Impetus for taking this cross country road trip.

Don called and said it might be a good time for us to come visit Chuck, who has had stage four cancer for three years..  Don also wanted to have his wedding reception while we were back there, so that is how we began thinking about a trip to Phyllis and Chuck's in Virginia..

Ordinarily we would never have planned to travel in August unless it was with the grand kids, but August worked well for us because we didn't have any jobs then.  We had talked about taking the grandkids with us, but they needed to be back for school too soon, so we took them to Yosemite and Universal Studios before we left.

It was Sandra who suggested driving instead of flying back to Phyllis's.

 Then we decided that since we were going East we would inquire about entertaining in exchange for lodging at a New Hampshire Inn near where Chev was from.  So I was very excited when we got the job to do a two hour show in exchange for two nights at the Inn.  That meant carrying equipment, however.

Then we decided that since we were going to be in New Hampshire, I would look up Deer Valley Family Camp in Pennsylvania where I had worked for several summers during college, with Janice. 

Then, since we were going to be in New Hampshire, I had always wanted to return to Bar Harbor, Maine.  so that became part of the trip.

Then, since we were going to be in Maine, it made sense to return West via Canada, as that's about the only place Sandra and I hadn't already traveled to before.

Then, since we were going to be that far north, we would be near Sally and Bob Miller's family near Mackinaw, MI, so that got added to the trip.

Then, since we were going to be in Canada, returning to Banff and Lake Louise and adding the phenominal Jasper to the trip made sense.

Then, since we were that close to the Oregon Coast, we decided to call Better Bartz and hope that she would be available.

Riding my bicycle cross country has been on my bucket list since I was in my 20's.  Having met people who paid $10,000 to ride cross country for a month I decided that riding a gruelling eight hours a day and paying that kind of money to do it no longer appealed to me. But taking my bike cross country on the back of the car sounded marvelous and it turned out to be my favorite moments and I have to thank Sandra for the encouragement.