Thomas departs on his epic journey

Thomas has been talking about taking a road trip since he was about 15, more than a year before he got his temporary driver's license. Finally, now that he is 18 and has proven himself capable of doing very well at university, we agreed to let him go, so long as he met certain conditions. First, he has to use my car (which is in perfect health--Thomas wanted to get a rusty old van from an auto wreckage yard). And second, he has to have certain fixed points on his agenda so that we knew how he is progressin. His first is Boulder, CO. On Saturday he must drop off off one of our undergraduate students who will be attending a 3 week philosophy seminar at the university there. Thomas then has to head on to Portland Oregon where he can check in with a family friend (a former student, now lawyer) and use that as a base for a few weeks while he sees the sights of the west coast. He then has to head back to Boulder Colorad and pick up our student on June 30th. Then the two can head home to Flint. He'll be gone about a month, which seems terrifying to me. But also exciting. Here is the car with Thomas's stuff.

He insists he will be camping the whole time (when he isn't at Debra's house in Portland recuperating from the first half of the trip). He hasn't been camping since he was 11 or so, when we all did our big trip circling Lake Superior. I think Thomas doesn't realize how much work we the parents did while he larked about. Of course, he won't have kids to feed and entertain and that certainly would make camping a lot more pleasant.

Last night he announced he was going to get up at 7 and be out the door before 8. I was skeptical, and fully expected he would snore on until 2 or 3 in the afternoon. But, true to his word he leapt out of bed at 7 on the dot, ate, packed his bags, packed up the car, and packed some more.  He took more cds to listen to than clothing.

Putting all the stuff in required many trips back and forth from the car to his room.

And here he goes, with a full tank of gas, a box of food, a cooler full of yogurts and little cheeses, and a lot of cds.

Now I have to learn to live without a car for a month. That's not going to be fun at all.