Missy and Shane's All Around US Tour.

Well we did it! We've moved out of our home. We are now Home Free.

We did the final clean-up of the place and handed the keys over to the new owner of the house today. We've moved in with the Medaris Clan into a sweet little guest house in their backyard in Napa. It's very cozy and is a great jumping off platform for the big trip. One month from now we will be on the road. In the meantime we have a few trips planned around the area, Missy finishes work next week, and we have some time to get comfortable with the idea of having no homes, no jobs, and MUCH less stuff.

Tonight we are going to Jen & Justin's school (Stone Bridge) Mardi-Gras Celebration:

Stone Bridge School Extravaganza 2006 is a Mardi Gras celebration and fundraiser for this Waldorf Methods charter school, which suffered flood damage last winter. 6 p.m. March 4. St. John's Hall, 960 Napa St., Napa. $45 (advance); $60 (at door). (707) 252-5522. .

Should be a great party and a nice kick-off to letting everything go- getting down on the dancefloor!

On the way back from our trip up to Oregon. It has been a great week of visiting Mom, Larry, and Kristin in Bend, relaxing, enjoying good food and family time, skiing, and relaxing with Jennifer, Justin, India, and Fiona. It has been great being away for awhile, not thinking much about the next couple weeks that lay ahead. We have a solid week of packing and we move out Saturday. There's only a week of work left for me and two weeks for Missy. The next part of the adventure, the really letting go, begins now. Scary and exciting at the same time.

We made a quick trip to my Grandparents cabin at Crescent Meadows in the Cascades. It had snowed a lot in the past month and it was pretty buried. It was also really cold, down into the single digits even during the daytime. We did a little bit of snowshoeing and made sure the cabin was in good shape and then headed back to Sunriver.


Missy and I skied a few days and one day India and Fiona had their first day of skiing ever. They took lessons at Mt. Bachelor and the next day Fiona skied half day with us. It reminded me of my first days of skiing, though she picked it up about twice as fast as I did at that age. By the end she was rocketing down the hill on blue runs.


It was a great trip, though of course it felt too short. Which makes us glad that we've decided to take a whole year (at least) for our journey. With all the months of preparation and dreaming we are ready for it to begin! But first, one last push of work.

We are in Sunriver, OR right now (near Bend). Plan on doing some skiing and playing in the snow with family. Will be my last visit with my family before we head off on the big journey. It's pretty cold here right now, highs in the 20s and lows in the single digits! It's the coldest weather Missy has been in. We're hoping to get up to my grandparents cabin sometime during this week but it may be too cold for them to go up, but we'll at least stop by. That cabin holds so many wonderful memories of childhood that I'm excited to share it with Missy.

Our friends Ryan and Amy had their baby last week:

It's with tremendous joy and excitement that we introduce you to our new baby daughter, Natalie Ava Warren! Natalie was born on Saturday, February 11 at 5:50 AM, weighing 8 lbs. 2 ozs., and measuring 21 inches long. Everyone is now home, healthy and happy, and all loving our new life together. For pictures of Natalie's first days, visit our family photo site at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/warrenpics/

and here is a picture of the sweetest little thing:

The Tour of California is happening in a little over a week. Ironically we will be in Oregon for most of it!

It looks like it will be a great race. Some of the top teams and right near home. Missy and I will be riding a lot of the same route on our trip south. If you want to see a map of the routes check out the map I made at Wayfaring

There was one part on their website (besides the free bike give-away) that I thought was pretty interesting. The whole idea of bike races is a little crazy- people DRIVING all around to watch people bike and all the helicopters, support vehicles, and craziness. But if it is going to go on at least this event is doing something thoughtful- This will be the first "climate neutral" bike event in the US. Here's some quotes from their website:

An event of this size requires the use of a lot of energy in a number of areas including the necessary race support vehicles, aerial television crews, participant travel, athlete and sponsor accommodations etc. - all of which will produce greenhouse gas emissions in the process. By working with NativeEnergy's Windbuilders program, Clif Bar & Co. will fund the purchase of enough renewable energy credits to offset the estimated 518 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2 is the main contributor to global warming) produced in association with the event. These energy credits will help finance the construction of new, clean-energy wind farms on Native American land. That's providing an environmental equivalent to taking more than 1,000 cars off the roads of California for a month! As a result, the event itself will be certified Climate Neutral - having a zero net impact on global warming.

Every day along the course, race fans and visitors to the Healthy Lifestyle Festivals will be able to learn more about reducing their impact on the environment. The Clif Bar & Co. on-site recycling and composting stations will reduce the amount of waste being sent to our landfills. At the Clif Bar & Co. booth, spectators can purchase "Cool TagsTM" through a partnership with NativeEnergy to offset the amount of carbon dioxide they generate by driving to and from the event-each $2.00 Cool Tag offsets approximately 300 miles of car travel. To encourage alternate forms of transportation, there will be a bike valet on-site to encourage everyone to leave their cars at home. The Clif Bar & Co. biodiesel-powered van will be along for the entire race to raise awareness about cleaner burning alternative fuels that reduce the impact on global climate change. Vendors and others associated with the event will be encouraged to source environmentally friendly materials for their operations as well.

