child turned four today. We started the day off with Bella's choice of breakfast, blueberry pancakes and fresh fruit. I stuck a candle in her first pancake and we sang, although she refused to blow the candle out.


She had already eaten half a bagel, so she didn't eat much of her pancake.

Bella's birthday coincided with a shindig at Desert Marigold called Splash Bash, where the kids come to school and enjoy some water play. Hoses, little pools, sprinklers, slip-and-slides, stuff like that. It's mainly a meet-and-greet for new parents to the school. We decided to combine the Splash Bash with Bella's "party," instead of trying to get some friends together afterwards. Last night I bought a big cake with 5 frosting balloons on it (Bella picked it out). I wrote B-E-L-L-A on the balloons with white frosting. At the end of the Splash Bash, we gathered everyone together, sang, and before Bella had a chance to blow out the candles, a breeze blew them out for her! She said she didn't want me to relight them for her. It was a huge bunch of kids and adults, so I cut the pieces small. It was good though. By a count of plastic ware we used, we served about 80 pieces of cake!


Back at home, after an exhaustion-induced tantrum, The kids watched a DVD from the library. Bella opened some presents: silk dress-up clothes, fairy princess kind of stuff...capes, crown/veils, flower-petal blouses...the whole shebang.


The birthday dinner that Bella chose was pizza with black olives. We made a big salad to go with it, and sweet tea.

After Bella is in bed, I'm going to see You Don't Mess With the Zohan with Peter. I'm not a huge Adam Sandler fan (I like about half of his movies). The trailer for Zohan looked pretty entertaining, so I'm up for a few laughs.

Summer 2008

I'm well into teaching summer school, the kids are done with their school, and the highlight of each day now is swim lessons at Pecos Pool. Our plan for our summer travels this year was to do the west coast. Drive over to LA and see Dom and Lucinda, then to Los Olivos to see the Yakis. On the way up north, we'd swing through Yosemite and the Redwood National Park near Eureka. See some friends in Eugene, Oregon. Swing over to Bend, Oregon to visit my Uncle Bill. And up towards Seattle to see my friend Amy and, finally, Cristina's cousin Trip.

There was only one glitch in the plan. I teach summer school until June 26 and then I have a reader's/writer's workshop training from July 7 to July 11.

Cristina and I finally sat down a few days ago and tried to hash out a plan to make it all work around the confines of my schedule. We came up with a plan, but it just didn't feel good. No matter how we tried to maximize our traveling efficiency, it still felt too rushed. And due to the amount of driving and the relatively short amount of time, it was going to necessitate staying on the road about 16 nights. In order to make that even close to affordable, we'd need to tent camp. But to drive all day, set up a tent (probably in the dark) and then break camp in the morning to hit the road again...and getting back home right before school starts...it just felt too stressful.

So we reluctantly altered our plans, cutting out the Oregon and Washington parts of the trip. We'd see Dom, see the Yakis, and see Yosemite and the Redwoods. But even with that plan, I would still be either flying back for my training, or the whole trip would be starting after my training, effectively shortening our trip to about 2 weeks. Now, most people would be perfectly content with a 2 week vacation. But knowing that Cristina and the kids have 9 weeks off, it was deflating to think that they'd be stuck in the desert, away from family and friends, on account of my teaching summer school and workshop training. So we came up with a new plan.

One of the big drawbacks with the west coast plan is that we don't have any central base to spend a big chunk of time at. That's the secret, if you want to call it that, of how we can afford to travel so much. We may not have much money, but we have family and friends that often can house us for quite a while. So while it may seem luxurious to go to Costa Rica for 6 weeks, our main expense is the airfare. We spend those 6 weeks living with Cristina's dad, not living it up in fancy resorts or tourist areas. And I'm not complaining. We love it that way. We'd much rather live in the thick of reality and be a part of our family's or friends' lives...even if it sometimes means sleeping on the floor!

With all this in mind, we made a new plan. Here it is:

On June 26, my last day of summer school, we'll leave Phoenix in our trusty Honda Odyssey and drive to Benson, Arizona, about 3 hours away. We'll stay the night in a KOA cabin. The next morning, we'll drive to Carlsbad, New Mexico and spend the night at another KOA. The next day is dedicated to exploring the caverns, something I missed out on last summer when Cristina made the drive with Elena and the kids. After a day at the caverns, we'll make a short drive down to Van Horn, Texas to another KOA. Next day (Sunday) will be a big driving day to San Antonio where we'll stay in (you guessed it) a KOA cabin. And then, our big treat: Monday we will spend at Schlitterbahn, a huge water park in New Braunfels, Texas. A few years ago, the Travel Channel had a show on the top ten water parks in the country. We were surprised to learn that #1 was Schlitterbahn, since we'd never even heard of it. This will be the first time the 5 of us will be passing within 10 miles of New Braunfels, so we have to take advantage of the opportunity.

After a full day at the water park, we'll make a relatively short drive to a hotel in Columbus, Texas and sleep well, I'm sure. Then, Tuesday morning we drive to the Baton Rouge area. This is the only spot we don't have a reservation for yet, since the KOAs don't have any available cabins. We'll probably wind up in a cheap hotel. Wednesday we drive to Tallahassee and (maybe) stay the night with Cristina's Uncle John and Aunt Kathy. And Thursday morning, July 3, we arrive in Gainesville.

After enjoying fireworks and hot dogs and all that jazz, I'll rent a car and drive to Orlando early Sunday morning. I'll fly back to Phoenix (my buddy Peter will pick me up from the airport...thanks Peter!). While I'm doing my training, Cristina and the kids will enjoy some time with Jarue and Elena. It seems that Cristina's brother, Ramon, will have just shipped out to Iraq (again), so unfortunately we're going to just miss seeing him.

On Saturday, July 12, I fly back to Orlando. We'll spend about 4 more days in Gainesville (I want to hit the Ichetucknee at least once) and then drive up to Asheville, North Carolina. We'll spend about 10 days there and then I'll fly back to Phoenix (from Atlanta) on July 28, a day before I start back at school. Since the kids don't start back for another couple of weeks, there's no point in us all coming back that early. Cristina and the kids will spend a little longer in Asheville, maybe spending a few days at the Beaudets, and then eventually they'll hit the road towards Phoenix. We haven't nailed down exact stopping places for their trip back, but they'll probably spend 3 nights in KOA's and then a couple of nights at my Uncle Doug and Aunt Lynn's near Albuquerque. As long as they're back in time for the kids' school, they can take as long as they want.

So there it is. I didn't want to announce it all until we knew for sure it was happening. Since we've now reserved a bunch of KOA cabins and one hotel, I think it's a safe bet that our plans are locked in.

While we will miss our west coast people, it will be nice to have a repeat (almost) of our last summer, which we enjoyed very much. And it will be a little easier not going to Chicago this time.

We'll figure out how to accomplish our west coast plans some time before we leave Arizona for good!