I was doing some computer housekeeping and stumbled across a journal I took on a family road trip in 1999, so I imported that here and you can read through what a month long family trip was like for me 10 years ago. Even though I was an angsty teenager, I only had to edit 1 sentence from the 24 days of material. It looks like I gave up towards the end of the trip and stopped writing, but you can see a pretty big list of the places we went to, and how frustrated I was with my younger brother about pretty inconsequential things.

After reading all of it, I wish I'd done a better job writing things down, and I wish that I wrote down anything on other trips! Maybe there are some pieces of paper with handwritten things somewhere hiding at my parents house... Just going back through these brief journal entries, mostly devoted to what we ate and where we went, reminded me of how cool some of the experiences I had really were. They also show how consistent I've been about some things:

• No seafood
• Lots of bacon
• Riding bikes
• Taking pictures

Read on for the links to the pages.

This morning I got up around 6:30, but I just sat in the car until about 7:15. Then I got up, packed up my things, and started to work on organizing the car. My parents and brother eventually got up, and we had pancakes and bacon for breakfast before we hit the road again. Not everything was completely dry, but we packed it up anyway, now with the icebox on its side so the water would not drip off it. We left the campground around 9:30 and drove southwest towards Harper's Ferry.

Today we were back on the road. I got up at 8:00, had eggs and toast for breakfast, and packed up my things. As soon as we were at the bottom of the driveway, my mom realized that we had left our water bottles and I ran back in to get them. By we finally left and headed southwest towards Gettysburg. We passed by my dads' office here, and went too far down US 202 and had to turn around.

One weird thing is that two days ago, we went to West Point, yesterday, Valley Forge, today, Gettysburg, and tomorrow, Harper's ferry. They are just about the four most important military points of interest in the United States, all in four days. We stopped at a Wendy's for lunch and had chicken nuggets and fries. I really do not like Wendy's, but my parents do so I have to live with it.

I washed my hands with one of those little sani-towels and pulled out my dad's computer. First, I typed for a while, but I got sidetracked finding where we were on the Rand McNally atlas program. When we finally got to Gettysburg, I directed my dad to the different campgrounds so we could find one that we liked.

We found a pretty good looking campground, but the weather looked like rain so we went ahead to the Gettysburg visitor center instead of setting up our tents. We did not look around much in the visitor center, but we did see an electric map presentation. It was a twenty-foot by twenty-foot map with light bulbs on it to show different things; the narration ran through the entire four days of battle. After that, we walked through the bookstore, stamped our passports, and got back in the car. I now have 50 stamps in my National Parks Passport!

I thought that we were going to take the driving tour with the tape, but we did not buy the tape. We just followed the route, which was on the map, and stopped at each of the marked stops along the way. There were memorials to different states and regiments everywhere, and thanks to the map presentation, I actually knew what was going on. We all got out of the van four or five times to take pictures. One time, I could not get the picture that I wanted because there was a guy in the way. It ended up with both my mom and dad mad at me.

After the tour, we drove to a different campground, Granite Hill, just to check it our, but we ended up camping there. I set up Michael and my tent, while he and my dad set up the dining fly. We had not used it yet this trip, but it had rained some already today, and it looked like more to come. Before I was finished setting up the tent, the rain came. I rushed to pull out my rain jacket and after about ten minutes in the rain, I finally finished setting up everything.

We all stood under the dining fly for a while, but I decided that I could get wet and I put on my swimsuit and got wet. When my mom started pulling out boxes from the back of the van, we noticed that they were all soaking wet. I pulled all of the dry things up to the front of the van, and they pulled all of the wet things out of the back. Apparently, water had been condensing on the big icebox for the entire trip, and it had been collecting under the mat in the back.

The dress clothes bag and the box of books were the only important things to get wet, but they all pretty much dried out and we put some of the things back in the van. I changed back out of my swimsuit and went to put my things in the tent after the rain stopped, but my side of the tent was soaking wet! So I pulled out my things and put them back in the car.

We had steaks and pasta for dinner, and after that, we hung up all of the wet things to dry now that the rain was gone. I decided to sleep in the car, and my dad did not think it was a good idea, but there was nowhere else for me to sleep so in the car I slept. I went to bed around 9:00, and it took me longer than usual to get to sleep because the seat would not tilt all the way back, but I finally got to sleep.

