Bringing Summer Vacation Back..Road trip style
This year’s
journey is Operation Beach Gypsy (June 25-July 25, 2015)
Your Gypsies
My best friend and I from college are both teachers: 2nd
grade and an adjunct college professor. We have four kids between us, ages
8 to 15. I live in a small ski town high in the Rocky Mountains and
the Thelma to my Louise lives in a suburb outside Sacramento. Last year we decided to hit the
open road together, all six of us in my pathfinder with no plan other than
to spend as much time at the beach as we could and to have no plan.
We had the summer of our lives and plan to do it all over again this
year.
Why Do We Road Trip?
Lady Date Love
We
both love pina coladas and cheese enchiladas (all things cheese and rum
really). Spending most of the year in two different states requires a full month of talking non-stop to catch up.
Generations of Friendship
Our children to get to know each other. There is nothing
more special than watching your kids learn to love each other the same way you
love your best friend.
Breaking Amish
My small town boys get to see the big city life. Living in
a small town is a gift and an amazing place to raise kids resulting in a magical and sheltered life. Our road trip gives them a front row seat to diversity and what the “real world” looks like. As we introduce them to the “real world” Thelma lovingly calls
my boys, her “Amish babies”. Let's not forget that it also gives us the opportunity
to show her landlocked babies the love of the sea.
Comfort Zone-Schomfort Zone, Not All Who Wander Are Lost
Living in the mountains allows me to live a life of
adventure. The kinds of folks that live in a ski town tend to be
adrenaline junkies that love to travel. Road trip'n allows a little bit of
my reckless abandon to rub off on my dear my friend, a suburban “dance mom”. Oh the
stories she tells at cocktail parties at home about our adventures.
Her friends cannot believe that two mom’s would brave the open road with four
kids.
Reality Reset
A much needed escape for two underpaid and
overworked educators. We love what we do, but there is absolutely a
reason why teachers need the summer off.
Fun Without Funds
There is one catch, as teachers our incomes are modest and of
course since our husbands are not invited it is difficult to claim budget
dollars for a family vacation. From the minute we got home last summer,
we knew this special time with our kids would be limited by them turning in to
a-hole teenagers, so we immediately started planning for summer 2015. Thelma and I have each taken on odd jobs during the school year to help scrap
together money for our trip. We text each with photos of checks and
cash we collect, completely comfortable with pimping ourselves out for road trip dollars.
In fact, we have joked with the kids that when we pull
into each “port” they will have to earn the meals and spending money.
Two of them will dance for dollars, possibly painted all silver or
gold like the street performers in San Francisco or Vegas. The other two will use their special powers of agitation. The thought here is that strangers
my pay them to be less annoying. Surely our superior dancing skills and
razor sharp wit will pay off somehow. It is never too early to teach our kids the power of grifting.
Oh the glamor of summers off... the sad truth is that not
many teachers with school aged children are able to take full advantage of
their time off. Financial reasons and/or spouses without time off tend to get in our way. We would love to show you the world
what can be accomplished with a small budget, the willingness to wander,
friends that open their doors and share their floors, a whole lot of smiles,
laughter and patience. Please help us celebrate the power of a road trip.
The Power of a Road Trip
Facebook Post from July 17th…
“Rolling into Crested Butte with 2,600 more miles on our
pathfinder, sand in our floor mats and sun kissed. The kids, a little more
grown up and all of us, a little more young at heart....thankful for new
friends and old ones...thankful for beaches and mountains...thankful for big
cities and small towns..road trips rule”