Father-daughter road trip

Simone has been cleaning out her house, her work files and her car. I've been studying maps, driving distances and discounted hotel prices. All in preparation for a shared adventure that begins next Tuesday: We're driving from Portland to Pittsburgh, hoping to cover about 2,600 miles in six days, so she can arrive in time for a summer session math class starting July 12.

She's enrolled in a two-year program at Carnegie Mellon University that will end with a master's degree in public policy and management.

We're both looking forward to it. We'll be driving the most direct route, following Interstates 84, 80 and 76 across 10 states -- Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania. I've made this trip (or a version of it) three times previously -- twice going all the way to Washington, D.C., and once ending in Ann Arbor. Michigan. Though she's traveled internationally and flown from coast to coast a few times, this will be Simone's longest car trip by far.

We're taking her Nissan Maxima and hoping all goes well. There will be plenty of time to listen to each other's music and lots of opportunities to negotiate on restaurants and hotels along the way. Best of all will be time for conversation and gossip, geography lessons and sightseeing at 65 mph -- mountains, prairies, rivers, farmland, small towns and big cities.

I expect we'll arrive in Pittsburgh on the morning or early afternoon of the 11th and I'll fly home the following day. Simone will fly back to Portland in August and she will drive back to Pittsburgh a second time, this time with her partner, Kyndall, in a rented U-Haul with the remainder of their possessions.

To get in the mood for all these transitions, Lori and I went to dinner last night with Simone and Kyndall, at The Farm Cafe on lower Burnside. We picked that spot on purpose because it's where the four of us had our first lengthy conversation together three years ago. Obviously, we know Kyndall much better now and feel great that she and our daughter have such a strong relationship. We appreciate that she is willing to relocate to Pittsburgh, knowing no one and having no job waiting for her, so that Simone can get her masters.

Their move is coming at a good time, actually. Kyndall has been working for a political consulting firm that hopes to qualify a general election ballot measure that would authorize construction of a casino in Wood Village, a blue-collar suburb east of Portland, with 25 percent of the revenue earmarked for Oregon schools. She said she thinks the campaign obtained enough valid signatures to meet the threshold and her work is now done. The secretary of state's office will announce on Aug. 30 which initiatives will be on the November ballot.

In the meantime, let the countdown begin for the Redes' 2010 Road Trip.