Road Trip!

Let's get a few things straight.

Yes, The AtHomeFam is heading west early Monday morning on a 10 day road trip.

Yes, there will be 2 children cooped up in a car traveling almost 3500 miles over 10 days.

No, this is NOT 1970.

Therefore, we will be traveling in an air-conditioned minivan.

With a fully functional multi-screen DVD player, at least one laptop computer and a Nintendo Wii along for the ride.

We also have packed one Nintendo DS, a Leapster game system, a couple of iPods, two or three digital cameras, an iPhone, a radar detector, at least one portable CD player, about a million AA rechargeable batteries and all of the chargers and power inverters to go along with those gadgets.

Somewhere in all of the gear there are also coloring books, magnetic dress-up dolls, Star Wars action figures and a bunch of extra pillows and blankets. Somewhere along the way we MIGHT even decide to unplug the children and let them entertain themselves by watching the scenery roll by.

We will be leaving the rolling hills of Austin for the desert landscapes of the American Southwest as we go cruising through southern New Mexico and Arizona on our way to Legoland and the rest of Southern California.

We are also hitting the San Diego Zoo, Joshua Tree National Park, and Disneyland. Right in the middle of our trip we are going to hang out at the beach for the 4th of July. All in all, that should make for a busy enough trip.

But wait. There is more.

On the way home we are squeezing in a detour to The Grand Canyon. We won't get to stay there very long, but I doubt we will be that close again, anytime soon. Hopefully we will be there long enough that the kids remember the Canyon and not the extra time in the car.

Besides, you can play a lot of MarioKart on a four hour detour!