Teaching one of my favorite subjects

That is, map reading.  I was talking to my son in NY and asked if he thought the boys (7 and almost 5) would like it if I sent them maps covering the entire route I'm taking to NY, plus a couple of highlighters.  My thought is that I would let them know every day or two of my progress, the route I'm on, where I stayed overnight, etc., and they could follow my journey with their own maps.  The thing is that since I'm not going to be on much of the interstates, I almost have to send them individual state maps so they can find the US and State routes I'm traveling.

Mike seemed to be enthusiastic about it, and said they followed his travels to Afghanistan and back on a world map, and both of them learned at a very young age to assemble the jigsaw puzzle of all the states in the U.S.  So I will go to the AAA office soon and get the maps and into the mail to them.

Map reading was something I tried to teach my own kids and they can all do it, a couple of them being more interested and better at it than the others, but it's a skill worth knowing.  In these days of GPS, smart phone apps, etc., I want my grandchildren to learn that you can figure it out for yourself, and when you get older you have the choice to let a device do the work for you if you wish.  But the basic skills should be there.

I will also send them a Dr. Seuss type book I found at REI called "There's a Map on My Lap!".  Josh (the older one) is reading quite well now and he can read to Justin.

I got gas at Costco this morning for $3.59 a gallon, which is very good for California at this time of the year.  I still worry about the cost of fuel for a trip of 4500 miles, and then of course, back to CA which probably will be a few miles less depending on the side trips I make and what's left in my travel fund.

I made a stop at Target to pick up a couple of needed items.  I had one heavy item (a case of alcoholic beverage) so I took the cart all the way to the car, unloaded it, and then found a cart return spot nearby.  When I was getting into my car a woman stopped, rolled down her window, and thanked me for returning the cart rather than just leaving it in the parking area.  She said she almost never saw anyone returning carts and told me she appreciated it.  What a nice thing to say to someone, and the glow has stayed with me all day.  She must be referring to the Walmart parking lot where carts are left in parking spaces everywhere.  Sometimes it's like that at Costco as well, and I can't figure it out because there are so many return corrals it doesn't take much of an effort.

I want to thank Hobopals for the instructions on how to print gridlines on an Excel spreadsheet.  It worked, I printed the sheets out, and they look great!

I also thank Brenda for her encouragement regarding my finding an older dog.  They just adopted two mature dogs, Maya and Max, and their photos can be seen on their current blog entry.

The thermometer is climbing to the upper 90's for the next 10 days at least.  I can deal with it but sure hope it doesn't exceed 100 again!

Looking at the clock I see it's Miller time.  I need to make sure that the travel from Target to here didn't cause any damage to the quality of the beverage.