Our Cross Country Road Trip

Starting on April 3, 2011, Debbie, Kyle, Tucker and I will set off on a 74-day 8300 mile USA road trip in our 1990 26' Tioga Class C RV towing our Honda CRV. The plan, devised over the past couple of years, will be to head over to Seattle (from Spokane, WA), down through California, into Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Florida, up the east coast of Georgia and S. Carolina, the back west through N. Carolina, Tennesee, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, S. Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. We will camp at 32 different locations, visit 7 National Parks, and stay 7 nights at Fort Wilderness campground at Disney World. We also look forward to seeing our kids and families in Seattle, Burney, Morgan Hill and Lake Arrowhead, CA, and good friends in Eugene, Or, and Bodega Bay, CA, and Gardiner, MT.

The average trip length will be 4.6 hours and 260 miles/day between stops. Stops will range from one night to seven, but most are 2 or 3 nights. The darned gas situation isn't helping with fuel costs, but nevertheless, we'll use about 1000 gallons on the trip.

My plan is to post regular reports and photos in this blog to keep people informed about what we're doing each day, what we've seen and anything else interesting that's happening.

Here is the route we're taking.

Snowy

It has been a snowy early winter so far. Probably got around 2' so far. but the ATV with blade and tractor manage it well. It is also amazing how people in the remote areas seem to manage snow much better than in the city. Fewer cars and fewer hills help too.

We went out and found our Christmas tree. Down in the "lower 40" part of the property. Smaller tree than we usually get but then the cabin is a bit smaller than the house in Monroe was.

The Reed Family Blog Site

We will soon be living full time at the property at Waitts Lake. Yes, it's only a 650 sf cabin and mightly snug for the three of us, but what the heck. We're planning on adding on to the loft another 80 sf, so then it will be real roomy. Hey, but the garage is 2400 sf!

We plan on building a log cabin once the housing market improves and the prospect of selling the house in Monroe makes sense. For now, this year we plan on adding onto the cabin loft and finishing it, finishing the garage and building a firewood storage thingy. In the spring, we are going on a 73-day 8000 mile round-the-country RV trip.

Welcome to the Reed Family blog

I will be leaving The Seattle Times on Nov 1 2010 after 20 1/2 years of dedicated service. Debbie, Kyle and I will be moving permanently to our property near Waitts Lake in NE Washington State. I definitely appreciate the many opportunities that I was involved in over the years, and I will miss working with some great people, including peers, staff, and vendors.

My history at The Times
I joined The Seattle Times in 1990 as assistant technical services manager and was soon recruited to join the North Creek facility transition team to form the electrical and systems engineering departments. I was promoted in 1998 to the role of Production Engineering Manager, leading the overall maintenance functions for operations. In addition to my role helping to build the North Creek plant, I led teams that installed the presses and inserters, successfully transitioned through Y2K, helped with the move to CTP, and was key in many other important projects and roles. I was also awarded a Publisher’s Circle award in 1996.