The Bittles go East!

The Bittles of Sacramento were invited to come play in the sandbox with the Bittles of St. Louis. We'll see after this trip whether we ever get invited back.

Now, anyone that knows me knows that I have a passion for technology. Now historically, a family trip is where the whole family gets into a car and comes together with songs such as "99 bottles of frosty non-alcoholic adult beverages on the wall, 99 bottles of frosty non-alcoholic adult beverages", and travel games such as "theres a car, theres a car, theres a .... oh, truck!" Not for me.

I have got to have the digital home entertainment system on wheels. In the beginning of the year, we purchased the Griswald family truckster, a brand new 2007 Honda Pilot. Which of course had to be fully equipped with the DVD system, XM radio, and thankfully, wireless headsets for the kids! To add to the already geeked out ride, I added a GPS receiver to a laptop, and strategically placed right behind the front seats where the kids can be trip navigators, eliminating the obnoxious "Are we there yet?" Now if that was not enough, I added an xbox system and attached it to the entertainment system. With all of this to entertain the kids, along with their Nintendo DS's and Ipods, I better not hear, "I'm bored, there is nothing to do..." You think I overdid it? ... Nah!....

We loaded up on Thursday for an early Friday departure. We got on the road at about 6:30am, knowing that our first day of driving was going to be the long one. I began driving first, driving through Reno and across Nevada. Tracy and I switched driving every couple of hours, which worked out very well. It worked out until a Nevada State Trooper caught Mrs. Leadfoot driving 86 in a 55 zone. Even mentioning that I was a peace officer was not getting her out of that one. Believe me, I tried. After Tracy "let" me drive after the ticket, the kids got a kick out of the poor bird that took a wrong turn at Albuquerque and ended up right in line with the family truckster at 80mph. Lets just say that the bird did not make it out too well. We cruised across Nevada and the majority of Utah, getting into Moab, UT late on Friday night.

Knowing that we had less driving to do on Saturday, we took some time in the morning to check out Arches National Park. If you havent had the experience of seeing the amazing features of Eastern Utah, check it out when you can. The colors and unbeliveable landscapes are something to see! We took a couple of hours tooling around the park, playing tourist and checking out the sights.

We left the park with plenty of time to get to our next destination, Goodland KS. We left Utah and got into Colorado. We were making pretty good time. We figured we might get into Goodland early at the rate we were going, but appartently we did not make our offering to the travel gods before we left. About 100 miles west of Denver, we ran into bumper to bumper traffic. After a two hour delay, we finally passed the big rig in the median who thought he was special and tried to drive on its side. Lets just say that it didnt work out too well for him. We got back up to crusing speed and got into Goodland late.

We got up early on Sunday to get on the road for our final leg of the drive to St. Louis. We had to trek across Kansas, then across the majority of Missouri to get into there. It was during this drive that I proved a mathematical impossiblity. I proved that 90 is less than 86. Apparently the Kansas State Trooper that was cruising westbound did not like the fact that his radar showed me going 90mph. I don't know what he was talking about, because I had the cruise control set at 92! I made sure to mention that I "forgot" that I was not in my squad car. After checking my department ID, he gave me a stern warning about driving 90mph. I "promised" I would never do it again! The loopy group of us finally got into St. Louis, extremely happy to get our tired butts out of the car. We spent the rest of the evening celebrating Father's Day with some much anticipated adult beverages, great food, and even better company.

I would like to thank Uncle Moneybags who offered the boys 100 gold of online gaming money for being good on the trip. Anytime either of them acted up, all we had to say was "100 gold!" and they stopped in their tracks. Joel, you rock!

Stay tuned for the continuing drama of the Bittles on tour!