Kick Off Blog

As the great FDR once said "December 7th is a day that will live in infamy". Well in my case October 27th is my day of infamy. As you all know by now I lost what I thought to be my dream job working with Hines in Denver. Like the old cliche says when you get lemons make lemonade, so I decided to hit the road. Over the next few months I will be driving around the west with my wonderful girlfriend Sarah (most of you have met her) stopping at whatever place/town/truck stop/ski hill/national park/point of interest that we fancy. I will do my best to get daily blog posts up so that you all have something to do for a few minutes while sitting at work and also so that you might live somewhat vicariously through my journeys. Please don't expect much in the form of a written document. This blog will be more a stream of consciousness and pictorial diary of the trip. I will do my best to post funny stories, cool pictures and links to the places we travel to and pretty much keep you all updated as to where I am in America.

I am using Google's free blog site called blogger so if you choose to follow please create a profile and post any comments or trip/stop suggestions as Sarah and I drive.

Looking at the map you can see the rough trip outline of where Sarah and I will be driving. We were going to start the trip Sunday January 11th right after the Giants game but plans changed when Beatrice gave birth to little Phoebe Beatrice Mellick (7lbs 3oz; 20 inches long) on Saturday January 10th at 1:17pm. I got the call early Saturday morning and was able to get a cheap flight home and luckily made it in to LGA despite a snow storm and pretty bad weather. I spent the day yesterday with Beatrice, Phoebe, and Jeff in Greenwich hospital as various friends and family stopped in to say hello and hold Phoebe. Unfortunately for Phoebe her first Giants game was a loss to the HATED Eagles so hopefully this does not become a trend. I sent out a Kodak Gallery to many of you already but I will post some pictures of little Phoebe to the blog as we go along. Here is my favorite picture from yesterday! There will be plenty more coming.

So now we have the next generation in our family with Beatrice and Jeff's first child and 5000 Miles of Freedom has been delayed a few days. I fly back to Denver tomorrow morning Jan 13 and then Sarah and I plan on hitting the road Wednesday Jan 14 with Jackson Hole, WY being the first stop. As I said I will do my best to check in regularly with daily posts (baring a good Internet connection) to keep all updated.

One last comment before I leave you today to go up and see Phoebe, if you plan on being in the car for any amount of time or you drive a lot already do yourself a favor and get Sirius Satellite Radio. Besides snow tires on the Saab Sirius is the most important piece of equipment that I bought for the trip.