Sunday, July 30, 2006

 

The best laid plans...

A few things didn't go according to plan today, beyond leaving late.

As we started driving, we couldn't figure out how to turn on the DVD player. The kids really wanted to watch a movie, since that seemed like a highlight to them. Denise was trying everything, looking through the manuals, etc. I was trying to offer suggestions while driving. We finally got it figured out (although it still seems kind of mysterious). We had to consult the manuals several times to remind ourselves how certain things worked. Luckily, they are very complete. Campers Inn did a great job organizing the documentation and showing us around, but there are a lot of things to remember.

Then, we realized that everything slides around when you drive! We had kept the counters pretty clear, but we had to put away every single thing. And, some drawers would come open when we turned, I guess due to a heavy load shifing. The latches weren't strong enough to hold it back. Since we had an unplanned return visit home, we grabbed some bungee cords and used them and a tension rod to keep the drawers closed.

Also, making lunch while under way was kind of an adventure. We didn't want to stop as we were making up time. The kids and I were holding everything on the table while we got out the ingredients and made sandwiches. It was a team effort.

We'll get some photos organized tomorrow.

 

Late start...And another late start

We got off to a late start this morning as we decided that we didn't have to leave quite as early as we thought. We were tired, and wanted to sleep in a bit. So, we got the final things packed up and pushed off at 9:30 AM. But, about 45 minutes later, Denise realized she had left her purse at home!

So, we turned around and got back home to get her purse. We ended up leaving again at 11:30 AM. This was much later than we thought, and we've been driving almost non-stop since, with just a couple of gasoline/rest breaks.

Right now, we are near Rochester and about 45 minutes from our first stopping point. We'll get there around 7:30 PM. This ended up being 10 hours of driving today, which is about as much as we'll ever do on this trip.

The kids have been great, and the time as gone by OK. Denise and I have switched off on the driving, and the kids have watched a movie, read some books, listened to music, and Ben even took a nap! Luckily, the kids don't get motion sick in the RV (at least so far).

Another day of driving tomorrow, and then a day to relax near Cleveland -- some good sights there like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and (nearby) the Football Hall of Fame).

Saturday, July 29, 2006

 

A long day of packing

We finally got everything packed. Both Denise and I are very organized, with long lists of things to pack. But, it took a lot longer than we thought to get everything together and get it all into the RV. The good news is that the RV has sooo much storage space. We didn't have trouble fitting things in, and could have brought more. The only really tight space is in the fridge and freezer. Those are small, and we'll have to adjust to having limited space there.

We get up early tomorrow and head to upstate NY. Everyone is pretty tired tonight, so we are finally just relaxing a bit before we turn in for the night.

 

Packing day

Today's the day we pack up the RV. Denise did a lot of packing yesterday, but today's the day we have to really get everything in there and be ready to go first thing tomorrow. We have a couple of errands to run today, but we'll spend most of the day collecting all of our stuff together and finding places for it in the RV. It has a lot of storage space, but we have a lot of stuff! At this point, I'm just ready to get going!

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

 

Launch date

I've done quite a few product launches in my day, so this one is pretty tame. But, today I plan to send out the invitations to many friends and family inviting them to our blog, WFRV. I wanted to have some content on the blog to get things started, and I hope that the rest of the family contributes regularly as I plan to. I know that Denise has one post to write on trip and route planning, and our son, Anonymous, is thrilled to be the official WFRV photographer with his new digital camera.

So, if this is the first post you see on WFRV, Welcome! And, wish us luck on the big adventure!

Monday, July 24, 2006

 

4765


I finally recovered from getting most of my CDs onto my iPod. 4765 songs later, I finally finished. I got the Pie Lover to give me a bit of help, but I did most of it myself. You don't have to watch every CD get imported, but you do have to run back and forth to the computer to put in a new CD if you want to get through the hundreds of CDs I did. So, I am finally in the digital music era, with just about all the music I love. I skipped a few CDs which I don't listen to any more, but 4765 was enough!

 

The Mail Must Go Through

I've spent a lot of time on technology, but there are also offline issues to worry about when you go away for so long.

We have various people who do some work at our house, and they don't do online billing. So, we need to get the bills from the guy who cuts our lawn and the guy who takes care of our pool, which we will keep up while we're gone. And, I get nervous if I let my mail sit for too long. So, my assistant at work is going to send us our mail a couple of times while we're gone. Then, I can catch up on our bills.

I pay all my bills online via Quicken. So, Quicken and my data files had to get moved onto my laptop. And, I need to bring my checkbook, stamps, etc. Luckily, I was able to get most of our billers (credit cards, utilities, phone company, etc.) to bill us online. I'll get an email when the bill comes out, and can go online to review it. Then, I can pay it in Quicken, like usual.

By having our mail sent a couple of times, we can also keep up with magazines, although I may also get some downloaded as we go. Zinio has many magazines that you can subscribe to (or buy single issues). Newsstand has lots of newspapers that you can download if you miss your hometown paper.

I relax more knowing that all this stuff is taken care of, so I guess I can't really get away from it all without keeping up with it all.

 

Update on technology...

In my previous technology post, I had left a couple of open questions.

First of all, the iCarPlay Plus worked fine when I tested it. The sound isn't as good as you get with a CD or an iPod directly, and it is suceptible to FM interference. I think that in the wide open spaces it will work better than it does in the city.

I had hoped to have access to all my iPod libraries from one external hard drive connected to my laptop. Libra worked fine to manage the libraries, and it was no problem backing up the iPod libraries onto my external hard disk. However, iTunes wasn't very cooperative. The podcasts wouldn't get imported by Libra, so I had to set them up again. Also, each iPod has to be switched to synch up the library on the external disk rather than the one on its usual PC at our house. I may do this once we are underway if we really get into podcasting (or, we can just listen to the podcasts on our laptop...).

Also, after playing around with everything and wondering how good our Internet access will be while we're away, I will probably download The Daily Show and The Colbert Report from iTunes rather than try to watch them via our Slingbox. We'll see.

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