Geek Dad Road Trip

The Schertle family in Prague... Soon bound for points east in the USA

Our family is passionate about travel and the lessons we've learned while on the road.  So far our trips have mostly been international, but lately our 12 year old daughter and 9 year old son kept pestering us about seeing our own country.  So in a couple weeks, off we head across the US in our minivan.  Being a teacher,  I've got the time, but not the big budget so we'll be camping and sleeping on friend's couches along the way.  Leaving from our home in the Bay Area of California, our focus this time will be the northern part of the country and east coast down to DC.

Don't worry, we'll have a few geek items packed in the van like our compressed air rocket and R/C gear.  Using the launcher I designed for MAKE Magazine #15 (see: http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2012/05/schools-out-go-make-something-...), we'll be shooting off rockets with friends as we head east.  In Brooklyn we'll meet up with Breck Baldwin, who was presenting at the tent next to me at the Bay Area Maker Faire.  Based on our enjoyment of all things that fly, Breck and I hit it off and we're going to have a build session of his flying "Towel" (cover of the current issue of MAKE) at his workspace in Brooklyn (brooklynaerodrome.com/).  I'll swap him for a rocket launcher kit.  We've been such fans of Maker Faire, we'll hit Maker Faire Detroit at the tail end, bringing a bit of rocket joy.  

Compared to other trips, we want to have a rough agenda, but keep things more open.  We would love to get some tips from other Geek Dads and Moms about places to visit in your neighborhood or favorites around the country.  We look forward to hearing from you and sharing more of our stories from the road.

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Comment by Rick Schertle on June 1, 2012 at 2:00pm

Tim,

Thanks for your message.  We're keeping our itinerary a bit open.  Roughly - Idaho - Yellowstone - Mt. Rushmore - Madison - Chicago - Cleveland - Upstate NY - Vermont - Maine - down East Coast (Boston, NYC) to DC - Pennsylvania - Detroit (Maker Faire) - Denver - Grand Canyon - Southern California (for my parent's 50th anniversary). - back to Bay Area. I look forward to hearing back from you.

Cheers,

Rick

 

Comment by Tim Bailey on June 1, 2012 at 12:14pm

Do you have a route map planned out yet?  Easier to give you travel tips and places to see if I know approximately where you're going (Michigan vs. Kansas).  So many fun places!

Comment by Rick Schertle on May 30, 2012 at 1:13am

Jim,

Great pics!  Thanks for the kinds words on the rocket and launcher project.  Knowing folks all over are having such a great time with it is super inspiring!  Wish we we're going to be down Atlanta way on this trip so we could do some launches together.  I guess we'll have to wait until the next Maker Faire.  Sure great catching up this year  and look forward to keeping in touch.

Cheers,

Rick

Comment by James Floyd Kelly on May 28, 2012 at 4:35pm

Rick, we had a dual birthday party this weekend for my (now) 5 and 2 years old boys. The 5 year old wanted a rocket party, so I created 16 of your alternative foam balloons from Make #29. They held up just as well as the paper rockets from Make #15. All the kids (14 of them in all) loved the launcher and the nice THUMP it made when the button was pressed. Two parents asked about the kit and will be buying their own launcher kit. I have to tell you -- that launcher has been a hit over the last few years I've used it at various gatherings!  Best of luck on your trip, my friend... and was so good to see you at Maker Faire, CA!

Jim

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