As we gathered our stuff and prepared to leave Malibu, Tiffany noticed a man walking by her wearing a wild pair of jeans, covered in tapestry patches, and commented, “Nice pants,” as he walked by. He stopped, saying, “Thanks,” as his girlfriend stepped out of her RV, parked right next to ours. Tiff had noticed this woman the last few days, dressed in an eclectic mix of clothes in a wide variety of colors and materials, liking her style. The woman looked at Tiff and commented, “I like your pants,” to her and turned to her boyfriend, saying, “Did I make those?” As it turns out, she did indeed make the pants. She is a designer, both clothes and furniture, from a small town near Austin, Texas.

She asked Tiff where we were from and was surprised when she was told Santa Cruz. “So where did you get the pants?” she said. Tiff told her about finding them in Santa Fe and the two of them started talking clothes. Apparently, her clothes are sold pretty much only in Texas and New Mexico, so it was really odd for her to see them out in the world elsewhere. The pants are very bloomer-like, a style Tiff wears quite often, and she told the woman, Robin, about some others our friend Amber made her. Well, off to our RV they went to look at Tiff’s other pants. By the time they came out, Robin was exclaiming how much she liked our RV and that her boyfriend John had to take a look. As it turns out, they had just bought the Airstream trailer they were in (the big silver bullet kind) to completely redo for an article in Country Living magazine. She took Tiff over to her trailer and proceeded to give her another pair of bloomers and a skirt to go with it. Robin and John are on their way to Alameda for a big antique show, so we told them that we would love to have them stop by and hang out if they come to Santa Cruz. What a great, impromptu meeting! It is amazing how many wonderful people we’ve met on the trip and even more awe inspiring to look at some of the chance encounters we’ve had, seeing our friend Liz in Boulder and running into my student in Austin. It is a small, small world, even though it seems rather large.

After saying our goodbyes, we loaded up and got on the road, the last leg of our journey. We drove up the Pacific Coast Highway, enjoying the spectacular views of the Pacific along this mostly deserted stretch of highway, until we got to Oxnard. We stopped for gas, then headed for Highway 101, which had was detoured, so we drove through town, following the signs, until we came to a dead end (nice to have a detour that leads to a dead end!) Looking for an escape that didn’t include unhooking the car and backing up, Tiff navigated me through a parking lot to another street. We then found more detour signs and followed them to the freeway, where we found the entrance closed and another set of signs leading us on. We continued, looking for more directions, and wound our way in a giant circle, back to the road we had originally been on, getting on the freeway there, never needing to do the detour in the first place. Well, at least we got a tour of Oxnard.

We powered up the 101, stopping only one more time for gas (having used so much touring Oxnard) and pushed on through Salinas, into Santa Cruz County. As we started passing familiar sights, we all started getting a bit excited and nervous. Olivia began to chatter incessantly, her nervousness coming out through speech. When we turned up White Road, we all got quiet. Meandering up the winding, narrow road, we didn’t encounter another car, which was a blessing, given the size of the RV. We turned onto Calabasas and spied our driveway. Slowly turning up (remembering to hug the side to accommodate the RV) we all smiled as we saw the house! We were home! Stopping the RV in the driveway, we walked hand in hand up to the front of the house to experience returning as a one. We were home! As we walked in the door, it was both familiar and strange at the same time. We were home! The kids went to their rooms, looking for their toys and lives left behind. Tiffany and I walked around the house, lost in its size, then went upstairs and flopped on the bed. We were home!

After unhooking the car from the RV, we called into town to order some Thai food (since both the house and RV refrigerators were empty (we’d been eating at grandma’s, not in the RV for days)) and off I went to pick it up. It was really strange to be driving around town, feeling both like I’d never left and hadn’t been here in forever.

We’ve come full circle finally. Back to the beginning. But in returning, we are not the people who left here so many months ago. Our lives have changed.

