Future Trips

Clayton with a fully loaded bike, near the trailhead in Cumberland, MD

For those interested, Clayton is on his second full day of the C&O tow path currently, and has stopped at mile marker 72 for the evening. His total mileage so far should be around 112 miles for the past two days, and he has 72 more miles to go before he hits DC.

Now that I've visited all the states east of the Mississippi (save Rhode Island and Wisconsin), I've noticed that I'm less interested in planning a 10 state 3 day weekend road trip. Things like bike touring and walking long sections of the AT are beginning to catch my eye.

I've had my eye on the Kettle Valley Rail Trail in British Columbia for awhile. It's 280 miles long, so I could probably do it (along with some sightseeing side trips) in two weeks. If there's not much elevation change, I could probably do a 15-20 mile ride today. But I don't think I'm in good enough shape yet to make that ride every day for 2 weeks.

I've also been looking at some of the 5 star terrain caches. Most of the ones I've been eyeing aren't terribly far from here, but require a camping trip. There are some good ones in the Youghatomac area that have a relatively low mileage, but cross through some pretty tough terrain.

There are 3 challenge caches (Run with the Big Dogs) within 5-10 miles of me that I'd like to hit in one day. When combined, they require nearly 30 miles of hiking. I can handle about 15 miles in one day, so I'm getting there. It's been hard to get out for a good training hike with Paul, so I picked up a copy of Leslie Sansone's 5 Mile Challenge Walk and have been doing the 5 mile and the 3 mile walks most days. I think I should be able to finish all of the Run with the Big Dogs series in 3-4 weeks.

Birthday/Christmas Wishlist

I am notoriously bad about nothing being able to actually answer the question "So what do you want for your birthday/Christmas?" with something besides "uhhh, let me get back to you on that".

Last year, when I was on my epic cross country road trip, I stopped to do a cache in Dateland, Arizona. To my dismay, I discovered Dateland was a very busy place and there was just no way to attempt the cache while I was there. Since I already had a souvenir for Paul from my earlier stop in Algodones, Mexico that morning, I decided to get some dates for Clayton. I picked out one of every kind we hadn't tried before, and walked out with about 6lbs of dates. While I was in line to check out, I heard a couple of people raving about the date milkshakes. I was dubious, but they were actually pretty good.

I ran across a link to Dateland and discovered they had an online store. So if you'd like to give me something besides the usual book off my wishlist, I like the milkshake mix and Halawi dates.

[Things to do Before I’m 30] See the Perseids

Earlier this year, I ran across a neat geocaching event out in Washington state. It was located at one of the better places to view the Perseids. However, it required a several mile hike with a quite of bit of elevation change and figuring out what to do with Paul if I went. I'd be fine carrying a backpack with my camping supplies by myself, but I had really wanted to have a mini vacation with Clayton, since I'd run across a couple of cache by bike spots in the general area. Read more »

Paint by Counties

The 295 counties I've found a geocache in so far. 2007-07-29

I've always loved traveling. Growing up in a family of educators meant that I did quite a few of the "color the states you've been to" type activities while going on family vacations. My grandfather loved to shunpike, so I actually did get to see quite a bit of some of the counties we passed through. We didn't have county level maps for any of the states, but it would have been interesting to see what my map would look like for my childhood.

I've been tracking my geocaching stats at It's Not About the Numbers and saving each successive iteration of my map. For awhile, you could follow I-81 from northern Virginia down to where it hits I-40 in Tennessee, and see parts of I-75. And for Arizona, I went west on I-40/US 66 and came back on I-8 and went through nearly all of it's counties. I find it interesting to watch my map fill in. I wish InAtN was around when I first started caching almost 4 years ago.

I was catching up on feeds again, and noticed that I'm not the only one obsessed with maps. At some point, I'd like to have a map that showed all the counties I've visited, versus the ones I've cached in. Too bad there's no easy way to automate that :).

Surviving a Road Trip with your Toddler - The Gear

Paul reading a brochure about Tennessee

Having the right gear available makes a road trip much easier, especially when dealing with the whims of a toddler. Here's a list of a few things that I make sure I have before I hit the road with Paul.

• The quick change bag - I keep diapers, wipes, a couple of extra sets of clothes, and a few plastic grocery bags in the back of my car. Accidents happen and it's nice to not have to unpack the car enough to dig through your luggage for a spare set of clothes.
• Disposable Cups - These make great travel cups. While Paul is getting better at drinking out of a regular cup, he's not ready to handle one in the car. The disposable cups are easy to rinse out in the hotel, and they are also reusable.
• Foldable Toilet Training Seat - I've been to rest areas in 34 states and have yet to run across a family restroom or a childsize toilet. It fits in your day bag, is easy to wipe down, and you don't have to fool with any complicated moves in a tiny stall so your toddler can relieve themselves. Having this has made rest area stops so much easier.
• Kid's Atlas- Although I use my GPSr and Delorme Street Atlas for navigation, I occasionally break out my map books. Paul likes having his own map, even though he can't read. He will occasionally "read" to me about a state or give me directions from his atlas. If you don't want to get a kid's atlas, brochures from the rest areas also work well.
• Travel Size Magna Doodle - This is pretty good at helping Paul quietly entertain himself, with the bonus of not finding melted crayons in my car.
• Music - It's best to have a selection of albums. We rotate back and forth between kid's music and my music. Paul likes Little People Disco, Wee Sing in the Car, and Deep Forest for naptime music. We also have an audio book of kid's stories that he really likes. If you have a hard time finding one, you can record yourself reading the stories and burn it to cd or make an mp3 of it.
• Snack Food - I like to keep a couple of boxes of non chocolately granola bars stashed in the passenger seat. They tend to stay in one piece while they're being eaten and it's just enough to stave off a hunger related tantrum when you're not able to stop for a meal. I also try to keep an apple or two, raisins, and some carrot sticks in the mini cooler to round out fast food meals. The koolaid single serving packets are also great for toddlers who want something besides water, but haven't mastered the juice box.