Intro

The intrepid roadtrippers
(L / R - Harley, Gary, Cody, Elizabeth & Brandon)


The Chevy Tahoe from a well known car rental company

Beach at Santa Barbara

So I should make this clear from the start – I’m really not the blogging type....under normal circumstances I can’t believe that anyone would want to read what I do with my day (and if they did I would be extremely concerned for their sanity), but once Elizabeth and I had planned this cross country road trip, it did occur to us that, actually this could be pretty cool !!

A bit of background – in case you didn’t know, we are from London – we moved to California in 2006 with our three boys – Harley (17) who is looking to go to a US college next year; Cody (13) who can’t wait for Harley to go to a US college next year; and Brandon (11) who is expecting this trip to be about as much fun as a dose of swine flu. Admittedly, most people do the college campus visiting thing by flying around the country, renting cars and driving a hundred miles or so. But, there’s the problem. I’ve always had this dream of hitting the open roads (preferably on a motorcycle) and exploring all that this incredible country has to offer – Highway 1, Route 66 – you get the picture....I didn’t get to do this before I did the “kids” thing, so really it’s their fault and now they’re gonna pay !!!! (just kidding...)

It was actually my brother-in-law, Pete, who suggested that we did something called “Twitter” (or “Titter” as my mum calls it) which apparently involves posting a short message every time you blow your nose - I drew the line at that – but we did think that there might be someone out there who would be interested in hearing what Stanford University campus is like (we’re going there tomorrow); or in seeing a picture of the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio (that one could be a bit niche...); or in watching a video from Yellowstone Park of Old Faithful erupting (although that’s one that Elizabeth sees on a regular basis)....and maybe we could raise some money for charity at the same time !

So here’s the deal....we’re going to post stuff on a regular basis – almost every night in fact – and you can read it and hopefully find some of it interesting (you never know ?!!)....and we can both raise money for a really good cause. RAYS OF SUNSHINE is a UK charity which grants wishes to seriously or terminally ill children. It is very well run and I know that virtually every penny raised is used as it should be – you can donate by clicking on this link - http://www.justgiving.com/sugarmanroadtrip or the widget elsewhere on this page. Oh, and don’t forget to send a link to this blog to anyone else who may be interested.