Most people would think we would be glad to get home (we are) and get out of the RV, but to tell you the truth, we loved living in the RV. Yes, it was small and finding privacy could be hard, but we got really close (literally and figuratively) in that diminished space. For over seven months, our lives have been truly centered around each other. While we have seen friends and family along the way, it’s been mostly just the four of us, working out how to be a family, loving and supporting each other, getting to know each other in ways that would never be possible at home. We are closer now than we have ever been. That’s not to say that we didn’t have fights or difficulties, we had plenty. But in our small home on wheels, when issues came up, there was no pushing them under the rug or ignoring them, and anything that did come up had to be discussed and resolved right away. We were to close to each other, literally, to be able to afford to hold any anger or resentment for any length of time. Our ability to resolve issues became much better and stronger as the trip progressed. We are a much tighter family returning home than when we left.

Our trip across the country opened our eyes to the world we live in, seeing sights that range from the craziness and spectacles of places like Las Vegas, Key West, and New Orleans, to the amazing splendor of Bryce Canyon, Puerto Rico, and Carlsbad Caverns. Eli and Olivia (actually all of us) have had a learning experience that cannot be duplicated in any school or classroom. They’ve touched the world in a different way and drank in all it had to offer.

On some level, stepping away from our lives for so long was a crazy departure from normallacy, we had rethink the way we interacted with our world. Sometimes the littlest things were the most challenging. Just finding a grocery store (more often than not, a health food store) or figuring out how to fill prescriptions (Walgreens can access prescriptions across the country, Target needs to transfer them between locations) could be quite a task. We had to grow accustomed to constantly transitioning from one location to another, finding out what each town had to offer once we arrived. One learning experience for all of us was to get good at meeting people quickly. Sometimes we only had a day, or even a few hours, with a new friend or acquaintance, so we had to make the most of it. We also became pretty skilled at pulling information from locals on the best places to visit, whether it was sights to see or places to eat, we could quickly discern whether they were recommending someplace that made sense for our family.

Technologically, the Internet and our GPS were two invaluable tools during our entire adventure. Being able to get online and research which RV park we should stay at (rvparkreviews.com) or looking up times for shows or museums made things really easy when we were rolling into a new town. Once we got there, we never needed to buy a local map, since the GPS could lead us almost anywhere (most of the places where it didn’t work well were too small to need a map or major directions).

With all of the issues we had mechanically along the way, I have to say that the RV and the Subaru both performed astoundingly well. As the salesman told me when we bought the RV, “Remember, you are taking your house through a 6.5 earthquake every time you move the RV.” We did have our fair share of crazy and annoying broken items (the drawer that kept coming out when we made a sharp turn annoyed us to the end, rebuilding the night shade in the living room was a major pain in the butt and the broken refrigerator door while at Disney World proved to be quite a challenge to get fixed), but all in all, the RV was awesome and the Subaru was the perfect car to have along for our journey.

In retrospect, I probably would have picked an RV with more permanent sleeping quarters for the kids (either bunk beds or a cab over queen) and would definitely choose diesel next time (going over the Rockies at 15 mph was a bit slow), but as they say, hindsight is 20/20 (who are they and why do they keep saying that?).

It was amazing how many people we met who were so supportive of the adventure we had chosen for our family. Over and over again we heard, “God, I wish I could do that!” or “Take me with you.” Having met quite a few families, both on the road and online, doing the same thing we did, we know that anyone who really wants to can make the same dream come true. It just depends on what you are willing to or need to sacrifice to make it happen. The most basic thing we had to let go of was our friends and family, which was a huge challenge in the beginning, then lessoned for a little while, but came back like gangbusters near the end of the trip. Today, we took Olivia to Orchard School to spend the day, and while it was weird being back, it was so wonderful to be embraced by all of the people we love in Santa Cruz. We were home!

I think one of the most important things I need to say while beginning to wrap up our trip (it will take quite a while to really feel complete) is Thank You to everyone who loved and supported us through our epic journey. Having people tell us how much they loved and missed us and cherished our journey and appreciated being able to follow our lives through the blog, helped keep our spirits high and our focus strong. We knew we had a wonderful home to return to and special people who cared about what we were doing.

