"What's the point, Aviva?" my mother asked me after going to the Mom Road Trip site. "Why are you doing this?"
I had no immediate answer for her other than, "Because I can." After several hours of contemplating the question in the car, though, here is what I have come up with... so far.
1. A Good Time
There is absolutely nothing wrong with getting out and having some fun with friends. Devra and I are often asked if we really do the things we talk about in our book and at our presentations. YES! Part of being a parent means doing things you love to do - even if some of those things mean your family is not physically with you.
Everybody sing along now, "And the Colorado Rocky Mountain High - igh." It's not easy being a flat lander up here. Last night, Meagan got winded riding up in the elevator (yes riding, not climbing the stairs), and all three of my travel companions were cheap dates - feeling the effects of the alcohol after just one drink at 5000+ feet. We all slept great and woke up feeling refreshed and ready to journey on, though.
Today we drove from Denver to Salt Lake City. Actually, Devra drove from Denver to Rawlins and I drove from Rawlins to Salt Lake. Sarah and Meagan were a little concerned about "mountain driving." As we drove the fairly straight shot across Wyoming on I-80, I found myself feeling a little guilty about not taking them the I-70 route. Not that the Wyoming scenery wasn't new and beautiful to them, I just knew damn well the drive leading to the Eisenhower tunnel would have impressed the shit out of them! Maybe next time ladies. While I would never tried really hard not to laugh out loud at them, I did have to chuckle at comments like, "Wow, look at that. What is that?" To which I replied, "A rock formation." "How did it get there?" "I suppose that's just where it formed." And when I told them about how my kids like to drive up to Breckenridge with a bag of chips in the car so they can see if it explodes, they seemed a bit upset I hadn't brought a bag along for them to experiment with.
On the way, they anxiously looked for herds of any kind. We saw cows, lots of cows, camels, lamas, sheep, horse, and a lone buffalo. We even saw an Emperor penguin! Unfortunately, the deer and the antelope were not playing at the lower elevations in this heat. Although, we all found the weather to be gorgeous - warm and dry! It's travels like these that remind me how lucky I am to live in such an incredibly beautiful part of the country.
Our arrival in Salt Lake brought us to a charming place called Hotel Monaco. We learned it was an old bank building and we all found it to be a warm welcome for our tired bodies. We did not, however, find our bug encrusted SUV grill and windshield to be either charming or welcoming.
Tomorrow, we are off to Reno! Lower elevation, a new time zone and... well, we'll just have to wait and see what another day on the road brings us.
Good night Sarah. Good night Meagan. Good night Devra. Good night John Boy. Good night Mary. Good night ma. Good night pa...
Yes, I am a bit jealous of Devra, Sarah and Meagan already being on the road without me. However, this gives me time to learn a bit about all of our new technology. I am not too proud to admit I am probably used to be the least tech saavy of the bunch. After today, though, my husband and I (even my teenage daughters) are impressed with my new talents on the computer. I hope you enjoy my first creation of the family at Loveland Loves BBQ!
Since I am preparing to embark on a journey across the country in a car full of women, I figured I better watch the most famous movie of our generation related to this adventure, Thelma and Louise. You see, I've never seen it - at least I don't think I have. I seem to have a terrible reputation for renting movies I have already seen before and not realizing it until I'm more than halfway through them. As much as I hate to admit it, many of the scenes were extremely familiar but I really don't remember having seen the entire movie before. Oh well, none of that matters at this point, all that matters is that I have now definitely seen it (and can refer back to this post if I'm not sure in a few months) and can say I don't think our journey will be anything like it. Well, we will be a car full of women who are bonding and having a great time getting to know each other better; however, I am fairly certain absolutely positive we will not be committing any crimes along the way.
So, how will we spend our time? I have pondered the question periodically over the last several days and I keep coming up with the same answer: We'll figure it out as we go. You see, we are a creative bunch. I'm sure we'll come up with plenty of adventures along the way. While they won't involve police chases, FBI hunts or the Grand Canyon, they are sure to involve technology confusion, countless punny jokes, food, and lots and lots of laughter! So, stay logged in to watch the hilarity unfold. Perhaps we will create a new must see road trip for years to come.
Recommendations for any other movies I should see before I hit the road are greatly appreciated. And don't worry, the nice folks at Showtime keep a computer log of what I have already rented so I don't embarass myself too much by coming home with something I just brought home last week.
Aviva also admits her most embarassing faults since she lost brain cells with each pregnancy at Parentopia.
Take five moms, give them a Chevy Tahoe Hybrid SUV, add wireless internet access in the vehicle, a GPS system, cutting-edge cameras and video recording technology, video games, music, gasoline, hotel stays, food, mainstream media covering the road trip on the internet & television - and see what happens as these hilarious and irreverent women drive coast to cost, picking up their fellow SV Moms Group Contributors and blogging it all on the road..... Seriously, you will NOT want to miss following these bloggers as they make their way across the country, from Northern Virginia to San Francisco.
Come Meet SV Moms Group Contributors participating in our first-ever, Silicon Valley Moms Group Road Trip '08:
Dates and details about the trip:
July 6, 2008: Five selected contributors from SV Moms Group will begin blogging and video blogging (vblogging) about their upcoming road trip from Virginia, DC, Chicago and Loveland to San Francisco.
July 11, 2008: Devra will receive the Chevy Tahoe Hybrid frm General Motors
July 12, 2008: Devra and Sarah from DC Metro Moms Blog will drive from DC to Chicago.
July 13, 2008: Devra and Sarah will pick up Meagan from Chicago Moms Blog and drive to Omaha, Nebraska.
July 14, 2008: Devra, Sarah and Meagan will drive from Omaha to Denver.
July 15, 2008: Devra, Sarah and Meagan will pick up Aviva from the soon-to-launch Rocky Mountain Moms Blog and drive to Salt Lake City.
July 16, 2008: Devra, Sarah, Meagan and Aviva will drive from Salt Lake City to Reno.
July 17, 2008: Devra, Sarah, Meagan and Aviva will drive from Reno to Silicon Valley, where they will pick up Jill Asher from Silicon Valley Moms Blog for the last thirty miles of the trip. From Palo Alto, the six SV Moms Group contributors will drive to San Francisco.... where they will join 100 other contributors from SV Moms Group for a party in San Francisco that evening. Over the next few days will be more Silicon Valley Moms Group events and attendance at the BlogHer conference.
Beth Blecherman (Techmama) from the Silicon Valley Moms Blog will be tech blogging (behind the scenes) about some of the technology used on the Road Trip.
"What's the point, Aviva?" my mother asked me after going to the Mom Road Trip site. "Why are you doing this?" 
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