The Launch
Thus began a month of panicked preparation. Martha’s mom said we could use her fresh’n’fancy minivan. We wanted to rely on our own car and our own style: our behemoth Town Car. But the transmission started making noises the week we were going to leave and we decided to accept her generous offer.
I finished a bunch of publishing projects and mailings. We would leave a week later, right when the real work and phonecalls to benefit from those mailings should begin. Like I said, bad timing. But in a small biz, when is the timing good?
Martha had her first art fair booth the week before we left. It was at the quiet, small, friendly little Williamston Art Fair in our town. Sales were a bit discouraging. I think you have to go to a bunch of fairs several times before people get to know your work and word gets out. Dozens of friends showed up and parents, too. If the shoppers avoided the booth I hope they at least saw that a party was going on the whole time. Anyway, after that explosion of energy, we had to pack. Whew!
So we were going to visit my sis in St. Louis, then check out my old grounds in Boulder then go see my writer Pete in Utah then friends in the Bay Area, then Uncle Tim in the Sierras, then more friends up there, then roll on down the coast to Uncle Kent in Hollywood and go to Musso-Frank Grill and Philippe’s, Disneyland with the nippers, see the old harbor, then check out the desert on the way home. After we were already driving, we added up the miles. Looked like 7,000 in store and one month to do it before school started. Yikes!
This was going to be a car-camping trip. No motels or restaurants except a special few. We brought a big ole tent, cooler, stove, bags, the works. Martha bought a little suitcase bar at a garage sale, from the 50’s, all stickered up with travel stickers. She added some old Michigan stickers of our own and engraved the 4 silver cups inside with all our names and made up some special bottles for our basic drink-groups. It would be a nice way to kick back at the end of each day of driving.
I tried to cut back on what I packed. I left out the rollerskisbut brought a set of ski-poles for hillbounding, in case. Martha rolled her eyes.
We brought a bike for each of us. Our goal was every day to ride an hour each. So that we could stay sane and not get too fat.
When I do roadtrips I generally equip myself with my basic foodgroups: coke, coffee, fruitjuice, water, chips, applepie, chocolate, candy. Every hour or two I hit on one of these and somehow the variety keeps me going. But I realize that it’s a bad method. Last winter I went on xc ski weekend roadtrips with local friends. They brought water, babycarrots, celery, hummus, pita. See the difference? I determined to follow their example.
We finally rolled.
It was hard the first couple days to avoid buying Mountain Dews and snackfood. But I made myself work against tiredness as I drove instead of simply medicating it. Then I didn’t miss it at all. Water is best.
Man, minivans are cool. You can store a ton and get at it easily. Nuff said.
