The longest driving leg and only a few snafus!

We're off!!!

On Tuesday night, after two days of packing and cleaning our apartment, we finally got everything taken car of, got in the car in Boston, and took off for our great road trip!!! And of course, being the tech saavy couple that we are, the first thing we did was set up all of our electronic car gadgets: the food/drink cooler, which plugs into the AC adapter, the GPS, which plugs into the AC adapter, and our usual cell phone charger, which plugs into the AC adapter... and with so many things to plug into the AC adapter, we bought an AC splitter, which conveniently allows us to plug 3 things into the single AC adapter in the car. So we excited plugged everything, pulled out of the parking lot, and the first thing that happens... our car's AC adapter blows a fuse and stops functioning!

Okay, we think, we'll get it fixed somewhere on the road (hopefully!), and we go ahead and get rolling. No worries... we'll just pop in some music and enjoy the first leg of our trip to Albany. So we're on the road, enjoying life, and we decide to change the music to something more upbeat... so we go to eject the CD and what happens? The CD refuses to come out, and thus our primary source of music is out of commission. OY! Fine... no electronics, no CD music, let's just get to Albany!

So after 3 easy hours of driving, we get to our simple, but very nice EconoLodge in Albany, get 7 quick hours of sleep, and wake up early to get start on our longest day of driving of the whole trip... 900 miles from Albany to Chicago, via Niagara Falls and Ann Arbor (to pick up Talia).

A few quick highlights of the trip, and then I'll post the pictures (which is really what you want to see anyway):

• First thing in the morning, we get the AC adapter fixed by some very nice New Yorkers at a local car/tire repair shop. YAY!
• After a hour or two of driving, the CD player decides that it is willing to eject the CD... so we can once again use our CD player. Hurray!
• We arrive at Niagara Falls in 20 degree weather, with large snowflakes coming down pretty heavily. Oh well! The falls were still fabulous (I've never seen them before), and we had a nice lunch of frozen pizza at a gas station.
• After viewing the falls from the American side, we drive around to the Canadian side (which is supposed to be much better) to see the falls in all their glory. The Canadians, however, want us to pay $15 to park to see the falls, so we decide instead to double park on the road right next to the viewing area, and Amit stays in the car while I jump out to take some pictures. The Candians, though, are used to us cheap Americans trying to avoid the parking fee, and about 2 minutes after we pull over, two Ranger SUVs come up to Amit, flash their headlights brightly in his eyes, and escort him out of the park... leaving me behind! Stealthily, though, he loops back around and I jump in the car before we're caught!
• After 10 more hours of driving, with Talia safely in the back seat (sandwiched between bags and boxes of stuff!), we arrive in Chicago at 12:15 AM!

Thus ends our first full day... and longest day... of our road trip. We're now happily in Chicago, about to spend Thanksgiving with Ben today and then a second Thanksgiving tomorrow with my cousins. Check out our Niagara Falls pictures... and more stories to come in the days ahead!

Love,
Dena (& Amit)

Welcome to our travel blog!

Welcome to our travel blog!  

Amit and I have dreamed about setting off on a big adventure for a few years, and now it is finally happening.  We hope that you will follow our travels around the country... and around the world... via this site and that you will leave us notes to tell us how you are doing as well.  We will try to provide you with updates once a week or so, depending on where we are and if internet is readily accessible.  We also hope to post tons of pictures (one of the best parts of traveling is the great chronicle of pictures you create!), so assuming that I can figure out how to add them into a blog post, you will actually SEE where we are too!

To begin: we take off this week for a five-week, cross-country road trip!  We are leaving on Tuesday night from Boston and by Wednesday night we hope to make it to Chicago, our first stop.  From Chicago, we head across to Denver (to visit my good friends Valerie and Talia!), Salt Lake City (for a short overnight), and then we land in Napa to celebrate my grandmother's 80th birthday on December 7th.  We'll spend a few days in Napa, and then we make our way south to Palo Alto to see Amit's cousins.  From Palo Alto, we'll head down to Los Angeles (to visit Amit's best friend Jeff), over to Bryce and Zion National Parks, and then to the Grand Canyon.  By mid-December, we'll have made it to southern Arizona to see my aunt, uncle, and cousin.  From Arizona, we'll drive to Houston (via Carlsbad Caverns) to see my great Uncle Max and cousin Linda, and then to New Orleans for a few days before beginning our trek back to Boston.  We'll stop in Nashville, Philly, and DC on our way north, and end this amazing (or amazingly long!) tour of the country in early January.

So, if all goes well, expect to hear some good stories and see some great pictures over the next few weeks, and we'll keep you updated as our adventure continues!

Love,

Dena & Amit