Mom Road Trip, aka Devra and Sarah’s (and Meagan’s and Aviva’s and Jill’s) Excellent Adventure
I know some crazy people, y’all.
So there’s this little conference in California called BlogHer.
And this blogging group called the Silicon Valley Moms Blog, which includes Moms Blogs in eight other cities, including DC Metro Moms Blog, which is where two crazy people I know — Devra and Sarah — blog.
And they’re taking off on the Mom Road Trip of 2008 this week in a brand-new vehicle with wireless Internet, cameras and constant blog updates. They leave Washington, D.C., on Saturday and head for California, hitting Chicago, Omaha, Denver, Salt Lake City and Reno on the way.
My family just returned from vacation where we drove straight through from Florida to Iowa … and back. I only have one wish for the Mom Road Trippers:
On the road of life, may you enjoy Smiley Face Pancakes along the way.
(That’s what we had for breakfast on our road trip.)
Happy trails!
Posted by Becky @
10:17 am |
Living in a Noggin-Google world
Conversation overheard between two cousins during our family vacation.
5-year-old: “Do you have Noggin?”
6-year-old:“Umm, no. [pause] Do you have Google?”
Posted by Becky @
5:00 pm |
Runnin’ with the devil
This one’s for Sarah.
Posted by Becky @
9:54 pm |
Forgive me, Blogland, it’s been 13 days since my last post
No, we’re not here, but we passed through St. Louis on our trip up.
More pictures and details to come. Gotta post this before I lose Internet connection agai…
Posted by Becky @
12:19 pm |
Answer: Floods, tornadoes and natural disasters
Question: What is, what’s happening where we plan to go on vacation, Alex? Because we are cursed. Cursed, Alex, when it comes to vacations.
Posted by Becky @
10:51 pm |
Smart ways to travel?
I read about some tips for traveling this summer, including this:
Package shippers like FedEx Corp. or United Parcel Service Inc. or luggage shippers like Luggage Forward Inc. or Sports Express LLC may now be an attractive alternative. With FedEx, you can ship three bags — two 40-pounders and one 60-pound bag, from Dallas to Boston and back for about $250 if you use the three-business-day service, and the price might be a lot less if you have access to a corporate account with discounts at FedEx. Put the bags in shipping boxes or just use tags that shippers now have for luggage. Package shippers can track the bags, too — something airlines don’t do. On United, those same three bags would cost you $450 round trip if traveling alone.
So … when will the package shippers start putting “people boxes” on their planes? How bad could it be?
(Well, unless you’re Chuck Noland … )
Posted by Becky @
11:07 pm |
Amazing travel experiences
I can’t post photos, so how about a regular ol’ chat?
(I can’t get my comments in e-mail, and I’ve been running into all kinds of suck with my blog lately. As in, my blog just quit and I lost this entire thing. But … that’s a whole other post.)
Alisa answered my question about most amazing travel experience and then asked what mine was.
Like Alisa, I don’t have just one.
1) My first trip to Norway and seeing the mountains and fjords from the plane. It took my breath away.
2) Making it to the top of a mountain. More than once.
3) Keeping in touch with people I’ve met while traveling, even though maybe the only thing we shared was coffee while waiting for the train.
4) Being pleasantly surprised to find the “reputation that preceded them” wasn’t always the case. French people who spoke English in France. (Shh! I’m not supposed to tell.) New Yorkers who took the time to give directions, some even walking out of their way to help.
5) Italy.
Posted by Becky @
10:14 pm |
Call Guinness*! I think we’re about to set a record
See that? That’s how much the Kristiansund Hospital in Norway wants for one overnight stay for my daughter in December. That’s NOK 9750,00 (Norwegian kroner) or about $1,780. That brings our running tab for this vacation to almost $14,000. For three weeks — and one day (thanks, Haris) — in Norway. Next time a Norwegian says they have “free” health care? Don’t believe it. I never have. Paying a 50-percent income tax rate when we lived in Norway was enough to make me believe that nothing is free.
So, dear Norwegian Consulate in Houston, can you help a mother out? (Or anyone? Please?) It apparently doesn’t matter that our daughter has dual citizenship, a Norwegian passport and a Norwegian identification number. I know she doesn’t live in Norway, but this was an emergency.
I suppose it wasn’t great timing for the hospital stay, considering all the news about Gro Harlem Brundtland at the time. Norwegians were all up in arms about her use of the Norwegian health-care system. She’s a former Norwegian prime minister. She’s also a physician and former head of the World Health Organization. (Sorta ironic, no?) She’s retired now and lives in France, and Norwegians weren’t about to let her get “free” health care that included a hip operation. Never mind that she probably paid up to half of her lifetime salary in taxes to pay for Norway’s “free” health care. And never mind that she’s one of those people Norway’s system is supposed to care for in its cradle-to-grave “safety net.”
…
*I meant this Guinness.
But a few of these wouldn’t hurt. (Although, who has money for beer? Sigh.)
P.S. The bill arrived today. I’m afraid to check my mail anymore.
Posted by Becky @
7:20 pm |
Oh, hell, my TravHELL was not HELL enough
I didn’t win the TravHELL contest. But … go see who DID win. Yeah, there were times during the whole Nightmare in Norway when we said, “It could have been worse … she could have puked at the CHURCH during the FUNERAL … or on the PLANE … or they ALL could have been puking on the PLANE …” So, yeah, while it was our own personal TravHELL, it could have been worse.
Now I’ve got to get back to begging digging for my missing $6,000 … mine is the HELL that keeps on giving.
Posted by Becky @
6:35 pm |
Do you think I qualify for TravHell?
Well, it’s not like you can go vote for me or anything. The blog-sponsors will do the judging. But, hey, I figured my travel experience sucks as bad as the next person’s. Ya think?
So …and the pursuit of happiness, Hotfessional and Sass Attack are running a contest to see who has the suckiest TravHell stories to tell. They’re even giving away prizes. (Think they can get my $6,000 refund? OK. Probably not. But I bet it’s better’n a bag of airline peanuts.)
Here’s my story. It’s all one trip. It’s just so hellacious that I can’t fit it into one post.
Got a horrifying TravHell experience? You can enter until Feb. 3. Go check it out.
Posted by Becky @
11:07 pm |
