The Trip Book

"What is this Trip Book you speak of," you ask?

Oh, you mean this?

This monster?

Well, it all started out innocently enough. We took off from my parents' driveway on 01/11/01 (hey, wait a second....), for an adventure in our 1987 VW Westfalia -- Westy, to those in the know -- and we brought a big spiral notebook to record important dates and moments and milestones.

And it took on a life of its own.

It's full of amazing tidbits, like this piece of original artwork, the morning after our very first night on the road:

Mirror -- NOT for looking back!!

Oh, it's full of lots of original artwork:

She's 20 now.

And she's 22.

And he's 16.

And so is she.
(Portrait of me, by the way.)

And this little guy is now 11.

The Trip Book contains a few self-portraits:

Doc*, drawn in the Outer Banks of North Carolina . . . 

*Doc told us he went to High School with Bill Gates, who told him to buy a certain stock way back when. Doc took us out to a fancy dinner that night . . . .

And The Trip Book boasts loads and loads of state-line arrivals, which are always exciting and fun and festive, and quite labor-intensive if you're the passenger in the Westy . . .

. . . especially if you're me.

Mistah could fancify it up, too, though: just look at those circles that dot the "i"s.

 Sometimes we shared a page . . .

I loved when it was my job to note of the new state, though . . .

. . . I mean, what's more fun than drawing in the Trip Book?

Nothing, that's what.

The Trip Book is full of lots of great photos, too:

The Pay-atch.

Oh, what a great time in Key West that was.

Phelps. Corey Reunion 2004. Oh, yes. 

And every Christmas card and every school picture from those years went straight into the trip book, where they remain.

There's a reason I can instantly put my hands on my sisters' Christmas card photos . . . 

The most awesome nieces and nephews in the land?

Why, yes. Yes, we do.

And lookie here. A Flash Back Interlude.

Now that was a Flash Back Interlude worth living, wasn't it?

But mostly, the Trip Book is filled with Weird and Wonderful Wackiness . . .

Newspaper clippings and notes . . . 

A quick stop in New Haven to drop off a kidney . . . 

"A Serious Business for a Humorous Drunkard"

Mistah and I still say to eachother (incorrectly, apparently),
"we get right down and start on projects."

A Pads game and "Really Good Fresh Jerky"

Oh, Colleenie. Oh, that day.

New York . . . 

San Diego . . . 

Oregon . . . we camped with these guys, the now-split-up band 
The New Frontiers. And boiled water for their coffee in the Westy the next morning. 

Chicago, IL and Waterloo, Iowa: Hecky's "It's the sauce" and the Wonder Bread Factory and the Sullivan Brothers . . . now that is one self-respecting Trip Book page.

"Boy, I could really use a tight belt."

Rum, naturally.

"Sorry, dude. You're too shallow for the deep end."

The Trip Book started out as a record for great quotes . . .

"You can't have a good campsite without a little Tito Puente, 
so I'd better change the batteries...."

"We're celebrating that we're alive and we understand reality."

. . . but then that took on a life of its own, so we created a Quote Book too.

Of course we did.

The Trip Book showcases a photo of our magical, unique, months-long campsite in the Florida Keys . . .

. . . and our friend Kirk thought we should sell the whole campsite structure, with all its accoutrement, all in one piece, on ebay. It doesn't get more perfect than that, he figured.

I think he was right.