The first leg of our Roadtrip is Houston to Portland. Here is a picture of the crew (sans the primary driver and photographer) and the means of conveyance. We are able to get five suitcases plus the bathroom bag in the cargo storage unit on top. That leaves two suitcases (the two boys are sharing a suitcase) for the back of the Traverse. This picture was taken outside of our hotel in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The following picture was taken with my iPad while toodling through New Mexico; primarily to give the feel of what the terrain is generally like. While taking it (as we careened down the highway at 75 mph) I noticed that the iPad screen showed the view that the camera saw. It struck me that I could drive a long way with the iPad in front of my face and be able to see the roadway just fine. It also struck me that this would not be particularly wise at 75 miles per hour, so this picture is representative of about 10 seconds of such activity rather than an extended period of swerving and lack of depth perception.

In addition to the two suitcases in the back of the Traverse, we also have room for two small coolers, one set of shelves (for such essentials as knives,scissors, band aids, paper towels, paper plates, etc), and a few other bags and items. It doesn’t make for great rear view mirror visibility, but is sure handy (as at least one of our meals per day was of the snacky ‘eat while we drive’ variety).