Dad My Ride

This video, Mom My Ride, has been circulated around a bit. While gross, it's true, as my friends who have forwarded to me have attested. I'm still holding out with the no eating/drinking in the minivan rule and so far have kept the van quite clean, thank you very much. Despite my best efforts, I'm still amazed at the footprints and little things left behind.

Anyway, I digress. On the eve of our big road trip to Utah, we're busy packing, organizing, tidying, Tom has also been busy in the minivan, tricking it up for our hopefully sweet 10.5 hour ride.

Daddy add on's:

- iPod adapter: Tom's crowning achievement, researching the right adapter, installing it last weekend, our iPod now works with the car stereo and steering wheel controls and plays through the minivan sound system. He's been busy ripping, downloading and syncing such classics from Green Eggs and Ham on audiobook to my Dvorak Romance for violin.
- GPS: Thanks, Enoch & Tania, for lending us your GPS. Tom has already programmed in our known destinations and we look forward to getting around without flubbing around pages of printed maps from Yahoo! Maps. And thanks to Khurram, we have our necessary AAA paper maps too. We're high-tech but not careless!
- DVD: Thanks, David & Krista, for lending us your DVD FOR EMERGENCIES ONLY. AND, it plays through the sound system because of some extra somethingerother that the iPod adapter has. Tom was quite stoked to hear "Where the Garbage Goes" started playing in stereo through the car speakers. We'll see how close we get to Barstow, our overnight stop, before we pop in "the pacifier". The key is that we haven't told Tobey about it. Whatever DVD's he might discover or see in our pile of stuff to bring is "for watching at the house in Utah" so *shhh*, don't tell him.
- Car emergency kit: I don't know what he put in it, but things ranging from jumper cables to flashlights to extra batteries, etc. We also got a simple first aid kit from Target. Let's just say that the James Kim incident scared the heck out of me, especially as we're driving a desert. At least we're taking the well-traveled route, but expanses of emptiness still freak me out.

Window washer fluid topped off (you would think Honda could have at least given us a full tank on that!), oil life checked and as soon as we hit the gas station to get rid of the low fuel light, we're good to go. The minivan as only a dad could set up.