One quick thought regarding the long awaited summer van trip...
from my understanding this is going to be a circle tour of the
US where people will be joining the tour at various points, and
leaving the tour at various points...right?

It seems to me that there will be no point in time where we will
all be together in one place, correct? 

I
IMHO, wouldn't it be better if we could all be at one place
at one time rather than be a bunch of intermediate transients?
Could the plans for the trip be modified a bit where everybody
could converge at one central point in the US for a couple of
days, and then the east-coasters could continue west....the 
westcoasters continue east...etc...etc?

Just a thought.

Ric