Such a time as this

When we've talked about this trip with others, they've asked us why we want to cram into our van for a month; this does not sound like a vacation to most. We actually think is this the perfect vacation a the perfect time for our family for several reasons. Maybe with a little explanation, we won't seem so crazy/ridiculous/bizarre odd.

We have a fourth grader. Typically this wouldn't be of much consequence but we learned last fall about the Every Kid in a Park program offered by the US Dept. of the Interior. This program offers a free National Parks pass to all US fourth graders. Our trip is scheduled to take us to Bryce Canyon, Zion National Park, the Grand Canyon, Redwood Nat'l Park, Muir Woods, Yellowstone, and Badlands. The Every Kid in a Park pass means we'll save at least $225 on entry fees to see these parks. That's pretty great--and a hard deal to pass up.

We have an incoming high school junior.  Also not usually not that big of a deal, as we started looking ahead at the next few years, we realized how short time was getting. Next summer we'll be doing college visits with her. The following summer she'll have just graduated and will be planning for departure to the school of her choice (prayerfully). She won't want to be cooped up with her siblings and parents, eating granola bars and looking at rock formations for 4 weeks. We're also planning some stops on our way that might be of interest to her as she considers her future. One such stop is the National Weather Service in Norman, OK on the campus of Oklahoma University. She's always been interested in weather and has mentioned maybe pursuing a career in meteorological science. NWS offers free tours and we're signed up for that. She also likes astronomy and we're planning to check out the stargazing opportunities at Bryce Canyon when we're there. We've heard it's the best place in the country to see stars because of the thin atmosphere and distance from city lights. Being terrified of heights, she's not thrilled about many of our planned stops, but she's looking forward to these couple.

Self employment (mostly) rocks. Being employed for one's self has a lot of (mostly financial) drawbacks but one of the biggest benefits is flexibility. Andy really does like to have a presence in the offices of his clients so he can tend to their data needs immediately and appropriately. But he does have the flexibility to work from home (aka Panera, Nucleus, the library, etc.) when necessary. In this case, he'll be working from the back seat of the van and from various cities around the country while we travel. He is committed to his clients and will maintain communication with them throughout our journey, but he'll get lots of vacation time in, too.

We have an extra driver. When better to take a long driving trip than when we have three drivers in the family? Sarah got her driver's license a couple of weeks ago so she's street legal now! An 8-hour drive between three drivers is much more palatable than between two drivers. We're looking forward to sharing the load with her and the amount of experience she'll get under our watch will be invaluable (though she won't realize that for years to come).

We're crazy. We know it's crazy but sometimes the best memories result from the nuttiest ideas. We've been floating around this idea for years but never with any real gumption behind it. After my concussion last year, all bets have been off and Crazy is my new middle name. In all seriousness, the thought of spending thiiiiiis much time in our minivan that already has allllllmost 200,000 miles really does sound bonkers. But missing out on the chance to see our beautiful country through the eyes of my children sounds like the craziest thing I could ever do and I'm not THAT crazy!