Laguna Beach

It turns out the car repair is fairly minor. Erik, Vigo, and Sam are spending the day at Laguna Beach. The garage had a shuttle service for them! It looks like they'll camp there overnight and then be able to take off in the morning toward San Francisco. It'll be quite a long day of driving for them and for me, but I can't wait to see them tomorrow night!

Car Trouble

If you've been reading the travel log, you know that Erik and Vigo are having an amazing trip. Vigo is proud to be a junior ranger. Yesterday they were at Legoland in Carlsbad, CA. Vigo told me that he spent a lot of time in Miniland, which is a Lego replica of the United States. He found it disappointing, though, that Miniland did not include a mini Legoland, which would include a mini Miniland (and so on).

Unfortunately, after Legoland, they started to have some car trouble. I don't know any details, but Vigo informed me this morning that the check engine light is now flashing. Right now they are waiting for the Mazda dealership to open in San Juan Capistrano.

I have a ride to San Francisco early tomorrow morning. I'm sharing a car down with three other people and splitting gas and driving. Hopefully, Erik and Vigo and Sam will be able to make it to San Francisco aroudn the same time as I do. We're going to be hanging out with Erik's sister Birgit and her boyfriend Sam, who live there. Then we'll all drive back up to Portland together.

Missing

Vigo and Erik are still having a great time. Be sure to click on their travel log link and follow them there. Vigo calls at least once a day to talk to me. I think it makes him feel like I'm sort of there in the car with them for a few minutes. Vigo says that he misses all of his friends a lot. I think that he is missing time with other kids and that Erik is missing time with other grown-ups, but they're also both having a wonderful time.

Stock Car Racing in Arkansas

Vigo and Erik woke me up early this morning with a call from the road. They haven't had any internet access for a while, but maybe tonight they'll update their trip log.

The big news was their evening at the North Central Arkansas Speedway, which Erik had already mentioned in the comments here. They accidentally went to the wrong booth and got pit passes, so they really got the full stock-car tour. Vigo was excitedly reporting lightening-like sparks coming from some of the cars. He was loudly demonstrating the different explosion and revving sounds they heard at the track.

The other big news of the call was that Erik forgot his shoes at the camp site, so he's in dollar-store flip-flops now for the rest of the trip. His shoes were pretty old and ratty, so it's no big loss.

Erik's Trip Log + News from the Road

Erik is keeping a Travel Log for friends of his who are really interested in the road trip, but who don't necessarily need to be following the life of Vigo after this trip. I've put a link to the blog at the top of the side bar here, on the right.

I spoke to Vigo and Erik a couple times yesterday. Vigo told me they had spent a day in Music City, which is another name for Nashville. They have been staying in Sleep Inn Motels the past couple nights because of thunderstorms. They only found one restaurant in Nashville that allowed people under the age of 21, on the strip where they were. Vigo told me he played a video game there.

Before they left Boston, I bought them this transformer you can plug into your lighter and then plug your laptop or phone or whatever into for charging. It has a regular plug on it and also an extra cigarette lighter plug. Experimental Erik wondered what would happen if he plugged the car's cigarette lighter into this thing, and discovered that it will blow a fuse. I think they got the fuse replaced already.

From Asheville to Nashville

Erik and Vigo plan to be in Nashville tomorrow. They stayed last night with Judy & Dave's friends in Ashville, NC. Vigo says the friends were really fun, and told me they had kids and Knex.

An Extra Night in DC

Vigo and Erik decided to spend an extra night in Arlington with Elly and Helmut. It sounded like they were having a pretty fun party last night when they called. I was on speaker phone and there was a lot of laughing and happy-sounding voices.

They're planning to get to Ashville today and stay one night with friends of our friends Judy and Dave. If you have friends along the way you think Erik and Vigo should visit, be sure to call Erik and let him know about it.

Vigo, Erik, and Sam are on the Road

After a couple nights camping out, Erik, Vigo, and Sam have arrived in Washington, DC. They've met up with Elly and Helmut and are getting ready to spend a great 4th of July weekend there. I spoke with Vigo on the phone yesterday and he told me, "We're going to see the fireworks in Washington DC. I think they're really big or something."

Vigo also told me that they saw a real live deer standing by the side of the road waiting to get across, "like a good deer." Not just charging in without looking like a danger deer. He said they did not see any bears while camping but they did get to roast marshmallows last night.

Erik had hoped to be able to disable the front air bag so that Vigo could sit up front with him on this trip, but it turned out we would have had to have the airbag removed at the dealership, which would have cost around $200. Yikes. Erik says Vigo is pretty content back in the back seat with Sam, anyhow.