by EMILY ORTON

Dropping two daughters at college this fall is a thin excuse for what is really a three-month rock-climbing trip.  Karina is already set up at BYU-Provo.  Classes start Tuesday.  Today, Alison is set up on hanging belay halfway up a 450-foot slab of granite route called Skywalker with Erik lead climbing five pitches.  It’s their last climb together before BYU-Idaho orientation next week. While other moms are buying back to school supplies, I'm buying propane canisters, but I'm learning a lot.  

Amazon shipped us floor mats instead of roof rails.  That caused a two-day delay in our cross-country road trip, but also gave us the chance to remember our van needed a state inspection this month (Tip: Get your state inspections at car dealerships.  They have the best waiting rooms.)  So that was lucky. 

Driving home from the inspection Erik said, “I guess we’ll leave tomorrow (Friday) morning.”

 “I’d like to get going tonight…otherwise, why did we drive all over White Plains and install roof rails in a parking lot?”  I said.

“We could go tonight.  I wasn’t making an announcement,” he said. 

“I see your points about not getting very far and paying to stay somewhere,” I said.  “Let’s ask the kids what they’d prefer.” 

Alison said, “Either way.  I’m Sweden.” 

Karina said, “I think you mean Switzerland.”  Everybody was Switzerland. 

We’re preparing for a rock climbing road trip this fall.  Erik will climb big walls (rock faces that take more than one day to climb).  The rest of us will stick to hiking and beginner climbs.  We will do a lot of camping.  I hope our kids will learn to love being outdoors by experience and example.  We started moving in the direction of this dream last fall by taking our family camping and rock climbing once a month.

Yesterday I mailed our 10th set of annual homeschool assessments.  We never planned to homeschool.  Our first child got into our first choice lottery school in New York City.  That became our anchor.  Like most parents we planned our lives around the school calendar.  We gave up job and travel opportunities that might jeopardize our kids’ places in school.  Erik left for work at the same time the girls were released.  We complained about rarely being together, but we didn’t question.  School was a given.

The simple version of this story is that one day Karina asked if she could be homeschooled; that question opened the door to more questions.