Launch Date

Will and I depart June 8, 2009, leaving Wichita, Kansas for Paris, France. Our trip will last until the end of July.

Getting ready for the trip is a never ending process of planning and revising routes, and packing and repacking what is necessary for a six week trip. The itinerary as of now puts us in Paris on the 9th. We stay in the Left Bank for three days and depart by car on the 12th for Bordeaux. The next day we cross in to Spain and make our way across the Catabrian Coast to Santabar.

At this point we decide whether to continue west to Santiago de Compostelo and then Protugal, or we travel south from Santabar to Madrid. The decision depends on time. Either way, we make for Madrid, Toledo, Cordoba, and finally, Barcelona.

After Barcelona, we make a mad dash across southern France through Arles and into Italy along the northern coast and possibly into Genoa. The critical date is that on the 21st we will be outside Firenze at Villa Poggiolle. Here Will and I meet up with Robin, my wife, and Hannah, my daughter.

Coincidentally, Deana and Craig Robinson are travelling with a Kansas State tour group to Cortona, nearby. Carol And Chris Walker will also be in the area. Nick and Tara, newlyweds, will be in Firenze. What are the odds of this happening?

July the Fourth, Will and I head back through France to drop the car off on the coast. On the way, I hope to stop in Graffigny-Chemin, in Lorraine (Haut-Marne) to see the house my grandmother was born in. I have until the 12th to get Will to a soccer camp in Manchester. And, finally, I am on my own for a week.