#1 Boston to Kansas

Julia and James’ (plus Isabel)’s excellent adventure began Saturday morning 11/21.. We are in a camper van heading west into red states and hoping for the best in the pandemic and widespread post-election social unrest. 🙃 Destination: Grandchild in Kansas, Family in Oregon and California and assorted friends between. Will we make it? Stay tuned.

Here we go.

Elation was in the air as we passed Rte 128.  We really were going to go someplace! After the inertia of Covid it seemed amazing. It had been hard to shut down the house and leave, scary even. Saturday was pleasant with easy driving as we passed NY, Pennsylvania and made it into Ohio for our first night. We stopped only for gas. We reached Dave Young’s perfectly level driveway👌outside of Cleveland at 9pm.
Dave and his wife Judy had a small socially distanced Williams ‘80 reunion planned.. with Carl Tippet and his wife Liz on their lovely patio.

It almost made it ok that we missed our 40th Williams College reunion due to Covid this June.

That night it was a tight fit for the three of us in the van. James and I slept on the van bed that descends halfway from the ceiling over Isabel pictured above in the back. She got a few hours of shut-eye before she became claustrophobic and had to spend the rest of the night in the passenger seat. Oh dear.

Sunday was a grueling day driving in the rain across Ohio, Illinois, Indiana and Missouri. It was good we had three drivers.. we switched often for safety. Rte 70 in Indiana was the definition of torture.. two lanes and bumpy.. 55 MPH. Police everywhere. Really?

But by the time we made it to St. Louis the sun had came out and reminded us that we were headed west.

We made it to Lawrence, Kansas at 9:30 PM, and gratefully accepted Ramsey and Erin’s generous invitation to join their pod, especially since they do NOT have a level driveway, and a repeat of Saturday night was NOT appealing. The next morning we were up early and met our grandchild Fiona, who is adorable and one month old. Ramsey and Erin are tired but doing exceptionally well despite it all. Having Nancy, Erin’s mom here has made all the difference, I think!

More on Lawrence and Thanksgiving to come…
Happy Turkey Day to all!!! Julia