Day 1 (2)

Miles: Approx 112

Location: Mom and Dad’s, Noblesville Indiana to Muscatatuck Park, North Vernon Indiana

Today was familiar scenery – leaving late, stopping at our house in Plainfield to pick up some tools. Its election day, today, tomorrow we find out who holds the country for the next 4 years. We have been strangely detached. At 1309, our renter Scott told us a horrifying story – just another indication of the “climate” of things – he said he had to wait until his wife got home from work to go vote, so it put him there just as the poll was closing. Apparently, the guard was closing the gate and a lady was walking out, overhearing Scott as he tried to explain to the guard that he was really excited to vote. The lady (looking him up and down) caustically called “Tell us who you’re going to vote for, and maybe we’ll let you in!”

This is unbelievable! Whatever side you’re going to vote for, you certainly have a right to it! We didn’t have much scenery today, but we certainly were taken aback by this story!

We rolled on – another 75 miles or so to North Vernon, Indiana – it was dark when we got here, but we set up camp (for the first time!) with relative ease, picking a spot close to the “facilities” because Aaron isn’t ready to tackle using a dump station just yet. Enough trauma for one day.

Day 2(3)

Miles: 499

Location: North Vernon, Indiana to Atlanta (Dallas) Georgia

We’ll be posting video in the next couple of days, but here are some pictures! (Amend: The internet connection here is really slow. More pictures tonight and story. We are getting an air card afterall! We’re off to Atlanta, now!)

Okay, pictures are up, please click the “More pictures from the first four days” link for a whole gallery of photos from the trip!

We got a late start today, maybe…2:30 or so before we were on the road in earnest. Not because we didn’t get up early enough despite each sleeping a grand total of about 3 hours the previous night, but more because not being on a defined schedule leaves a person liberal with their own privilege of ignoring every clock. We made a “full out” breakfast with eggs, english muffins and grits, and then decided to go walk around the downtown we’d only seen in shadows the night before. We got sucked into the local ambiance of North Vernon, – the friendly people sitting over coffee, the hostess at “A Perfect Day Cafe” who brought us “cookie doodle” coffee. Their internet connection was slow as we tried to upload pictures, which matched the pace of the town, and before we knew it, our rhythm had begun to immitate our surroundings, losing track of time. It seemed to us, even as we got on the road that the strangest feeling about going from place to place is the way the passage of time feels. When you pass through multiple cities its easy to lose track of what day you did what, even sometimes feeling like something you did just that morning, only 500 miles ago might’ve been a whole other day. Truck lag. In any case, however time is, it ended up being late – very late, by the time we sat through Atlanta traffic and then construction traffic, arriving at our stopping point in Dallas, Georgia. Our lovely hostess, Toni (a friend of Aaron’s from highschool) and her two “kids” Guinness and Heineken treated us to a incredibly comfortable bed, wonderful company and a shower that practically felt like a new lease on life. More updates to come, as we’re now headed for Florida …for

Day: 8
Miles: 186

Location: Bel Aire RV Park, Palm Harbor Florida to Walmart Parking Lot, Perry Florida

Well, we’re through the family wedding weekend -We got to see my brother and his band play …(If you’re in Clearwater or Dunedin ever…you MUST see The Black Honkies. See them at the Chickaboom Room on Thursday nights in Dunedin…) and then we enjoyed their beautiful sunset, waterside wedding on Sunday evening. Instead of a unity candle, they used two vials of different colored sand, each pouring one into a larger container, representing how the two can never again be seperated, but are still unique and even moreso in their unity. Really a great symbolic touch!

We stayed in a fun RV community, Bel Aire RV Park…the people were just magnificent. I personally got to talk to some wonderful ladies (Barb and Jan) while I did my laundry this morning – the great thing about RV parks, I find, is that everyone is so eager to meet everyone else. Typically I think of myself as fairly outgoing and they beat me to the introduction, everytime, or even better, skipping the “frifferies” and going right for the hart of the matter; “Where are you from and how long are you staying? You weren’t at coffee and doughnuts in the community area this morning!” ….over the course of our time at the park, Aaron and I have decided, as we stay in parks across the country to come up with our

“Rules For Living in an RV Community” – here’s the first 2 installations…

1. If the soap in the community shower falls, leave it lie – unless you want a rep worse than Larry Craigs!

2. Shirts v. Skins Shuffleboard – Not a Spectator Sport

Finally, on the night we got to hear my brother play, I met a guy named Mike…I told him about our trip and about mom, and he got very quiet for a few minutes and then told me that he was just diagnosed with Lymphoma….he hasn’t even told his family yet. I hope everyone will keep Mike in their thoughts and prayers, as I will. That actually brings me to our two projects, which I’d like to introduce to our trip. We were driving through Southern Georgia, trying to iron out our “plan” so to speak – we talked before we ever left about really having a purpose for our trip, but hadn’t really developed any details, other than packing the Chuck painting. So with lots of road and lots of time we started talking about how we’d like to make the trip really matter. We came up with two ways that are significant to us. The first is to continue with our “Chuck” bigger or better (http://chucktradesitforward.blogspot.com/) you can read about that story there….this is where we’re hoping to be able to give Christmas gifts to children in Indianapolis by trading our item for something “bigger or better” so that we can ultimately sell it and use the proceeds to buy some great presents for kids in the Indy area who have none. The other mission is what we’re now calling “The Fearlessness Tour” – inspired by my Moms fight with breast cancer. Passionately Fearless We called the Susan G. Koman foundation and you’ll find what we decided to do and how you can participate at that link. (Teaser: We’re hoping to make a quilt, A quote from our little page “To that end, we’ve teamed up with the Susan G. Komen foundation to build a quilt, which represents the comfort, warmth and strength of women, and we’re building it out of squares contributed by others who have a passion for spreading fearlessness, to represent the power in individuals uniting….”)

Please, please take a look, and we’d also love feedback about what we can add to our project or how we can make it better! Additionally, I am looking for quilting lovers, so with any questions or feedback, please leave comments or e-mail us. I’m planning on posting more pictures from the beach and wedding tomorrow – We’re thinking of all of our family and friends (both new and old) as we travel, hoping everyone is doing well!!! (Just a note, I get ridiculously excited when I see a spike on our graph that shows people visiting …it’s a