Post One - The Journey to Nevada

The last-minute preparations for our trip were pretty hectic. We had been in Seattle for almost 5 years and had collected a lot of stuff. So, before we left, we threw away the junk, gave away what we didn't need, and shipped the remainder to Boise where Karen's parents had graciously agreed to store it for us. This left us with an almost empty apartment for our last week in Seattle. It was rather weird -- we had so many good times there but seeing it empty, you question whether any of it really happened. I expect it is similar when you reach the end of your life. Memories are truly the only things worth acquiring (hence, this trip). We had no time to get nostalgic, however. Our last days in Seattle were spent frantically preparing the van, paying bills, changing addresses and visiting with friends one last time.

This is a good self-portrait of Karen on the road - eyes wide open and eager for the journey ahead. Here we are on the way to Burningman in Nevada, our first stop.

This is a self-portrait of me looking tough in the back of the van. I'm pissed because I'm not driving. Just kidding. It did take a while to switch from work mode to travel mode. Because I was still in work mode, I spent a lot of time tying to figure out how all our new toys worked (laptop, digital camera, GPS, cell phone, etc.).

We pretty much drove straight from Seattle to Nevada, only stopping in Portland and Ashland to sleep. This is a shot of the landscape as we approached Burningman in Nevada. We had just barely crossed our last mountain pass because of weird clicking coming from the axle (I think there is a CV joint going bad), and we were rolling into Nevada.

Our friend Todd accompanied us to Burningman. It was great to have him along to help us adjust to our new life. He can always be counted on to provided a refreshing point of view (or at least an alternative one). Here he is sacked out in the back of the van. You can see we brought a lot of stuff with us to Burningman. We needed food and water for a week for 3 people, plus plenty of 'costumes' for dressing up. Thursday night was the pink party and everyone needed something pink to wear. Todd and I had pink nighties. Sadly we forgot to take any photos of us dressed up.