After all the drama that unfolded as Chris and I finally made it home for Christmas, it seemed a little odd that this was the least dramatic Christmas we'd had in a long time. Maybe I was a little pre-occupied with the adventure that was about to unfold, but I think that this was the first “grown up” Christmas we spent as a family and it caught us just a bit off guard. The glory days of tearing through dozens of boxes of matchbox race tracks and Lego's are well behind us, but the subdued nature of our family gathering this year was the most poignant example of how important it is to each of us to get together from time to time. I said and heard this so many times that I felt like we were in some made for TV version of Home Alone 4. As an added bonus, our youngest brother Tim flew in from Colorado on the 27^th to spend a little time with his mother in Charleston, and a couple of days with us in Bluffton. True to form, I put him to work immediately as I started rolling through the pre-departure list that was supposed to be history well before I crossed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel.

Originally I had this whole elaborate plan drawn up of how I was going to get Barron Downing to weld together a trunk space for the Jeep that would have a flip out table on top and a spot to clamp on one of those cool little Weber grills you see on the aft rail of sailboats in the Keys. Dan Dabinet was going to wire up a fancy electrical system so that we could plug in CD players, stereos, cell phones, and of course a blender any time the inspiration hit. In reality I just threw everything I could strap together into the back of the Jeep and headed South. Now that I was within 24 hours of leaving my last real home base for the next 2 months, I figured it was time to get my act together a bit and deck out the Jeep. Literally. Tim and I dug through a couple of construction dumpsters and found enough scrap wood to build a deck across the back of the Jeep complete with guide rails to keep the cooler and other crap from careening off onto the road at every corner. With all 3 Burden boys hard at work it was like a scene out of the John Cussak movie that should have come completed the Better Off Dead / One Crazy Summer trilogy. All we needed were some cheerleaders in leg warmers helping out, and some “cool guys” watching uncomfortably from the bed of their bad ass pickup truck. And Bugger. We should have had Bugger trying to snort clutch fluid off the driveway.

My buddy Jason (more on him later I assure you) was in town from Atlanta to see his Dad, and came by to check on the progress I was making on this little construction project. Jason is going to be my co-pilot for the Western half of the trip across the country, and has spent countless hours on the phone listening to the veritable encyclopedia of incredible ideas I seem to have for this trip. He has faith in none of them of course, and really just wants to be sure that he doesn't spend 2 weeks trying to figure out the bus schedule to get from Houston to San Diego. In spite of the fact that I called him from the road 2 days earlier, he seems genuinely shocked at the fact that the Jeep even starts. The fact that his entire family drove half an hour out to Mom's house in order to watch this miraculous combustion occur really drove that one home. With his family adequately impressed / reassured / amused Jason was free to pitch in for a while, so we did what came naturally. We went to Wal-Mart. We loaded up on big ass Tupperwear containers for our gear, oil & clutch fluid for the Jeep, and 2 pounds of Twizzlers for the drive back to Mom's.

The list is getting shorter. The cast is dwindling. The Jeep is loaded. It's time to leave. All I'm waiting for is one quick phone call from the fine folks at Sea Kayak Georgia down in Tybee Island. I need to see them to pick up the 2^nd kayak that I'll be crossing the country with. They've had a pretty yellow fiberglass X-Ray on loan from Point 65 for a few months, and it's time to go get it. If they would just call me back.