Long before gas became a boutique item, we had decided not to make an RV excursion this Summer. Two of our kids are more quasi-adults than kids, so we thought we would just go somewhere and stay there a bit. For your graph fans out there, we became vertex-centric instead of edge-centric.

So we are into first leg of our trip, driving in the minivan from St. Louis and now in Hays, Kansas. We managed to fit everything in the minivan, including (to my surprise) my guitar. My suitcase is occupied more by skating gear (rollerblades, pads, and ice skates) than it is by other things.

Kansas surprised us by managing to offer more than uniformity and quantity of view: they now charge a toll as you drive West from Kansas City. This makes one even less likely to wander off highway -- trading tourism dollars for transportation dollars.

After we finished with the toll portion of I-70, we became nostalgic about Wamego, home of the Wizard of Oz museum (really and modestly just
called the Oz museum). Well, it wasn't the museum we were so eagerly to deja vu: it was the amazing coffee shop across the street. So we drove a round-trip score of miles off the highway, only to find out that the coffee shop has gone the way of their grounds. There was a smaller and humbler coffee shop next to the Oz museum, but they deigned not to be open (but they did invite us to come back some other time). Well, after all, it was a Saturday afternoon, and who would think tourists might stop by then? We took advantage of the gas station and headed on our way to Hays, Kansas, from which your humble correspondent now blogs.

Today we drive to Ft. Collins, to check out Colorado State University (which we have decided to shorten to CSU). From there, Boulder to check out UC Boulder, and from there our vertex of extraordinary magnitude: Breckenridge.

So far things are as expected: Jacob launched his 5th film festival in the way-back. Teenagers alternated between texting and snoozing, sometimes texting each other. In a surprise move, I was allowed to drive part of the way (news crews were on hand to cover this rare event).

That's it for now, more from the road later.

Posted by: daughter numero uno at September 2, 2008 8:30 PM