This has been the experience of a lifetime! I asked Tiffany the other day if the trip met her expectations and she said, “It far exceeded them in every way!” Mission accomplished!

We’ve made it across and back again, and though we didn’t see quite a bit of the country (we’ll have to get back out there sometime in the future, at least to fill up the map), the parts we did see were awesome! One of the most interesting things we discovered is that most times when someone said, “Oh, you won’t like it there at all,” we had a great time, wherever that was. I think it’s because we didn’t have an agenda or a limited time to explore, so even the funky places were pretty cool.

As the trip comes to an end (it will be a while unpacking all the boxes we sent home, so it won’t really end for a while), we hope you enjoyed following along as we toured and adventured our way across this beautiful country. Thank you all so much for your support, well wishes and concern!

Through all of this, our lives have been enriched, our eyes have been opened, and our hearts have been enlarged. We return home, blessed by the fabulous adventure that we undertook. What a great thing to have taken on! I’m glad Tiffany had such a great dream and we decided to go along with her for the journey!

“Life, to be alive, is a blessing!”
- Ronald Trustman

Peace,

David

After waking everyone rather early yesterday, we drove from Malibu to Burbank, expecting LA’s dreaded traffic to swallow us up whole. We were pleasantly surprised to find the freeway fairly empty and drove the entire 35 miles without delay. We arrived at Cartoon Network with time to spare.

After being buzzed in the front door, we found ourselves in a waiting room with cartoon character statues of Billy and Mandy standing guard at the entrance. After a short wait, my friend April walked in the door, flanked by her boyfriend Artt and her ex-husband James (who works at Cartoon Network and was scheduled to give us a tour). I’ve known April since high school, working on the school show together, and we’ve been friends ever since. She currently works doing voices for two hit cartoons, South Park and El Tigre, as well as a slew of video games and ads.

After retrieving his morning coffee, James led us through the ground floor, showing us a few of the sights, drawings of various characters and a classic cartoon storyboard. He led us to one of the recording studios, where voice actors were in session, and took us inside to watch the actors at work. We got to meet and listen to Tara Strong working on a new cartoon, due out in November, called Chowder. Tara amazed the kids with her wild voices and further blew their minds when she started listing the characters she currently voices, which include, Timmy on Fairly Odd Parents, Dil Pickles on Rugrats, Ben 10 on Ben 10, and Bubbles on Powerpuff Girls.

From the recording studio, we headed upstairs to go through all the steps in the animation process. We met one of the directors, who showed us how he creates direction on the story boards, to let the animators and voice actors know exactly what he wants them to do and when, down to the number of frames each action will take. He gave Eli tips on how to create his own claymation stop motion animations. Very Cool!

We continued on to the background artists, who showed us an example of a background he was creating, actually inking in a physical drawing that will be sent to the color artists, who scan the image into a computer and colorize it digitally using Photoshop. We also met a character artist, who showed us how he draws a character directly into the computer using a monitor that is also a pen tablet, allowing him to sketch directly onto the computer screen.

In one room, one of the editors showed us how she finishes a cartoon, preparing it to send out for airing. We got to watch part of a new cartoon that hadn’t been released yet. In another room, we were shown pre-production editing, where the storyboard is input into a computer and matched with the vocal recording, allowing a director to get a feel for the flow of a cartoon before sending it to the animators.

James also introduced us to one of the cartoon creators at the network, who talked to us about the process of dreaming up and selling a new cartoon. By the end of the tour, we had seen and heard all the intricate steps necessary to make a cartoon come to life, a process that usually takes nine months or more from start to finish.

Of all the things I noticed on the tour, the best was how awesome a place to work this seems to be. Everyone seemed really happy here, laughing and smiling all the time. Talking to the cartoon creator, we were told that basically everyone who works here has to be a 10 year old in a grown ups body, which explained the mounds of candy on every floor and the video game machines that littered the office. What a way to spend your day, creating fun and comedy for kids, laughing and playing the whole time. Not that this isn’t a serious business, but it can’t loose its playfulness in the process. This is what I want to do when I grow up!