This morning I got up around 9:00 and had eggs, bacon, and toast for breakfast. I swam for a little while, but I had to dry off and change so that we could got to Valley Forge. All seven of us got into Scott's Jeep and off we went. I got my passport stamped at the visitor center and they also had some glue in stamps of other places that I have been, so I bought a pack of them.

We bought the audio tour tape and took the 45-minute drive. On the tour, we got out a few times, but most things cost extra so we did not go into any of the buildings, but we did see quite a few deer from the car. On the way out, my dad took a picture of the sign, and we drove back to Shambala, their house, which means something like peace and harmony for all living things. We swam some more, and had hot dogs and chips for lunch.

Scott has rather cheap long distance, so I got to do something that I have been needing to do this whole trip, check my e-mail and upload the most recent version of my page. Over the course of three weeks, I got 85 e-mails! About five of them were unsolicited ads, 15 were newsletters of some sort, but the rest I actually had to read and try to respond to! I could not give many long responses, but I left all the ones that I could not reply to in my mailbox so I can reply to them when I get back to Atlanta.

After that, I swam some more. There was a bunch of girls having a party next door, and they were playing the Backsteet Boys really loud, but thanks to Scott's stereo, I was not able to hear it. Thank goodness for outdoor speakers! We had veal and lobster tails for dinner, but I only had the veal. It was very good, just the same quality as last night.

For desert, we went out to a dairy farm and had home made ice cream. They had banana-flavored ice cream, my favorite, so I got a double scoop of it. It was not quite enough, but it sure was good. At this dairy farm lives the world's fattest pig, Wilbur, who weighs 1,100 pounds. There were four or five chickens asleep on top of him, but I was told that he never moved so those chickens could stay there for hours.

When we got back, I was going to watch the X-Files, but it was one that I had already seen twice so I watched the MTV Movie awards for a while. 'There's Something About Mary' won best move! That is sick sick sick. It was picked over 'Armageddon,' 'Shakespeare and Love,' and 'Saving Private Ryan'; that is just wrong, but that is definitely MTV for you.

After that award, I changed the channel to Stars and watched 'Six Days, Seven Nights.' It was good, although I did not see the very beginning. The same thing happened as last night with Scott on the couch with Jesse, but Michael and I went to bed around 12:00 instead of 1:00. I took a quick shower before I went to bed, and I pretty much went right to sleep.

We were supposed to get up at 6:30 this morning, but My brother and I got up around 8:00, packed up our stuff, and I loaded the van. Because of the movie, Michael did not get enough sleep and he was somewhat moody, but I really do not need that much sleep. We got in the van, and stopped by the office to return keys and so that my parents could get their complementary coffee. We left the Sagamore and drove south through New York.

We hit a McDonald's for breakfast and it took forever. Usually it is a 90-second king of thing, but this guy, who could have only been 15, took fifteen minutes. Nevertheless, we finally got back on the road towards my dad's friend's house. We stopped at west Point Academy and looked around some, reading plaques and taking a few pictures. I got a great picture of the river valley, a monument, and a mother and baby deer. The baby still had its spots.

At 3:30 we got to Scott's house and unloaded. He was not there, but the music was on and the front door open, so we went on in. The house was amazing. It was huge, but not showy, and there were lots of pets and a very high quality sound system.

I got one of the two bedrooms upstairs, and my brother got Jessica's room, Scott's four-year-old daughter. She always sleeps in her parents' room anyway, but her things were all over the room. I explored the house for a while, and the TV, phone, and doorbells are all attached to the sound system through the tuner and three three channel amplifiers. My favorite part is the 200-disc CD changer, and the remote that goes with each channel on the amplifiers.

When Scott, Lisa, and Jessica got back, my dad and Scott went to buy seafood for dinner and the rest of us put on our swimsuits and headed for the pool. I jumped on the trampoline for a while, and slightly messed up my back, so I got in the pool. It was a while before Jesse got in, she was somewhat shy, but she finally did. I liked this pool a lot because it was eight feet deep so I could dive. Most hotel pools these days do not allow diving, for liability, and some do not even allow jumping!

We had chips and dip for a snack around five, Scott and my dad were still buying seafood, but we were still in and out of the pool all day until around 8:00 when we finally had dinner. I had tuna and some pork roast because I do not really like fishy fish, but there were about five different kinds of fish, all cooked perfectly, so I was told.

