Day 1, leaving for Niagara Falls, Ontario

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We got a early start on Saturday morning, finishing a lot of last minute packing and loading of the Outback, our transportation for this trip. Doug and I had stayed up relatively late working on preparations for
the trip, so we were dragging at first. It was a nice morning - the sun was out and it was warm, but with the promise of getting hot and sticky before the day was over. We finally loaded the last bag, said good-bye to the cats one last time, double-checked the lights were off and doors & windows locked, snapped a picture of the three of us and took off.

We were stocked up with bottled water and a variety of snacks to help save money and reduce the number of stop we had to make. We also had plenty of books (regular and book-on-CD) to help pass the time. Lately we've gotten into the habit of one of us (usually me) reading a book out loud to the others when traveling on the highway. It's nice because we all get to hear the book, the driver gets to entertained by something other than music, and it's something nice to share as a family. We've read about a half dozen books this way since December. The first book we chose to read for this trip is Reflex by Steven Gould. It is a sequel to Jumper, which we read on the trip to Bowling Green, KY the weekend before for Doug's niece's graduation. It's a science fiction story about a man who can teleport. In this story, he's been doing occasional work for the NSA and someone has kidnapped him to use his ability for their purposes. His wife begins searching for them and finds that she has learned to teleport as well.

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Photos

Outback all packed up
We needed enough stuff for 12 days, but at the same time wanted to keep the view out the back clear for Doug while he was driving. So we had to pack everything well.