After the wonderful tour, (thanks April) we went over to Studio City to meet Artt and April at a little Chinese restaurant (Chin Chin) that is next door to the studio where Art works. Artt does vocal direction at a voice over studio (he had to leave lunch early to go record a demo). After a wonderful lunch catching up on old times and new ones, we stopped by the studio to say goodbye. Art was still busy recording, but we got to meet Alice Cooper, who had been recording something in the studio, preparing for his new tour.

We spent the rest of the afternoon swimming at grandma’s house and went for a wonderful dinner with my friend Didi, getting to catch up on more happenings in Lala land. All in all, it was a pretty fabulous day!

Peace,

David

While LA is not my favorite place on earth, driving down the Pacific Coast Highway is one pretty spot. The road twists and turns, with the Pacific pounding waves against the beach all along the way. We pass many of my old hang outs, fun beaches full of empty volleyball courts, waiting for the weather to clear enough to entice people down to the beach. We turn up Sunset Boulevard, following its meandering route up to Pacific Palisades to Grandma’s house. By the time we arrived, we were all starving and ready to search out a bit of lunch.

After a little discussion, we settled on Junior’s, a deli on Westwood Boulevard. This place has been an institution for as long as I can remember. It really is like going home for me, as the first house I remember living in is on the same block. As a child, I can recall walking here from my Grandparent’s shop, which was also on the same block. Though the décor has been updated a little over forty years, it’s still the same restaurant. As we ease into our booth, the busboy shuffles up to deposit sliced pickles and sauerkraut on the table (both of which Olivia is eager to devour). For me, comfort food doesn’t get any better than this! We all order our favorites, including Kasha Varnishkas (buckwheat with noodles), Noodle Kugel (a sweet noodle pie), Matzo Ball soup, Fried Matzo (a pancake of matzo and egg), Chopped Liver (my all time favorite), and Potato Latkes (pancakes of potato and onion). Sitting in the restaurant, looking out the window, I can see my whole childhood here rolling by, riding my bike down the street, stopping in the stores. I remember going to the Von’s market across the street (long since replaced by the giant Westside Pavilion Mall) to trade in bottles for change to buy candy.

After lunch, we have to circle the block (no left turns from here), passing by my old house. I show the kids the tree I spent my days climbing and the garage where I played endless hours of wallball. The house looks the same as it did thirty years ago.

We headed off to Culver City in search of a shoe store for Tiffany, then go the opposite direction to find one for Olivia (she’s gone through three shoe sizes while we’ve been on the road).

We spend the rest of the afternoon at Grandma’s, swimming our time away in the warmth of the pool (contrary to normal weather in LA, we’re here for a nice cold spell, but the water is nice and warm).

In the evening, Grandma takes the time to teach Olivia and Tiffany how to make matzo meal pancakes, while Eli films the entire process on our new video camera. Eli and Olivia have decided to attempt to create an Internet based cooking show for kids. It seems like a great idea, we’ll see how it goes.

This morning, we are scheduled to meet my friend April for a tour of Cartoon Network, which should be a blast.

Peace,

David

When we arrived at The Gardens restaurant, in Westwood, we knew we were a bit early for the party, but thought it would be nice to see my grandma before everyone else showed up. My mother had brought her well before the time for the party, so she could get acclimated to the place and not come in to a giant room full of people. As I sat down next to her, my grandma looked over and I said hi. I don’t think she recognized me at first, but then a big smile crossed her face and as she said hi back, I knew she had realized who I was.

Within a half hour, the room started filling up with all my aunts and uncles and cousins of all ages. We decided to take a spot at the “kids table” with Ben and Yona, their kids, my cousin Suzie and her husband and two kids, as well as my cousin Merle, in from Boston, who we had seen while we were in Connecticut in December. We had a fabulous time hanging out with the kids and visiting with everyone. My cousin Dina had flown in from Maryland for the party, which meant we had now seen her three times on the trip; in LA last September, Maryland in December, and now back in LA. Pretty darn cool!