During the day, I thought the pool was too hot at its 92 degrees, but at nigh when the air was a lot cooler, it felt great. My brother invented a 'sport' called Gator Popping that involved making a big plastic alligator pop up into the air. It was stupid, but it could keep him occupied for hours. Around 10:30, we all went inside, and my mom and dad and Jesse's mom went to bed, but Scott, Jesse, Michael, and I stayed up and watched a movie. We watched 'Paulie,' which is about a talking parrot. It is the movie that they got the Pepsi Girl from.

Scott quickly fell asleep, and he snores almost as loud as my dad does! My brother and I went to sleep when the movie was over, around 1:00, but Jessica stayed up for a while, finally going to sleep next to her daddy on the couch. The cats would probably curl up with them too, but when they were younger, Jesse turned them upside down and shook them so they are afraid of most people now.

This morning we got up earlier than usual. I loaded the car as usual while they had bacon for breakfast. I just do not see how people can have three pieces of bacon for their entire breakfast, but they did. So around 8:00 we hit the road. On the road, we passed some more old covered bridges along with the first general store in America. Our first stop was gas, we were almost dead empty again after taking a "shortcut" through Lincoln gap way up in the mountains, and I bought some combos and a blue Powerade.

Our next stop was Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain. It is a national historic site, but they did not have the passport series stamp so I had to go with a return address stamp. We walked around the fort for a while, but it started to rain and we had already looked through the museum, so we ran back to the car. I almost felt sorry for all of the people reenacting one of the battles because they were just setting up and they all got soaked.

We left and drove a few more minutes to the Sagamore Resort. It was 1:00 and our room was supposed to be ready, but it was not and we ended up waiting in the lounge for two hours before housekeeping could get around to our room. We played hearts for about an hour, and then I read for an hour while they played gin. My mom checked us in, and we all got back into the van.

The Sagamore resort is actually on a private island, so we did not have far to drive, but all of the bags were in the van. We all took in our bags and my dad fell asleep on his bed. I checked out a bike and rode around the island in circles for about an hour, and my mom and my brother played miniature golf. After they finished their 18 holes, I beat Michel in foosball and then played three games of pinball. I get sick of all of the video games, but I seem to be hooked on pinball.

My brother stayed in the game room for a while longer while I went back to the room. The room was a nice suite, but it was a smoking room so it smelt bad, and I ended up sleeping on a rollaway bed. I was going to take a shower, but my mom and dad both had too, so I watched 'Hope Floats' on TV. When it was over I cleaned up and put on some nice clothes for dinner. This trip is quite interesting regarding food, half of the time we are sitting at a picnic table off in the woods, and the other half of the time we are eating in really nice restaurants. For dinner tonight, I had the chef's special for today, a veal shank. It was good, but the best meal that I have had so far was the meal at Le Champlain.

Back in the room, my parents went to sleep, and my brother and I watched a movie on TV. I think it was called 'Going to America," but I am not sure. It was about an African prince, Eddie Murphy, coming to America with his servant, Arsenyo Hall, to find a bride. James Earl Jones played the king. We watched that until it was over. I went to sleep after looking for my retainer for about ten minutes.

I was woken up around 8:00 this morning with the smell of bacon floating through the house. We all had pancakes and bacon for breakfast, and my brother, once again, refused to do the dishes. So my dad ended up doing them which got him in a bad mood. After our fiftieth load of laundry was done, and my mom had put my brother's and my pants on the couch, I asked Michael if he had any Old Navy jeans. He said yes, so I dropped his on the chair. He then screamed at me for throwing his things and I got into trouble again, oh well.

I cleaned up my things some and we got in the car and headed for the base of Mt. Washington. First, we drove to the base of the cog railway. It is the first of its kind, and the second steepest cog railway in the world. I finally found a good disk (most people call them Frisbees, but that is just one company's.) in the gift shop and bought it. We looked around and took some pictures, but the 100 dollars that it would take for us to ride to the top was too much so we left and drove around to the other side of the mountain.

On the other side, we paid the ridiculous entry fee of 34 dollars and started the drive. The provided tape narrated us up the mountain, so I did not listen to my CDs on the way up. The average grade of the road is 15%, which is more than twice the maximum grade that companies are allowed to build public roads these days. We looked in the gift shops at the top and my dad bought a T-shirt, but I already have two. The view was amazing, and we saw one of the cog trains in action, along with a huge ski resort and thousands of acres of undeveloped wilderness.

