This is my 40th year being alive. And it has been an incredible year so far. Following the record-setting run across Nevada last summer, I got busy with my job giving environmental education presentations in area schools. I love my job and I really loved not running 10 hours a day for a season.
But all of that training from a year ago didn't stick around forever and when I should have been gearing up for my next run across Wyoming, I instead got busy with a crazy self-designed money-making scheme (www.milliondollarsteps.blogspot.com) and making plans for an epic trip with the family. For the curious, the money thing really does work. In just a few months I went from $1 to $2k finding and reselling treasures at yard sales, but the work takes time and that has grown short this summer and fall.
This past spring, my family was invited to a wide range of places and activities: reunion, big birthday, wedding, camping. We didn't want to decline any of them but they were all in different corners of the country. Rather than racking up credit card bills with airfare for four, we instead decided to drive our two young kids in a 6,000 mile van and camper road trip.
Part of the money making scheme was to earn enough money to buy a camper for this trip. Then, two weeks before departure, a neighbor gave us theirs. I love it when things work themselves out. The plan was to go as a family but my wife didn't have as much vacation time as I did so she flew in to meet us a few times.
So, single dad in the driver's seat, two kids in the back, and off we went. We drove from Tucson to northern Wyoming. Went camping for a week in Grand Teton and Yellowstone. Caught Devil's Tower and Mt. Rushmore, Wind Cave and Wall Drug. Got to Wisconsin to see family, Indiana Dunes, and my own mom's wedding and attended my grandmother's 100th birthday in Indiana. Stayed with family in Chataqua, New York and saw Niagara Falls. Then our final event was a family reunion on a homestead cabin in Vermont near Dartmouth College. With wife having joined us, we headed over to the ocean for fresh lobster in Portland, Maine and the family flew home from Boston.
After 7 weeks alone in the car with the kids, my wife said I had "earned" a week to drive home solo. I chose to take the coast. Saw my brother in Delaware and made a short side trip to Georgia. 17 years ago I hiked the Appalachian Trail from Maine to Georgia. On that trip, I only had 72 miles to finish the 2,100 mile trail. Then I got sick. It was November and I was still using my summer sleeping bag. Body got run down and I had to leave the trail a few days early. This was the first chance I'd had to get back and I wanted to run the remaining miles. Starting at the northern Georgia border, I ran the final 72 miles in 2 1/2 days, never expecting the rugged conditions of the trail in that state. I finished on day 3 at 1am, marking a 40 mile day when I arrived at my van in Amicalola Falls State Park. I was quite sore and exhausted but that's a good state to be in when you have to drive across the entire width of Texas.
From Georgia I made it home in 2 more days and had just a few weeks to piece together my 500 mile Wyomathon on the Oregon Trail.
Now, I'm at the Phoenix airport, about to board a flight for Denver, where I'll be picked up by my crew to start state number 29 tomorrow morning at 10 am. Eastern border of Wyoming just east of Torrington on the Oregon Trail. 40 mile days? It's gotta be easier than that summer drive with the kids, right?
But all of that training from a year ago didn't stick around forever and when I should have been gearing up for my next run across Wyoming, I instead got busy with a crazy self-designed money-making scheme (www.milliondollarsteps.blogspot.com) and making plans for an epic trip with the family. For the curious, the money thing really does work. In just a few months I went from $1 to $2k finding and reselling treasures at yard sales, but the work takes time and that has grown short this summer and fall.
This past spring, my family was invited to a wide range of places and activities: reunion, big birthday, wedding, camping. We didn't want to decline any of them but they were all in different corners of the country. Rather than racking up credit card bills with airfare for four, we instead decided to drive our two young kids in a 6,000 mile van and camper road trip.
Part of the money making scheme was to earn enough money to buy a camper for this trip. Then, two weeks before departure, a neighbor gave us theirs. I love it when things work themselves out. The plan was to go as a family but my wife didn't have as much vacation time as I did so she flew in to meet us a few times.
So, single dad in the driver's seat, two kids in the back, and off we went. We drove from Tucson to northern Wyoming. Went camping for a week in Grand Teton and Yellowstone. Caught Devil's Tower and Mt. Rushmore, Wind Cave and Wall Drug. Got to Wisconsin to see family, Indiana Dunes, and my own mom's wedding and attended my grandmother's 100th birthday in Indiana. Stayed with family in Chataqua, New York and saw Niagara Falls. Then our final event was a family reunion on a homestead cabin in Vermont near Dartmouth College. With wife having joined us, we headed over to the ocean for fresh lobster in Portland, Maine and the family flew home from Boston.
After 7 weeks alone in the car with the kids, my wife said I had "earned" a week to drive home solo. I chose to take the coast. Saw my brother in Delaware and made a short side trip to Georgia. 17 years ago I hiked the Appalachian Trail from Maine to Georgia. On that trip, I only had 72 miles to finish the 2,100 mile trail. Then I got sick. It was November and I was still using my summer sleeping bag. Body got run down and I had to leave the trail a few days early. This was the first chance I'd had to get back and I wanted to run the remaining miles. Starting at the northern Georgia border, I ran the final 72 miles in 2 1/2 days, never expecting the rugged conditions of the trail in that state. I finished on day 3 at 1am, marking a 40 mile day when I arrived at my van in Amicalola Falls State Park. I was quite sore and exhausted but that's a good state to be in when you have to drive across the entire width of Texas.
From Georgia I made it home in 2 more days and had just a few weeks to piece together my 500 mile Wyomathon on the Oregon Trail.
Now, I'm at the Phoenix airport, about to board a flight for Denver, where I'll be picked up by my crew to start state number 29 tomorrow morning at 10 am. Eastern border of Wyoming just east of Torrington on the Oregon Trail. 40 mile days? It's gotta be easier than that summer drive with the kids, right?
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