Sabbatical Update - Travel to Utah

Well, the first phase of my sabbatical at Franklin University has come to a close. I've spent the last 5 weeks here in Ohio working on article writing, as well as on an application to become a Certified Performance Technologist.

Traveling to Utah
For the next phase of the sabbatical, my wife, daughter and I are traveling to Logan, Utah where I will spend the next 8 weeks as a visiting scholar at Utah State University's Center for Innovative Design and Instruction. It's strange leaving Franklin and our home for this long - Katie and I are very integrated into our Latter-day Saint congregation in Grove City, and we both enjoy volunteering and serving in that congregation. We will miss our friends and neighbors during the stay, but we know that the opportunity will be wonderful. Plus, some members of Katie's family will be staying in our home while we are gone, so we will not have to worry about the home during out time away.

The Travel
We will drive a total of 27 hours across the United States to make it to Logan. We are driving through the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, and Utah. We plan to make the drive in 2 days, taking about 13 hours per day. We're also going to make a few stops when we get to Utah to see family before we make it up to Logan.

We considered making the drive in one straight shot without stopping for a rest at a hotel, but we have wisely decided against it. Here's a map of our route:

View Larger Map

The Vehicle
We'll be driving our fairly new Kia Soul, which has proven to be a great traveling car. Very comfortable, reasonable gas mileage, good storage space, and a nice stereo make it an ideal traveling vehicle. We made the trip out to Utah last year to see our families, and it went quite well.