Alone with Richard Byrd

In his autobiography, Alone, Admiral Richard Byrd summarizes his thought process to lead an expedition to Antarctica through the winter.

Early in the writing, Byrd says, "no man can hope to be completely free who lingers within the reach of familiar habits and urgencies." Clearly loading an entire family in an RV with minimal plans and few reservations would be outside the familiar habits of most. It definitely removes one from the urgencies of life that would otherwise captivate you and replaces them with new and unpredictable ones.

The new urgencies are unique from the ordinary ones because this exercise forces you to share your daily routine with those closest to you and allow them to watch you in action as life unfolds before you 24X7. Have you ever done that? What is the longest period of time you have spent with those closest to you? Could you handle a week and not commit any felonies?

How about 2, 3.....? Our RV is about 36' long and 10' wide. That is 360 square feet if my math is working reasonably well. Again, math cooperating properly, that is about 50 square feet per person. (We passed by Alcatraz on this experiment and discovered that the inmates had about 45 square feet per person. The uniqueness and safety of their situation was that each person had steel bars protecting them from the others.)

Keep in mind that much of the space mentioned above is filled with refrigerators, sofas, motors, chairs, toilets and such. Quite possibly, the inmates of this journey had much less space available to them. Thankfully, they had windows into the world. The adults' windows tended to be transparent and only communicated by the instantaneous impulse of the passing scenery. The adolescenses' windows were also clear, but were communicated by electronic impulses from a variety of sources. But daylight was present constantly to offer hope of freedom and the ability escape anytime the rig came to a stop.

Byrd's description of Antarctica was captivating to me. It was nearly enough to motivate me to follow his footsteps. But keep in mind, he came very close to death. His enemy was carbon monoxide poisoning.

But long before he got to this point in his adventure, Byrd had to consider the reality of confining people in small spaces. He was perplexed by the idea of determining how many men to subject to the winter station in Antarctica. He knew that two people was definitely the wrong number because they would exhaust their ability to endure one another in a short time and be at war with one another. By adding a third person to the equation there would always be a mediator to ideally bring peace back to the community. But he finally, concluded the correct number was one due to his desire to not risk three lives.

Commenting on his thoughts, he said, "under such conditions, it doesn't take two men long to find each other out. Not deliberately. Not maliciously. But the time comes when one has nothing more to reveal to the other. And this could happen to the best of friends. In a polar camp, little things like that have the power to drive even disciplined men to the edge of insanity." Did you get that? 75 years ago, Byrd figured it out. Tight space for an extended time can end with disastrous results. Could the insanity even lead to murder???

Well, I am proud to say that my family avoided insanity!! They danced around the gateway a few times, but proudly avoided the entrance and returned to the happy place of peace!!

7 people proved to be a good number. There were enough instigators and peace makers to keep the curiosity level high and yet the need implement the Geneva Convention was not necessary.

As for myself, the urgencies of my normal days were covered by others. They were replaced by the constant urgent request of "where are we going today?" Most often, my answer was "I don't know, do you have a suggestion?" Malibu was a suggestion I took hesitantly, realizing the trip was not "all about me". My suggestion of Glacier National Park met very little interest and was consequently tossed out for another trip and another crowd.

Another interesting quote from Byrd was, "half the confusion in the world comes from not knowing how little we need." Cheryl Landry, manager of Malibu RV Resort, pointed out this idea to us back in 2006 when we cruised through their place then. We were able to renew our friendship with her and her husband, Jeff. In 2006, Cheryl pointed out the reality that most people really only need what they can stuff in an RV. We only planned on three changes of clothes on this trip to simplify things. (The girls really loved this idea.) But besides clothes, food, soap and such, there was very little else we needed. Oh yeah, there was the detail of technology.

So Byrd made a name for himself exploring an otherwise new frontier. But I suggest to you that you can make a lasting name for yourself by exploring the frontier of your family. Confining yourselves to a small space is risky. It is satirized in Chevy Chase's "Vacation" and Robin Williams' "RV", but the reality is you can survive. You will know each other a little better. You will discover things together. You will learn principles you would not otherwise see. But I believe the two critical components of this adventure are time and space. Spend as much time together as possible and shrink the space as little as possible. You will discover new territories.

