The Starting Line...and an Appeal from Adventurer Laura M.

We're in the starting gate, hoofing the dirt. Sort of. We're missing two crucial elements: a packed car and CDs.

The packed car, well, we can take care of that ourselves. It's just a matter of transforming a messy explosion of my possessions (see challenge, below) into some sort of organized representation of a legitimate life, stuffed into a packable vessel (or vessels).

        

My Life as a Packing Challenge: View #1

My Life as a Packing Challenge: View #2

The music, however, is where you all come in. 12,000 miles on the road and the Honda's radio scan button just isn't going to cut it. In an appeal for our sanities, we're asking every family member, friend, and exciting roadside stranger we see, meet, or befriend from now until Saint Patrick's Day to make us a mix CD. That's right. A 2001-style compact disc, because as far as I can tell, my car doesn't have an auxiliary jack and my iPod won't hold that many playlists anyway.

So please - if you can spare ten minutes (we'll provide the blank CD), put together a playlist of 15 of your favorite songs and burn it for us. We want to take a little bit of you with us in the car.

We've already discovered - thanks to our drive from DC to Randolph - the euphoria of having an assortment of CDs from a bunch of creative and truly unique people. It's fun to realize how people's personalities present themselves in their musical tastes. (For my DC friends: According to their respective CDs, Billy Fett is a rock star, Miranda is a uniquely perceptive musical savant, and Jon S. is a supremely mellow soul. I'll get back to you on Katie and Hilary.)

This is my last pre-departure post. That means the next one will be much more intense and adventureful. Brace yourself.