It's not where you're going, it's how you get there

In exactly four weeks, we will pack our three boys in the SUV and head west on the greatest road trip of our married lives. In 28 days, we are Tijuana bound. In one month, we will finally see for ourselves what the "zonkey" is all about.

How often will this happen on the side of the road?

In reality, this will hopefully be our easiest move ever. Instead of having to move all of our furniture out of the house onto a U-haul truck with only the help of my dad or out of a storage unit in mid-January in a wind chill of 10 below zero with my brother-in-law, professionals will come to pack up our stuff from Oakwood while we will dictate off an inventory list what we want to go with us from our storage in Maryland. The only thing we have to do is sort out whether we want it to arrive sooner (UAB) or later (HHE). Oh, and we have to pack the SUV and the kids.  Lisa wants to take them too.

Of course, we have the usual things to do that accompany any move, like finding schools and changing doctors, and the not so usual things, like applying for SENTRI passes. (SENTRI is issued through the Department of Homeland Security, and they make it much easier and faster to cross the border provided that you pay them money and submit to an "interview."  This may or may not involve a body cavity search.) We have our passports and our visas, and we've almost decided how to get our second vehicle to the border. The "driving two cars vs. shipping vs. towing it ourselves" discussion has been a lively debate for the past couple of days. As of right now, we're going to ship it. Tomorrow, it may be a different story.

Proposed Route

Most people that go to post have to stock up on items that will be hard to come by or super expensive in a foreign country, like paper towels and peanut butter. But since we're going to the U.S./Mexico border, we don't need to make those kinds of preparations. Anything we can't get in Tijuana, we will buy in San Diego. Our cereal supply will never run low. So while our friends are cramming vats of oil (both motor and cooking) under the beds, piling tires to the ceiling in their limited living space, and making airline reservations, we are making maps and trying to decide which cool things we want to do on our cross-country road trip. 

Been there. Collinsville, IL

The stairs from The Exorcist

That's right, we're scouting out the balls of twine, severed limbs of Civil War Generals, haunted hotels, enormous chairs, gateways to wherever, and condiment-shaped water towers. We want to see America and we have 11 days to do it.  If you have a suggestion, we would love to hear about it.  From the large-- Grand Canyon/ Big Texan Steak Challenge -- to the small,-- a great greasy diner/ pink elephants/ a haunted hotel in Oklahoma City-- it will all add to our adventure.

Can you appreciate the irony?  While others pack up and fly out for far flung parts of the world like Lomé, Tbilisi, or Ulaanbaatar, we will begin our international adventure by embarking on the great American road trip.  So come on everybody, give us your suggestions.  Then, check back and find out about the places we got to see.