On the way!

This will serve as the first post on the trip and also as a test to see if the technology is working.  (Actually, more to see if the operator is working!)
Leg 1 is completed and we were on-time into Minneapolis, but about a 2-hour delay to San Francisco--happy to have a 6-hour cushion at SFO.  ...Only about 32 more hours to go! Thanks to Anna and Abe for the lift to Madison.

Here we are getting ready to leave home with all our bags--should be the last snow we see for while!  (Well, we SEE snow in MSP, but don't have to go out in it.)
All was well in Madison except after Susan requested a pat-down instead of the scanner, she had a 15-minute security ordeal before finally being passed--completely went through all her bags and patted her down twice--I'm not sure what profile she fits, but apparently I don't!  (It reminds me again how easy it was to take the train to CA last spring.)  One real positive so far is that we are 4 hours into the trip and have not discovered anything (at least yet) that we forgot.  Leaving home for two months at a time is a new experience for us.
Well, enough for now--I'll go back to reading my Bill Bryson book 'In a Sunburned Country."  So far it is his usual, interesting, amusing take on the land down under.