The Preparation

After 6 months of planning, hundreds of miles of “pre-trip” driving -- From NY to Georgia and back in one car down and a different car back up when the first one broke down, from Virginia to Vermont in the new RV, from Vermont to Massachusetts to meet the boxes of stuff arriving from Georgia and London (2 separate trips, one in a rental, one in the RV)—we finally set off on our odyssey today.

I haven’t been blogging for awhile, but it’s not like I haven’t been busy – I feel like I must be the busiest unemployed person around, and I don’t know how I ever managed my life when I also had to work. Here’s some of what has been happening in the lead up to the departure:

Web site – We’re now on the third iteration of our www.familyadventureyear.com web site, and it’s certainly not the last. I hoped to have a week in Vermont to do the photo integration (via Flickr) and the Google Maps API programming (so that you can interact with a map of our journey and see where we’ve been, where we’re going, etc. on a large map). Unfortunately, all of the other logistical issues have prevented me from doing the programming work required. I hope to spend a few days getting the site overhauled at some point before mid-September, and you’ll certainly hear about it first here if I get it down;

Gadgetry – While I’m happy to traipse off into the outdoors with just a backpack and sleeping bag, I thought that I’d take advantage of the adventure to update the family’s technology stack. If anyone has any detailed questions, send me an email as I’m now an expert on several new things:
1) Data loggers – I have an AMOD AGL3080 device that fits in my pocket (or clips onto the camera bag) and gets our GPS location every second. At the end of each day it geo-tags all of our photos, so if someone looks at any of our photos on Flickr (after I get around to uploading them) the location the photo was taken can be viewed;
2) Digital SLRs – I wanted a new camera to document the journey and have happily settled on the Canon T1i with both 18-55 and 75-300 image stabilization lenses. It’s amazing how much better the pictures are than with my other cameras;
3) RVs – See my last blog, but I spent a lot of time before settling on our WII (Winnebago-Itasca Impulse). If you’re ever in the market for an RV, the $150 that RV.ORG charges for their buyers guide is well worth it;
4) Portable Printers – Bought an HP-460c for $60 on eBay; it has a built-in, rechargeable lithium battery, and does great printing and takes up very little space. There are newer (and better) HP models for >$300, but buying the older one saved a ton of money;
5) Netbooks - Wendy needed a new computer and loves her new Toshiba -- <3>10hours battery life, etc.
6) Mobile phones – Moving back to the US I had to navigate the maze of carriers, plans, devices, etc. We ended up spending a little more $ to go with Verizon, but there coverage map is much better and so far we’ve been very happy with the coverage and the customer service. My BlackBerry Tour is not as nice as the Bold I had in the UK (no WiFi support), but it’s still a long way from the first email only Blackberry (and only text at that) that I had back in 2002. I think this is my 7th or 8th Blackberry, and I’m still a big fan.
7) Coffee makers – When I drove the RV up from Virginia to Vermont I realized how much money I spend at gas stations on coffee. I did the math and realized that we’d either need to add a separate line in our family P&L for Wendy and my multiple times per day habit, or come up with a reasonable mobile solution. We ended up with a Keurig unit that can either use the very environmentally irresponsible single K-cup packages or brew a cup at a time with the re-usable filter. While it doesn’t have a steam head for milk foaming, it does brew a very good cup of coffee with no glass to break;
8) Rechargeable batteries – I now know far more than I ever wanted to about NiMH AA and AAA batteries and the proper types of chargers required to keep the batteries re-charging time and again. It’s amazing the number of devices we’re carrying that need batteries and how often they go through them:
a. Data logger – 3 AAA
b. Josh’s Lego NXT robot (part of his science curriculum) – 6 AA
c. Family Walkie Talkies – 6 AA and 8 AAA (we have two different pairs)
d. Flashlights – 8 AA for the non-crank flashlights we have;
e. I’m sure I’m leaving off a few others, so that’s why I have some spare batteries.
And, of course, this trip isn’t about the technology / gadgets at all, so I’m trying not to go too overboard and just have things that make our life easier but don’t keep us away from all the fun adventures we can be having. I’m still frustrated that I have very few photos of the times when I’m having the most fun – because who wants to stop to take photos when they’re having such a good time. I’ve also pretty much decided against doing any videos, as Wendy says, we don’t want to be one of those families that spends the first half of their life videoing themselves and the second half watching…

Home Schooling Prep – We had to plan both a 2nd grade and 6th grade curriculum, purchase materials (math texts, spelling texts, etc.) and convince the state of Vermont that we would be providing a good education for our children. We heavily borrowed from the American School in London (ASL) curriculum that our kids would have done this year, and are indebted to the ASL middle and lower school principals, our children’s teachers, friends with teaching backgrounds and other home schooler parents that we know. Thanks again for all of your support.

There has also been planning around our itineraries, especially some of the more complex / expense legs that require more advance planning and reservations (Churchill, Manitoba where we’re seeing the Polar Bears in October; Hawaii where Simon will be studying volcanos and tropical fish in January, etc.)

But, all of that is now behind us, we've gotten our tetanus boosters, our Vermont residency (drivers licenses, PO Box, car registrations), we've set all of our bills to paperless, we've arranged for someone to forward the mail and now we're on the road.