best vacation idea ever?

When I was a little sprout, my parents used to love to go camping. The summer that I was six, we drove to California, and camped almost the whole way across the country. But when keyne was talking with my mother recently, she learned that Mom was feeling very unhappy that she hasn't been able to persuade Dad to go camping at all in the last few years, and only very infrequently before that. Since my father developed his current obsessive hobby of building Web sites for any volunteer organization he gets even tangentially involved with, he's been reluctant to sever the umbilical cord to the net for even a day or two.

So at brunch last Sunday, Ellen and I suggested that we all go camping together as a group -- for example, to southern or central Vermont, where my parents and I spent many summers. This, we figured, was the proper bait to offer. There is any number of things my father might not care to do, unless his kids or grandkids are involved, at which point he suddenly becomes enthusiastic. Dad was not quite "enthusiastic" about the idea on Sunday but seemed amenable!

At this point I turned to Ellen and added, "And you guys could drive up there with the kids, and I could bike up and meet you there!" This is a long-standing joke between us. I've long suggested, as a vacation plan, that she drive somewhere distant with the boys -- possibly roping in my parents to come along and help with the boys -- so that I could bike out and join them. A completely selfish idea, of course, and understandably not one that has ever interested Ellen terribly.

But this time, she turned to me and said, "That might be a two-day trip. Where would you stay overnight?"

So. Now I'm looking up campgrounds in southern Vermont and New Hampshire, starting with places that are 90-120 miles from our house, to see if I can find one the rest of the family likes and which I think I can reach in one day on a bike. This might actually happen. :-)