The Psychology of Vacation

I came across an interesting story in the Boston Globe about the psychology of vacations. It's an interesting read:

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/06/20/the_best_vacation_ever/?page=1

Seems like all the driving on road trips helps to accentuate the experience and positive memories of each stop. Good to hear! In about 6 days, I'll be married to my steering wheel.

Tenting Success

Good news. I now have a place to sleep. On Saturday, with a bit of help from Kristie, I was able to get the thing assembled. Amazingly, all she had to point out was that the pole colors should probably match the flap colors. Tent companies must use sweatshop laborers to determine how many people a tent sleeps. When I went to lay down in this thing, I had to lay diagonally to have a comfortable distance from the walls. Seeing how Greg is coming now, I think that I might try to get my hands on an additional tent so that we all have space to breathe. I've also realized that a Prius is not that large of a vehicle and we need to make an efficient packing list in order to ensure that we can sit comfortably without walls of stuff around us. Today was a day of important minutia. The oil change, tire rotation, balance, alignment, and 41 point inspection have all been scheduled. It almost feels like it is coming up too fast. I still only have reservations at two places, Banff National Park and Truth and Consequences, NM. I am kind of ok with this, but I am pretty sure that Kristie, Jared, and Greg are less-so. Oh well I guess I also have Oklahoma City and Nashville too! Thanks Jamin and Jon and Richard - via Kristie.

Tenting Failure #1

Well tonight I took the tent out of the Prius trunk to try to put it together in the dark. Since the weather is hot and muggy, it seemed the perfect opportunity to run a test drive of camping in the comfortable safety of my backyard. Step one was to assemble the tent.

It was a complete failure. The process of putting together a tent is incredibly simple - especially when someone who works professionally for the Bowdoin Outing Club shows you how to do it inside on a large well-lit room. In the month since I picked this tent up I forgot EVERYTHING. So, there the tent rests - outside on the tarp in the backyard.

Tomorrow is another day. I'll try to find a youtube video to watch on how to put the thing together, do it a few times in the daylight. Then tomorrow night we'll give it a go in the dark and hopefully even try sleeping out in the tent overnight!

The trip is sneaking up fast. My brother Greg is now joining me for the same leg as Jared and I'll be picking him up on the first to help with the crazy 18 hour drive to Chicago. They are now both flying out of Calgary which kind of changes up my original idea of heading from Spokane down to Crater Lake, Redwoods, Lassen, and the Sierra's down to Vegas. It is looking increasingly more likely that I'll take a more direct route towards Vegas - where I'll be picking up Kristie - in order to not exhaust myself and also to see more of the inner mountain west since the Pacific Coast is more accessible via plane and rental car for future explorations. Regardless of the result, the week between my brothers and Kristie will be without an itinerary and should have a completely different flavor than the run and gun weeks planned with both.

I will begin to post more frequently from here on out!