Lead Safe Mama Summer 2020 Socially Distanced Cross-Country Tour; August 24, 2020 update and highlights.

If you are interested in getting on my schedule in the next 6 weeks, click here!

August 24, 2020 – Monday
Lead Safe Mama 2020 Summer Tour Update

Hello friends! I wanted to give you an update on our adventures. I had hoped to record little videos every day — but traveling with disabled kids (during a pandemic) makes that difficult! Instead, we have been making sure to take lots of photos (all the photos!) with a few videos here and there! At some point in the near future I will share the videos we have recorded, though! (It just has not been the “daily journal” that I hoped for!)

The map above is a summary of our travels so far. The Roadtrippers website thinks we have travelled 3,598 miles – but I had been estimating it was actually closer to 5,000…well, here’s our odometer the first day of the trip – showing 19,526 miles: 

…and here’s our odometer today :  24,005 miles! – So that make our total miles to date more than 4,479 actual miles! #Whew!

As many of you know, this is a multi-purpose trip –
it is both a work trip AND a family trip — with the following “activities”:

1. Driving my son to college in Boston (partially to avoid air travel during the pandemic, and also so he can safely bring all of his instruments, tools, and other stuff!)
2. Helping families protect their children from being poisoned (home consultations along the way).
3. Socially-distanced meetings with businesses, policy makers, community groups, parent groups and others involved in Lead-poisoning prevention along the way.
4. Visiting with families of Lead-poisoned children along the way (many families we have known for years but have never actually met in person!)
5. Giving my children an unparalleled educational experience at every stage of the trip (at every possible opportunity!)

Since I was already home with my kids because of the pandemic (with no childcare), and since I knew I had to take my kiddo to college this month, making this a work / education trip (immersive U.S. study opportunity) seemed like a no-brainer. The kids are having a blast – learning about geology, topography, history, paleontology, American culture, flora, fauna, geography, weather patterns in the U.S. (very interesting!), kayaking, swimming, hiking and – most important – meeting so many friends and colleagues across the U.S. (socially-distanced of course – and with masks on!)

Highlights — per the kids:

We’ve been to this many states on this trip so far:

1. Oregon
2. Washington
3. Idaho
4. Montana
5. Wyoming
6. South Dakota
7. Nebraska
8. Colorado
9. Kansas
10. Missouri
11. Illinois and…
12. Wisconsin

A.J.’s thoughts (18 years old) – favorite parts of the trip:

• “The National Parks (Glacier National Park & Yellowstone especially!”)
• “Wildlife — flora and fauna that I had never seen before!”
• “Getting to see what our country looks like!”

Avi’s thoughts (15 years old) –  favorite parts of the trip:

• “Learning about ancient geology and paleontology”
• “Learning about North American indigenous peoples”
• “Going to a star-talk in The Badlands, and getting to talk to a park ranger there (socially distanced, of course!)”
• “Getting to meet lots of wonderful people — and especially making new friends with other kids with the families we are meeting and staying with (socially-distanced, of course!)”

Charlie’s thoughts  (12 years old) – favorite parts of the trip:

• “I cannot remember any part of the trip. I remember there are some parts I like. but I just cannot remember where” Lol
• “We haven’t gone to a mini golf yet that I liked – I really want to go to a mini golf with moving parts!”
• “I liked riding a horse in Montana”
• “I liked finding a frog in Wisconsin”
• “I liked seeing a ground hog in Wisconsin”
• “I liked seeing the prairie dogs in Wyoming”
• “I liked seeing the mountain goats in Washington [State]”
• “I liked seeing the murder hornet!”
• “I liked seeing the big horned sheep by Jewel Cave”.
• “I liked seeing the snakes!”
• “I liked seeing cicadas”
• “I was sad we didn’t get to see the bacon in Jewel Cave!”

For my “trip highlight”… I will share my favorite photo of the trip so far:

This is our tent in Montana – on my friends’ 10,000 acre ranch.
The cows decided to join the kids for a nap!

Next Up:

To continue the tour we have plans (or requests!) to go to the following areas (CoViD-19 permitting!):

• Gary, Indiana — the kids are so excited about this [they’re big fans of The Music Man!]
• Canton, Michigan, (Plus Flint & Detroit, too)
• Chagrin Falls, OH (maybe!)
• Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• Niagara Falls, Rochester*, Syracuse* and Albany New York
• Burlington, Vermont
• Bar Harbor, Maine
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Potomac, Maryland
• Virgina
• North Carolina
• Louisville, Kentucky
• New Orleans!

That’s all by way of an update, for now. I am working on making an official updated schedule soon (with dates of where I will be), so stay tuned. Thanks for reading, and thanks for being part of of this journey [this summer, but the larger journey of the past 15 years, too!]

Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama