The day is finally here! Early this evening we’ll be heading off on our great Southwest road trip. Before we go, I’ll take a moment to introduce our co-pilots, husband ad wife duo, Emily and Jake, who arrived in Chicago from Iowa last night. Emily and I go all they way back to 7th grade, when we had adjacent lockers in junior high school. We stayed  close over the years and since then, we traveled to Spain in 2004 and Italy in 2007. When an enthusiastic Italian tour guide yelled “Continue traveling to-ge-ther!” from a departing van, we had no option but to follow her advice. A friend you can travel with is the best kind of friend. Last summer, three months into marriage, Emily and Jake were our first friends to share a road trip. We had such an amazing time going from San Francisco to Seattle that all it took to convince then to join us in the Southwest was an email that said “Buy a plane ticket to L.A. for March 30 through April 8. Details to come.”

Hard to believe in 24 hours we’ll be in Joshua Tree National Park!

Emily, Jake, Nick and Neil high on Mt. Lassen. July 2011.