We drove the eight miles back down the mountain, and at the base, our whole car smelt like the brakes were exposed to a little too much heat on the trip. My dad took a picture of one of the warning signs while my brother and I looked at some of the cars that were going to be in a race up the mountain this weekend. Then the rain came. It rained extremely heavily for a while and then it started to hail. My dad pulled the van over to the side of the road under some trees and we waited. After fifteen minutes, it seemed to have stopped, but right as we pulled out, it started to hail again. After another fifteen minutes, it finally did stop, and we continued our drive back to our condominium.

After leftover pork in sandwiches, I took a shower and pulled the computer back out. I typed for a little while and then got past the next few screens in Oddworld. That game has gotten to be almost impossible, so I put it up and changed into my swimsuit. My mom, my brother, and I all got into the van and drove down to the fitness center. She said that the weight room, which is what I really wanted to do, was open if you were 15 and up, but the was the exercise room. So I could not lift weights; I just rode a few miles on an exercise bike and I ended up sitting in the hot tub for a while.

I took a shower in the locker room, and my mom decided that we could break the rules some, so I lifted weights for a bout fifteen minutes while we waited for my brother to finish playing Macro Polo with a bunch of eight-year-olds. I would have gotten into the pool, but it was only six feet deep and no diving or jumping was allowed. We then all got in to the van and drove back to our condominium.

I played Oddworld some more and I did not get much further, but it kept me occupied until dinner. For dinner, we had some more huge steaks. After eating, my dad fell asleep on the couch and my mom, my brother, and I played gin rummy for a while. Michael started to make fun of me for no reason, so I left and went to bed. I can not argue with him because I will get in trouble, and if I stay, he keeps getting louder and louder. C'est la vie. (that's life)

Today was another travel day, big surprise, but we all got to get up slowly. I took another shower, with actual water pressure, and packed up. I carried the three heaviest bags down to the car, two of them were mine, and I ended up packing up the whole car. The valet, now for the second time, tried to start a Range Rover with our keys, but my mom went and told him that we were in the Honda.

Finally, in our van, we drove south on Canada 73. After twenty minutes, we stopped at a McDonald's, and I had my usual combo, an Egg McMuffin. The McDonald's was actually rather nice on the inside, what a shock, with granite countertops and more complicated architecture than usual, but we did not eat inside. It was back to the car for more driving.' Around 11:00, we stopped at a huge covered bridge, the Bridge of Notre Dame.

At one point on the road, there was a visual phenomenon. You would put your car in neutral at the base of the hill, and it would seem to roll up the hill, at least if you did not know what was happening. The road simply turned very quickly from slight uphill to steep uphill, but it was a great illusion. In the Northern US this time of year, there were lots of big nasty bugs, and I think every single one of them got smashed on our windshield.

The gas gauge said that we should be out of gas already, so we stopped for gas and I had to clean the windshield. It was bad, and I did not get all of the bugs, but it was a big enough of an improvement so I did not have to clean it again. In the store, I bought some real Wheat Thins and a monstrous box of Gobstoppers. Then on we drove to the Mt. Washington area. The KOA campground was nice, but as soon as we stepped out of the van, bugs were everywhere, so we kept driving.

We ended up renting a ski condominium for two nights at the Breton Woods / Mt. Washington resort and Inn. Because it was midweek, and the middle of the off season, we got a good rate. My brother and I had our own room with bathroom. There were a few things broken, but I managed to fix both doors and the TV, which is all that really mattered. While unloading, Michael bumped into me and actually cut my arm, but he went and told on me for "bumping into him" and I was yelled at for it. So again I do most of the work and get in trouble for things that I do not do, but I am used to it.

There was no cellular service, but my dad has a calling card for 10 cents a minute that bills his cell-phone, so he checked our messages back in Atlanta on the regular phone. There were no messages for me. The only real bad thing about these trips is that I am gone from life for a month, and my friends are gone for the rest of the summer, but I am going to try to get my parents to let me have a bunch of people come up to the lake.

I took a nice hot shower before dinner, which ended up being some of the biggest pork chops that I had ever seen. I, the bottomless pit, could not eat all of mine. After getting into an argument with my brother about doing the dishes, I pulled out the Gobstoppers and my book and sat down to read. My brother then got really mad at me and my dad for not being able to explain why a computer can not understand infinity, or how Einstein's' general theory of relativity works, so I went to my room, shut the door, and went to sleep.