Back HOME again in INDIANA!

Maybe it sounds as hokey as Jim Nabors singing it, but we made it back home in pretty quick fashion. That is if you consider we had major activities along the way.

Saturday....Oregon/Washington (Columbia River Gourge)

Sunday....Idaho (LONG, LONG hard day on the road....)

Monday....South Dakota (Little Big Horn, Mt. Rushmore and Alpine slide)

Tuesday....Minnesota (Breakfast with John, Wall Drug, Badlands and the ever famous Corn Palace)

Wednesday....Wisconsin (Day at the Dells)

Thursday....Indiana (Day at the Dells)

I felt like a long haul trucker. The wind blew most of the way across I-90, the Obama cash was busy on I-90 with hundreds of miles of construction, and there were only a few accidents along the way. Mostly, I kept the rig between the lines. I think most of the states have "no texting" rules, but my major distraction was staring at the GPS to see there were really that many miles left in the day.

Since we were going by Alcatraz, I checked out the audio book, "Get Capone". It was a 14 CD book that worked as a repellent to keep the noise to the back of the RV, that is unless you asked the kids who would say the noise was in the driver's section. (Capone got, died at 47 of syphilis and didn't live happily ever after.)

Caleb kept me entertained most of the way home due to his curiosity about the things we saw and heard along the way.

The girls enthusiasm increased as the miles towards Indiana decreased.

I have to tell you, it was great to get home. The road was awesome, but it is only as good as the interest level of your passengers and they had clearly checked out and were ready for me to put the hammer down and get back to Indy.

The trip was incredible. It was a gift to our kids and no doubt absorbed a bit of our retirement reserves. But if you think about it, if retirement does become passive and you are unable to live as you would choose, wouldn't it be better to have some memories locked away to help pass the time away? We locked many memories and will cherish this time for the remainder of our days!

Kalahari

pictures to follow

Just some pictures....interesting....

Give Caitlin a spicy burger and she is good to go!

Badlands and Caleb are good friends.

We saw Jesus in Butte.....small white object on top of mountain....

Connie and Kacie near Mt Hood.

John Horton is worth meeting.

Corn Palace and a little place the Tyner kids played today!

Kacie and Caleb at Wall Drug.

Caleb cleaning the Minnesota freeloaders off the windshield!

Coeur d'Alene to Hardin....

The morning was beautiful and the surroundings were likewise in Coeur d'Alene. Steve Case, the owner of Wolf Lodge Campground, is a remarkable man. He told me about his evolution from shoveling coal to becoming a general manager of mines overseas.

He spend time in Indonesia, Zambia and a variety of other international locations, helping develop mines. He opted to spend a portion of his retirement time running a campground and bought his very own April 16th this year. It seems like he said by the 28th, the majority of the campground was flooded. It was interesting chatting with him and trust his business will flourish!

Once the crew arose from their beauty rest, we shoved off for parts unknown. Initially, it seemed like Billings would be a reasonable destination for the evening. (I digress, but those who sleep the mornings away, force me to drive in the dark.....)

Flooding was a major reality along I-90. Most of the water we passed was outside its banks or at least flowing rapidly.

Lunch was at a random Wendy's in west Montana, but dinner could not be more fast food. We found an Outback in Bozeman and had a healthier dinner.

I-90 was under construction in many places and proved to be an adventure throughout the day. For some reason, as we were dining in Bozeman, I felt possessed to travel east of Billings for the night and Hardin was our target. I was racing against the sunlight and got most of the way there before darkness ruled. At the darkest moment, just a few miles west of Hardin, some of the craziest construction of the day, east of Billings, nearly brought me to a standstill. It was difficult to determine exactly where the road was and where the construction was....but I kept plodding forward.

We landed in Hardin around 11.30pm local time.....needless to say....we were all ready to park the rig and get some sleep!

