August Recap

Wow, I'm actually writing this BEFORE the end of August...something must be amiss!

We've successfully moved Robyn to L.A., with a little help from her friends. As the trip approached, some of those who had planned to go along backed out for various reasons (mostly money), so we ended up with three cars and six people. Ben and I led the way in my car, Robyn's friend Kristin rode with her the whole trip, and Keith and Benjy were in the third car. We took three days to drive out there, arriving in the afternoon of the third day early enough to empty out the cars at Robyn's new house. The next day, the four kids got up early and went to the studio where "The Price is Right" is produced to get their place in line for the day's show. They all had made matching t-shirts for the occasion, each with a giant bassoon reed drawn on the front. None of them was chosen to be a contestant, but they were seated right behind contestant row, so they got lots of camera time. You'll have to watch the show on November 13 and see if you can spot them! While they were at the show, Ben and I were at Robyn's house unpacking and organizing all her stuff.

Here's the crew at the first rest stop in Arizona (they didn't have an official state welcome center with a neat sign or anything).




The next day, Ben, Robyn, Kristin, and I went to a taping of "Til Death," a sitcom starring Brad Garrett and Joely Fisher. It was a lot of fun seeing how they did things and enjoying the comedian who entertained us between scenes.

Then it was time for us to leave sunny California (did I mention how spectacular the weather is in L.A.?) and drive back home, which we accomplished in two very long days. We did see some pretty interesting scenery along the way, including quite a few windmill farms.



At first we thought this was a rainstorm, but as we got closer we became convinced that it was just dust.




This was taken as we drove through the Texas Canyon.



Ben ended up doing ALL of the driving---3300 miles total over seven days. We had some books on CD to listen to and lots of junk food to snack on. The little Matrix turned out to be a trusty traveling car. But, all things considered, we're hoping that whenever Robyn moves from L.A. to her next station, we will not have to drive out there to help her again!