"

Though we were married almost 5 months ago we finally got an announcement into the Napa paper. I think we were less motivated to do so since we made the front page news when we rode out there. Here's the link to the announcement

And here's a link to the original article in the Napa paper

We went to the future home of our beloved birds today. Roya, a friend and ex-coworker at PedEx will be watching our chickens while we are gone and we are so happy about the home we are leaving them at and especially with the person who will be caring for them.
They make the move next Sunday. Each day we are that much closer to all of this becoming real.

Did a ride to Benicia today. Here is the route I took.

We have an offer on the house! We are right on schedule.... it's really amazing that it is all working out so well!. If all goes well we will be moved out by my birthday (March 8th).

Trying some new mapping software to use on the ride to track us and people we meet on the way!

Here is a sample-this is the route I ride between Vallejo and Berkeley:

I've started a new part time job in Vallejo at InterPlay Designs, a company that builds sculptural play structures. I jumped right in helping to build two 10 foot tall dragons that are going into a play area in a neighboring town. It's really a perfect part time job, he knows I'm leaving in April and I have a very flexible schedule.

Check out their work at:

InterPlay

We still have no bites on the house...some small turn outs for out open houses but our realtor Shawn will have another next week. We are starting to get a little nervous about the time frame for departure if we don't get someone interested soon. We'll see.

Well it's official, our house is on the market! Besides making the decision this is the first step of the journey. Our sweet little home has never looked better and we know it will make a good home for someone, if we can just find that right person. We have a really great realtor and he is working hard to have us seen, now all we can do is wait and see!


Here's a link to the our realtors site (it's best viewed with Explorer unfortunately so if you are using the much better firefox or safari- sorry). You can also do a search for 231 Cassady on the SF Craigslist.

Our Listing

And here is a shot of our place with the new paver driveway-

Once we sell we'll stay with Missy's sisters family and we're excited about that. We spent this last weekend with them and it was really great. I think our creative energies and interests should blend together well to make a nice place to act as a springboard for our trip- a supportive and excited atmosphere.

We're looking at April third as our official departure date. Stay tuned for more about that!

We got a house inspection today and it looks like I have a few projects to get the house in shape for another inspection later. Nothing major, just some minor repairs on the siding and windows that had a little rot and then one spot on the kitchen floor to repair. But besides that our pest report looks good. We talked to Sean, our relator about putting the house up at the end of January- so soon!

Still working on a gear list and thinking about trip logistics. I have a rough draft of the list that can be seen at:
Gear List in Progress

Will put it up here when I have it a bit more complete.

Here's a before and during shot of the driveway repair. Stay tuned for an After one!

I'm feeling better and was in Berkeley riding for PedEx again (I've become the popular emergency rider since I always seem to be available!) and lucked out to hit a day between the rains, it was actually pretty sunny.

I had a chance to catch up on some podcasts and after getting a link from my sister about a Slate article on cycling I subscribed to the Slate podcast to see how it was. I found a story and thought it was a nice perspective on cycling in LA from a non-cyclist so I'm including it below. Seems I've been seeing a bit more in the mainstream media about non-cyclists trying out commuting. Bicycling magazine, which can be a little flashy and race bike-centric had one of it's best editions last month with a whole "utility cycling" feel to it. And though the gas prices are down again and we are not near the 70's crisis that brought about a big cycling boom then, I can't help but have this feeling that something small is happening. Granted I've been in this arena for more than 10 years now and have been seeing (dreaming of?) that change coming. Granted much too slow. But coming.

So here's the 7 min clip from Slate (oh yeah, I cut out the horrible car ad in it and pasted an old timey radio one instead... hehe):



Link Description Slate Bike Piece Remixed

I've come down with a cold and have been fighting it by drinking tea, resting, and watching the rain come down outside. I think some of it is from the energy drain (and stress) of having a third job fall through.

Our sites are so set on April and the idea of traveling around the US that it's clouding my mind as well. But the search continues and I got a promising call from a restaurant in Berkeley. At this point it may be Jan. by the time anything pans out. We'll see. House work and PedEx on-call jobs keep me occupied until then.

We've sold some of our camping gear on craigslist and will wait until after the holidays (after our loot check and the sales come) to complete our inventory for the trip. One of the next entries will include the gear we are going to use for those interested in WHAT you would take on a year long tour of the US.


One thing I have accomplished in the last couple days is registering my first domain name (www.macdonaldrhodes.com) and figuring out how to use that with my .mac account. Turns out you can "Forward" and "Mask" a site to lead you to another. Fun to figure it all out. And that's how you are here.

The next couple weeks will find us celebrating with friends and family for the holidays and I'm REALLY looking forward to that!
Until next time- The Holidays are All Around US. Enjoy.

Shane (and Missy)

So Missy and I did our first "on the road" recording. Granted it wasn't during a ride but during a lunch in Napa (Alegria...very good!).




Click here to listen to our first audio recording- it's rough but workable
We may be getting close to dialing in photos, audio, and maybe even a podcast to keep things updated on our travels!