Enough about our upcoming road trip.  Read that HERE.

I really hope it starts to warm up, been itching to get on the bike and oh yea my 4th year of old man softball is starting up.

I have hop rhizomes started in pots.  I have tried to grow these before but with no luck.  This year I am starting in pots and will transplant after the threat of frost is over.  These will be pretty cool.  Like raspberries, they grow via root and are perennial   Once established they should be good for years.  They will also need to be trellised.  15-18 ft high.  Not that I even want the hops so much.  I don't brew that much but others do and hey fresh hops! what could be better.

Other than that not much else is going on here.

Wait, my, err, I mean Mackenzie's science project.  Growing beans with tests to seeds and gravity and then seedlings and light.  Doing some cool timelapse photography of the growth  or so I hope.  Nothing is happening yet.

Ten days.   Ten Days until we hit the road.   Have a new place added to the itinerary.  Check out the other blog to see it.

Reving up for a Road Trip

This was initially posted on my other blog Turks Travelogue 

Yea you hear that?  I do.  Thats the sound of a car getting ready for a looong road trip to Tucson and back.  Only 2 weeks away.  I am pretty stoked about it.  Sounds like Mackenzie and Tracy are too.  Although I may change my tune mid way through that first day.  It is the longest day and probably the most boring part of the trip too.  Illinois, Iowa, Missouri and Kansas.  Destination: Wichita.  I know pretty exciting stuff.

Just as always I will be adding updates and pictures from the road.  Below will be our list of stops and if you see something that interests you or would like us to do or see let me know!

Stop 1:  As mentioned Wichita KS.  Not a spot to see as much as a city that just happened to fall on the end of our first and only 12 hr driving day.  Any suggestions?

Stop 2:  Albuquerque NM.  Never even stepped foot in this state.  Again this is more of a stop over than a sightseeing opportunity.  Although we are in no huge rush to get out I will have to do some research as we get closer.  There is a cool app that Google put out there called Field Trip.  It finds things to do and explore where you are.  Testing it from my desk in West Bend comes up with nothing, not surprised.

Stop 3:  We take a little longer route to do a scenic drive through some mountains of New Mexico and into Arizona.  Love driving in the mountains  I will not go around them.

Stop 4: Tucson.  We get there it will be May 5th.  Mexico is less than an hour away.   Cinco de Mayo anyone?  Who knows - anyway been there done that you say.  Well true, still many housekeeping things to do while there. Move Joel out, put stuff in storage, relax. This is a vacation you know.  The hotel looks cool - brand new Aloft hotel, kinda hipster.

Stop 5:  After a few days in Tucson we head out for Tombstone.  The wild west town of lore.  Serious lore. Go rent the movie with Kurt Russell  Val Kilmer and others for a good idea of Tombstone.  After spending time in Tombstone we will head out to Roswell NM.  Yep, crashed spaceships and all that fun stuff.

Stop 6:  Oklahoma City.  We will view the Murra monument, in light of the Boston bombing this is very timely   Oklahoma City also has an interesting downtown, Brickyard and riverwalk. I have been there before and it will be fun to share with the rest of my family.

Stop 7:  St Louis MO.  No Bud tours here.  But we already have tickets to see the Cardinals take on the Colorado Rockies in an afternoon baseball game.  Slowly, I will see a game in every stadium.  This will make my 5th one.  Of course the famous Arch. Used to be arches but this is the the half that Ray Krocs wife got in the divorce.  I know boooooo....

So there it is, anything you can think of for an activity to do on the way or in any certain city let me know!!

ooooh, snaake, snaaake!

Found 3 of them sunning themselves in the backyard yesterday.  This one posed for me.

Its Official

Officially crazy that is.  We have decided to make the trip to Tucson and back via the Family Road Trip ™.

8 States, over 3800 miles, over 52 hours of driving time.  We chose this road trip as it could very well be one of the last we do as a full family.  If we don't kill each other it should be a great experience.   What seemed so far away is now very close, only 3 weeks away to the day.

 

Bryant Park at dusk

Ok so maybe you think I am on a little health kick.  Maybe,  The removal of caffeine, some extra exercise, a new scale that tracks my weight and body fat, and ultimately trying to watch what I eat.   Today I was kind of hungry since I had not eaten since yesterdays lunch.  So I had one meal today.  We stopped at Fuddruckers after some running around we did today.Tracy's burger on the left mine on the right.  Yea, she has the normal 1/3 pound burger....I did not.

I had, the 1 pounder.  Yea 1 pound of meat.  I will  not lie, it was silly but YOLO! right??   The actual caloric intake of this meal was around 2300 calories.  Which is a little over the 2100 I am trying to keep myself limited to.  This was the only thing I ate yesterday.  Problem it it was way high on saturated fats and sodium.

I killed it. And I did eat most of the fries later.  But it got me thinking about those man vs food challenges you see on the travel network.  I thought watching those shows that there would be some challenges I could do and win.  Well after this task I see my limit would be anything in the one pound range.  Not such a badass after all.

Back to normal eating tomorrow.  Well at least for a day or so a I am off to NYC Monday.  Traveling is always hard to eat well. Especially these short 2 day trips.

Box Cat is tired

Mr T. says:

it's APRIL, FOOLS!