the next stage of lightening the load is almost upon us as we enter into the last stages of preparing for a Grand Adventure where we trek to my ancestral homeland, which is about as far north and east on the coast of maine as you can get – in the most eastern part of the most eastern county in the united states.

we’ll be starting the adventure from grand rapids, michigan in the wee hours ( 4 a.m.! ) of the morning on june 8th; after passing through port huron, michigan, we’ll make a short jaunt through ontario, canada eventually resting in albany, new york before continuing on to machias, maine. i think we’ll probably be following the google map fairly closely, although ad hoc modifications are always a possibility.

in a previous post. i alluded to the fact that we’ve crazily decided to put the 1965 galaxie 500 to work and i’ll be driving separately from kris towing a small trailer with mauja in the backseat to keep me company ( it should now be obvious why i want a functional gas gauge and driver’s window ) . kris will be driving in the air conditioned luxury of our new jetta tdi with odin.

more than a few people might think we’re insane for attempting a thousand mile trip in two cars with an infant and a dog and an antique car, but hey – you only live once, right 🙂

we’ve modified our driving route innumerable times and i’m hoping that we’re not being too optimistic by thinking that we can make it to albany in a day single day. we’re planning on it taking anywhere from 8-12 hours depending on how often we have to stop for baby breaks. i have no idea how odin will handle that much time in the car, but i guess i’ll know the answer soon enough.

so wish us luck as we prepare to embark on our first family road trip. hopefully we won’t find ourselves in need of a tow truck in the middle of nowhere 🙂

of course, everyone wants to know why we are we heading to down east, maine. is it a vacation? are we moving there?

the shortest answer that irritates everyone and yet surprises not a single person who knows us well is that we have no plan. we’re heading east to visit great grandparents, grandparents, aunts and uncles and nieces who haven’t had the opportunity to see odin live and in technicolor.

we may stay for a little while. or we may stay for a long while. regardless, i’m sure we’ll enjoy the beauty and isolation of being in a world apart.