And so our Road Trip begins.

It’s time to load the back of the vehicle with All The Stuff.  This year I decided to put ALL of the shoes in one suitcase instead of having them in bags or floating in our car.  There are just So Many Feet in our family.  And – because we get to experience every single season on this one trip – we need a couple of shoes to match up with those needs.  Cowboy boots, of course.  Hiking shoes.  Keens. (Or Chacos.)  Last year it snowed on us as we hiked and some of the kids were wearing only their Keens.  My plans this year include much more hiking so I’m not running the risk of hiking through snow in Keens again.

In case you are curious – here’s the basic trajectory of this year’s journey.  There are four phases.  I’m labeling them each because I like to name things and I’m clearly finished naming children so I’ll just stick to naming kittens and legs of a journey,

Step One — Beyond Wildwood: The Way Out.  This includes stops to see the disgruntled brother, a seldom-visited cousin, and two buddies from college.  Also a stop over at an Audubon museum and the long passage through Kansas.  (We’re crossing our fingers that this year’s Kansas stories do NOT include tornado warnings or sirens or sighting.)  The kids are hoping this leg of the trip also does not include random older gentleman at campgrounds calling  me “babe” because that weirded them out for some reason.  Also, The Way Out includes a visit to Rocky Mountain National Park and Estes Park and the forecast is calling for rain on both of those days but I don’t care because I’ve packed rain jackets and I’m not traveling with newborns or toddlers and we won’t melt and sometimes Mom says we’re doing something because we drove over a thousand miles to do it and it matters that much so put on the rain jacket and be happy about it already.  (I’m prepping my speech, just in case it’s needed.)  There’s picking my dad up at the airport and the city of Denver and something my dad is beyond excited about called Cowboy Church.  Ye-haw.

Step Two — Beyond Wildwood: The Ranch.  This part includes three stellar meals daily and blue jeans and cowboy boots every day.  Seeing friends we made last year and having the indescribable pleasure of introducing my own father to a dreamy ranch in a dreamy landscape.  Someone will make my bed and tidy my space and there are hikes and relaxing afternoons and nary a cell phone in sight for an entire week – can you believe people will actually do that to themselves?  Isn’t it wonderful??  We’re already taking bets on which horse will be assigned to us and although Otto Fox is hopeful Ace will be his guy one more summer, I’ve got my eyes on a horse more built for speed than last year’s Shiloh.  And, apparently, Piper feels the same way as I do.  Fast.  We want fast horses.

Step Three — Beyond Wildwood: The Reunion.  Three brothers.  One dad.  One me.  Oh my – you can fill in all the the other blanks for yourself.  But we get to stay in a beautiful “cabin” that’s far fancier than any of us combined are.  And the pictures show this beautiful river within walking distance.  It’s in Breckenridge, which also sounds far fancier than any of us as well.  I’ve researched about five hiking trails nearby that I can’t wait to take and I look forward to laughing with my nephews and nieces and siblings.  To ridiculous conversations and meetings dad’s high birthday expectations.  (He turns 73 while we are all together and wants a red velvet cake.)  Does it make me a dork that I am excited to bake a cake using high altitude instructions?  Such a simple bucket list I’ve constructed in my life.  There will be plenty of adequate cell service for this part so you can expect all the excessive photos.  It has taken us a literal decade to all find ourselves in the same room at the same time so I imagine it might take another decade to do it all over again.  I’m certainly going to over-document.

Step Four — Beyond Wildwood: The Way Back.  Always a little less satisfying than the way out, the way back does have its advantages.  We’re heading to the Great Sand Dunes.  (Gotta have some thrills to assuage the depression from leaving The Ranch and The Reunion.)  Maybe we’ll see Emma and maybe we’ll see some other far flung friends.  We’ll definitely avoid New Mexico because Lesson Learned from last year’s New Mexico/Dairy Queen debacle.  We’ll come home tired and road weary, but we will come home.

We’re ready for adventure and we’re ready to be together and I’m almost ready to hear the same five songs played over and over.

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