Well, getting ready to leave town for a six week trip takes some serious doing. Between work and volunteer activities, getting the house in order, paying bills, stopping the mail, arranging for somebody to take care of the house… It’s a lot.
Packing up and then loading the car for for a variety of activities is also a challenge. We need to be ready for: a road trip across the country and back, a family wedding, a trip to South African cities and also going on Safari, and camping for two nights in the Grand Tetons. This requires a huge array of clothes and equipment. Did we mention that in South Africa it will be winter and actually quite cold often in the mornings and evenings? Only because Dick is a master packer, we got everything in our RAV4 hybrid.
We always know the most expensive tank of gas we will buy for a road trip as at home. We filled up at $5.49, that was the “cheap gas” at Costco. All we needed to do it cross the border into Arizona and the price dropped over a full dollar, to $4.29. It is a great time to have a hybrid, which runs on gas but also charges its battery when you drive. Dick is enamored with the opportunity to watch a screen which shows when the motor is powering the wheels and producing powersd for the battery, and when the battery is powering the car or supplementing the motor.. We’ve also decided to keep the cruise control at 70 miles an hour, even when the speed limits is higher. So far have been averaging 39.5 miles to the gallon. Much better than our larger gas only Sienna min-van.
Today we started at home, just above sea level and went up over 7000 feet in Flagstaff. We also went from desert scrub now up into the Ponderosa pine Forest with cool temperatures in the mountains of Flagstaff. Mt. Humphreys, just a few miles to the north, is well over 12,000 feet.
And, we were pleased to start the trip playing our license plate game where we look for the licenses of different states as we drive. Big trucks do not count. We are off to a good start with seeing over 20 states in the first day. Driving from Southern California into Arizona is a big travel area for lots of people, and lots of folks from around the country are on the move.
Patti put on her “you had me at road trip “ T-shirt and we both put on our shorts getting ready to head off into desert temperatures of over 104°. This first day took us about eight hours down the road through changing landscapes of mountains and hills and desert. We arrived at Flagstaff, Arizona time to grab some dinner at the Olive Garden restaurant and then catch the second half of the NBA finals game.
It’s good to have everything behind us and just look forward to six weeks of time together enjoying wonderful experiences.
