The Adventures of Melvin

Well... where do we start? First off, many apologies for not regaling you with our many adventures with greater urgency. We've been some combination of so-busy and so-tired every day that we haven't had the energy to do much of anything aside from weeding through our boxes of essentials. Speaking of weeding, the "Mel" half has been working tirelessly at the Red Wagon Organic Farm, just East of Boulder. Meanwhile, "vin" has been working hard at ruining his eyesight by putting in loooong hours on the computer reporting the news from the Tour de France... from his exotic desk in Boulder.

After a frenzied weekend of packing that wouldn't have happened without the help of Dave, Peg, Matt and Monica, we said tearful goodbyes to the family and set off on our way at 5:08 a.m. to a glorious sunrise.

After 37 hours of driving, four gallons of hot coffee and one root canal, we arrived in Boulder, Colorado with the same number of passengers that we left with. Miraculously, the cats settled in and "enjoyed" the ride (READ: they didn't pee all over and yowl the whole trip). We did successfully smuggle them into the Super 8 motel in Howe, Indiana, which was oddly exhilarating after 15 hours of driving.


After two days of driving, we desperately needed R&R. We stopped in the corn-laden lands of Cherokee, Iowa and were greeted with the customary Hankens 21 bottle rocket salute... we were forced to stay in the car because, as is customary, the bottle rockets were pointed directly at us. The parents Hankens offered us a comfortable place for our bums to return to their normal shapes after 25 hours of being squished into car seats.


Cherokee was a fun place to enjoy cookouts, be lazy and entertain ourselves by watching the felling of trees which were tied to a rope and attached to a car... nobody was injured... at least not injured seriously. We were also treated to Deb's cheddar cheese soup with hard-boiled eggs on toast, monster cookies and glorified rice.

After four days in Iowa, we were ready to hit the road for the final leg of our journey. We were delayed slightly as Kevin decided at the last minute to have an emergency root canal on Sunday morning. Not to be deterred, we were on the road by noon, pointed West. Ten hours later as we crossed the border into Colorado, we found ourselves in an extraordinary electrical storm complete with driving rain. Slightly delirious, we almost drove off the road trying to take photos of the lightning bolts.

As luck would have it, our landlord was telling the truth about our sight-unseen apartment. We wearily climbed the stairs toting tired kitties and quickly fell asleep on our makeshift moving pad bed, safe and sound, ready to begin our next adventure.