We are just getting on I-26 from I-95. we have been travelling for the past 7-8 hrs and its been rather pleasant other than few minor road issues-slowing traffic, crazy drivers, rain. Surprisingly, the connectivity has been pretty good all thru’ the travel using my VzPC Card. Thanks to Stef I have been very productive al thru’ the drive. Its been great to not make any pit-stops for Jay or Sam. Lunch was served in the RV while we filled gas up in Carmel Church, VA. The ride has been bumpy ( I wont be making Lattes while travelling, anytime soon). The kids have co-operated well and I am looking forward to a leisurely weekend.
I would highly recommend this way of travelling to everyone…

I have always been interested in history- be it Indian, World or American. When I first came to USofA, I noticed that not many of my co-students (at Mizzou) shared the passion, but worse, they were disinterested in their own history. When I first heard of Gettysburg, I asked this girl I was tutoring (I was an RA/TA while doing my MS), if she knew anything about Gettysburg. She said that it was in Germany
I have watched Jay Walking, where Jay Leno tries to prove the same point that todays’ American youth lack the interest/knowledge in history (or basic facts about stuff).
My collegue Mike Confoy forwarded me an excerpt from the Post, where in Mr. McCullough argues that the best way to teach history is to make it interesting/sexy. [it goes onto make the point]If kids can gravitate towards Harry Potter and read volumes of text, why cant they do the same with the history books?
These echo feelings of my own…we learn better if we learn physically - touch/feel/see. That is one of the reason why we are members of the National Parks Program and try to take our kids to the places where history occured to let them learn from the guides. Stef makes it a point to plan these trips as part of their home school curriculum, so they are learning whats on her agenda.
We recently started the National Parks Passports for the 3 boys and they have already accumulated tons of seals by travelling to sites in VA/MD/DC. This also serves as a great memory/treasure box material when they leave home.

I know some of my peers will appreciate the title I am writing this from my RV, travelling at over 50mph(road construction on I-95) between Fredericksburg and Richmond. I love this stuff.
I am responding to my emails, taking calls and seeing America.
This is our first trip as a family in the RV (as we got the tow vehicle put in for our Saturn Vue). We are headed to South Carolina and will be posting updates from the I95 corridor.
This is awwwwwesome!

I have always been a big fan of r0ml. He has this great essay on ORA site. This is a fabulous piece of writeup and covers a topic I always wondered about, but never did take time to research.
I have always been curious with the math behind Wall Street and there was a great book that I read a while back. Now I have added the Black-Scholes model/theory to my list of readings.
These are in line with what I have been reading lately with Innovation happens elsewhere.
Another good read..

This past weekend we spent it at Colonial Beach. This was motivated in part by one of my co-workers at a customer site, Dana. He mentioned about this place called Westmoreland State Park where he and his son camp and bring back shark teeth. I was intrigued and upon further research found that it was a neat place to spend a day fossil hunting.
We couldnt find a decent campground of our choice near the Colonial Beach area, so we opted for Monroe Bay Campgrounds. We eneded up camping Thursday- Sunday and enjoyed exploring the area. Stef will be blogging in detail about that with pics on her site.
The campground was redneck central - with Country Songs (its 5′O clock some where blaring, NRA bumper stickers, Dixie and confederate symbols and good old bubba camped across from us). I fit right in :), almost (still needed to have my home made Latte). Before you start calling me names, you need to understand that “redneck” is an attitude more than anything else. You will find rednecks in Africa or India or Tora Bora.
Our next door neighbor was an elder garrulous old man who was an RV-geek. He was a great company and had a wealth of info on day2day workings of an RV.He hooked us with some free passes to resorty RV parks. I am glad we met Mr. Bill.
I was amazed to see how many great minds were from within the Westmoreland county and surrounding areas - James Monroe, Washingtons, Lees, Jefferson. We visited GW birthplace, Jim Monroe’s birth place (which was just a pillar and some flowers on a small plot of land off 205) and old town Fredricksburg.
We ended up going to Westmoreland state park and spending most of our time there hunting for prehistoric pisces teeth. It was awesome and we found about 5 (for each one of us). As Drew Barrymore would say, it was magical!
Late Sunday we drove back into civilization…

Stef has posted a fabulous piece on her day outing. When I got home from work, the entire Bala household was buzzing with energy of the fun stuff they did. I am thankful to have these opportunities and glad to see my family taking full advantage of this.

Honoring Lance’s #7, I shaved my head yesterday and the family will be eating French food (folks who know me, know that I hate French food; so you should realize how significant #7 is :)) - croissant, sparkling grape (cant do Champagne), French pastries and Crepe (and maybe a Tarte aux Epinards)

Stef has posted her essay on RVing and the decisions around it. You can read all about it here.
Whats more interesting is that you will hear the REAL truth in her blog. I am excited about this and look forward to reading her writings.

I just wrote about the Tour (Tour de France) and how excited we are about Lance getting #7. But there is an underground world of athletes that dont make your ESPN Sportscenter or any major American news. I am talking about the marathoners who just run because…
Events like WS100 and Badwater Ultra epitomizes human sufferings and accomplishments - like Life. I discovered these athletes after reading this book. I have since followed the progress of various athletes. The greatest thing about them are that most have regular jobs and work 9-5 (if not more) like the rest of us. They work out and push their body and mind in their spare time and compete in these events. Most of these events are mystical, spiritual and a self renewing endeavor - a race against one self.
I will take Scott Jurek or Karno over TO or Michael Jordan or any other hotshot prime-time sports athlete, any day of the week to be the best athlete of the year.
For example, Jurek ran the WS100, won that and then 2 weeks later ran the Badwater ultra and won that in record time. And guess what, he is a vegan and my hero!

I have been following bicycling since 1997. Initially it was casual (as well as being in Philly every June to watch the US Pro Championship) and then as I saw that it was actually a chess-match on the road at 40+kmph, I was enthralled and then caught religion. My first heroes were Hinault and Lemond. Then I read the Lance’ story as he was recovering and came back to take the first Tour. Ever since, I have been more in awe of the human potential and resilience than the actual race.
The Tour symbolizes life itself unlike the day races (or the 3hr football game) that are more like sprints instead of the marathon [that life is]- you need to do good over 3 weeks, have a good team sorrounding you, you will have bad days-but need the abilityto bounce back: JUST LIKE LIFE. Hence this tour thing means more to me than watching a flashy Cipollini take a stage or the day races OR TO catching the TD to win the next Superbowl for E A G L E S.
For the last 3 years Stef and I have made it part of our weekly TV watching affair to catch the 8:30PM OLN Tour highlights, in the month of July. Ofcourse I get online to see the minute by minute update.
This year we had to be content with just the latter due to no OLN and no connectivity at the various camp sites. It almost seemed like the field opened up for Lance to get to magical #7. The latest attest to the fact that there was no significant fight from the peleton. I was hoping for Basso and Floyd. But in the end I am happy to see a great and calculated athlete retire (barring an freak accidents today in Paris) in glory.