Greater Love has no man than to drive his with on Hwy 30

So my bride says, "I would really like to drive along the scenic Columbia River Gorge."

What would you do? Keep in mind we are cruising in a 36' land yacht. My first resource said, "we had to back the bus up 10 years ago along that route, but I am sure it is better today." Hmmm...

A call to the visitor center landed to the sweetest lady you could ever expect. "No, I don't think you would want to take an RV along the route. But here is a number of a guy at the water fall, he might have some more insight."

Well, the guy at the water fall said, "Tour buses and semis come through here all of the time. There are only a couple tight sections."

Yeh, yeh, I know, we have insurance and all. But I have to tell you, it can get a little crazy driving the big rig from time to time. But, this is my wife, this was her wish and a true man never lets them see him sweat.

I can't really describe the tightness of the road. The closest thing that comes to mind to compare this stretch of road to would be me trying to squeeze into my high school letter sweater. I am sure it would work out fine, but there would definitely be some rough edges.

The beginning of the road was narrow. Then about 2 miles into it and friendly sign warned that the "road narrows ahead." Hmmm...

Not only did it narrow ahead, but it got more and more curvy as well. There was an incredible view point about 10 miles into this episode, but there were only 2 bus parking places and they were already taken, so all I had to do was wind all the way around the view point. I am pretty sure we did a tight 360 degree turn if not a 720!

Surely this was the final of the "couple tight" spots. Oh nooooo. Multnomah Falls is such a beautiful sight, it attracted hundreds of people at the exact same time we arrived. But, if you approach the falls from the west on the Historic Route 30, there is a narrow section of a pass about 200 feet long that would fit a car each way. Once the lane emptied, I made a run for it. But the cars on the other end, assumed there was room for a car and an RV.

Many body parts tensed up at this moment. I am pretty sure Connie could touch the cliff wall to our right. I was as close to it as I could get without rubbing the mirror on it. I kept inching forward hoping other cars would assume they could wait until I left the space. But, several rocket scientists thought the 20 second delay of me passing them was too much time to waste.

Once we cleared the 4th car in this section, I proceeded to the bus parking and RV restroom for a quick change of my shorts.

The water fall was incredible and the return to I-84 was a welcome moment in the trip. Oh, by the way, if you would ever like to see this incredible fall, you can actually park at the viewpoint on the interstate and walk to it without taking the scenic route.....but what kind of man are you anyway?

Mt. Ranier or is it Rainier?

We left Port Townsend in the cloud of rain and sorted our way through the Puget Sound. The drive was scenic and reasonably peaceful. An observation of Washington and Oregon is the tendency to cut the number of bathrooms in half. Most places we stopped simply had one restroom. It is probably no big deal to most, but if you are traveling with 5 women, then, go figure.

The kids were generally unimpressed by 99% of the scenery along the way. The phones, iPad, iPods and computers were the only beauty they seemed to notice along the way. It mattered not, my guess is one day they will find themselves driving the windy roads of the northwest and wondering why their children seemed to care less.

However, Caleb did have an interest in Mt. Ranier. He was convinced it was out the driver's side of the car and I told him otherwise. Don't tell him, but he was right.

We had a viewpoint for Mt. Ranier that most of us got out to take a peak. It turned out, that the small opening in the cloud at that moment was the only siting we would have that day. The amazing paradox for us was just a couple days earlier we were many miles away sailing in the Puget Sound and had a perfect view of the mountain, but with just a few miles away, all we saw was fog.

But Kelly, Caleb and I seized the moment and hike a few yards into the 20+ foot deep snow at Paradise. Who couldn't resist the opportunity to pelt their defenseless wife with a snowball?

The drive from Mt. Ranier to Mt. St. Helens was a rainy one. There was so much rain, that I asked my new friend, Angus, whether we should make the journey to the volcano or not. He said we would be limited to how close we could get approaching it from the west, plus the rain would make it highly unlikely we would see anything.

So we loaded up the family and headed to Salem. Caleb was so thankful to be out of the minivan he danced around the Kinghorn's front yard!