Apr 11 2010

One Week Till Blast Off!

Kate Murr
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Gulp!

So.  We’ve been busy.  There’s been event planning, packing, finishing up things for work, the design and construction of an amazing treehouse , house detoxification, yard sales, training rides, news interviews, trips to Grammy and Papa’s, and gourmet cooking to do (morel season comes but once a year). Jane has been preparing her journals for the trip, and Brady has been reminding us consistently that he needs a camera to be able to “take pictures at us” on the road.

Despite the busyness, though, today seemed sort-of slow motion and fun. The kids are at Grammy’s, because, as she puts it, “we’re taking them away from her, FOREVER,” and so, Stuart and I did what any kidless parents would do that have an enormous deadline, tons of work to finish, and a truckload of planning to complete: we slept in. It was luscious. We had coffee and I read a fantastic article in Adventure Cyclist by Tim Travis, who has been touring around the world with his wife, Cindie, since 2002. Check out their amazing story here.

We spent the entire day together without children, which is to say, we ran errands.

"Ballast"

We picked up 70lbs of dog food first (ballast for our suddenly-lightweight-Burlys), then pedaled around to gather various items for the trip. Ran into Jane’s Sunday school teacher who told us of her great aunt, Zulu, who crossed America by wagon train when she was Jane’s age. Says Aunt Zulu is one of the most colorful storytellers she knows, and still recalls the time, on her epic trip, that she fell into a water trough and had to be rescued by boys. We also met an art teacher, who may periodically provide art-related bolg articles and suggestions for keeping the kids creatively entertained using found objects and scant resources. I’m excited about that.

Ended the day with a circle of fantastic women to celebrate motherhood and an upcoming birth.

Lilacs. Babies. Sleep. Light. Spring does something to the soul if we let it. And in a week we’re letting it, all right. This time next week I’ll do my first post from the road.

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