We got to see a few cousins who I hadn’t seen in many years, catching up on the long time between visits. I also got to sit down with Clela, who had started working for my grandpa back when his business had been housed in the family garage, almost fifty years ago. She stayed with the business after my grandparents sold it to my godfather, Alan, and still works there in the new facility out in Oxnard. I remember seeing Clela whenever I would visit the business, a daily occurrence, which was housed just around the corner from where I grew up, literally on the same block.

The party was a nice celebration of my grandma’s amazing journey through 100 years, though I think it was a bit overwhelming for her, as she is definitely not used to this level of commotion or this number of people being around at one time. We all sang a rousing version of “Happy Birthday,” twice, once for her 100th celebration and a second time for my niece, Mariposa’s 2nd birthday, a nice coincidence.

After the party, we went to the hotel where my mom was staying and let the cousins all swim together for a while. My mom and Phil headed out to dinner with his cousins, but we decided to head out with my cousins Carla and Merle from Connecticut, and Arlene and Larry, who live in LA. We had a great dinner at a little Chinese place, Hop Li, on Santa Monica Boulevard. Larry and I had a great time talking Photoshop during dinner. He showed us his latest work, a storybook version of Shrek III that just came out, done completely using Photoshop. I’ve been really working with this program since we’ve been on the road, so it was really fun to talk to someone who has so much more experience using it than I do. (Boring for everyone else, but they got to talk amongst themselves.)

All in all, it was a wonderful day and a beautiful event. What an amazing accomplishment to reach 100 years! We should all be so blessed.

Peace,

David

Here we are, back in Los Angeles. What a trip? It was really weird to drive along the Pacific Ocean after so many months away.

Thursday night, we went over to Grandma Blossom’s house for a little while, then took her out to dinner to one of our favorite spots in Brentwood, A Votre Sante. It is a small eatery that serves up healthy food and is a great place to look for movie stars (Sissy Spacek walked in while we were eating this time). After dinner, we got back to Grandma’s house to find water running down the driveway, as the hot tub was overflowing. She had asked the pool man to heat the pool for all the kids coming this weekend and he apparently had set the valves up wrong. We got it straightened out fairly quickly.

Friday, we went back to Grandma’s and spent the day in the swimming pool, loving spending the day in the warm, southern-California afternoon. Ben and Yona flew in with the kids late in the day, as did my mom and step-dad. They had made reservations at our favorite Italian Restaurant, La Scala Presto (where we eat every time we are in LA). We had a great meal, catching up on what’s been going on since we last saw them in New York in December, while enjoying the best chopped salad and spaghetti bologese on the planet (I may be a bit jaded on this one, but I’ve never had anyone try these dishes at this restaurant who didn’t rave about them).

We ended up sending Olivia with Ben and Yo to their hotel, to spend the night with her cousin Arella, while Adrian came with us to spend the night in the RV. Our first sleepovers in months!

Yesterday, we went over to Grandma’s for a huge pool party. My cousin Meredith showed up with her husband and two kids, as did my great aunts and uncles, and a few of my cousins. We had a great time visiting with everyone, swimming, and looking at pictures. We had just seen everyone at Grandma’s 90th birthday party a month ago, but really enjoyed having some more relaxed time together. The kids were in the water all day, while the adults sat around and talked, and got a little time in hula hoping (Go Marlene).

After the day at the pool, we met my mom and step-dad for dinner in Westwood. Joining us were my cousin Carla and her daughter Merle, who we had seen at their place in Connecticut in December. It is so cool to see people again who we met while we were out on the road. Everyone is in town for my Grandma Gizi’s 100th birthday, which is today. It should be a great family get together.

Peace,

David

Well, it finally happened! After almost eight months on the road, we crossed the border back into California today! Along the drive, we decided to bypass Desert Hot Springs (our original thought for the day) and drove straight from Phoenix all the way to Malibu! We are staying at the RV park that was our first stop on the entire trip, our only repeat along the way. It’s really weird to be back in California and very dejavuish to be in the park that we started in so many months ago.

We made really good time from Phoenix and hit almost no traffic through the craziness of Los Angeles freeways. Yeah team!!

Peace,

David