The Great American Road Trip

I have always thought it would be a wonderful adventure to drive all the way across our country.  This fall my dream is coming true!  George is teaching a class at the University of Virginia, so we are heading out to Charlottesville, Virginia. When we get there, we will have two whole months to spend time with our son, daughter-in-law and four of our grand kids! Check out the map - we'll be driving pretty much from sea to shining sea!

The orange line at the top was our original driving plan - Route 90 through Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore.  We took this trip from LA to Chicago back when the kids were small - it was amazing. Then I left the map out on the counter to sort of get us in the mood for the whole thing and George started figuring out how many miles we would save if we took the middle route - Route 80 (marked in purple). Hmmm what's on Route 80?  The World's Largest Truck Stop, a life size barbed wire buffalo - probably the world's largest ball of twine?  Not very tempting, but after a closer look I saw that we could visit Arches National Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, and probably get a glimpse of some Oregon Trail wagon

ruts - that sounded pretty good to both of us.

The trip home is the orange line further south - Route 40.  We can see Memphis, Nashville, Little Rock, Oklahoma City.  I'm hoping for some side trips to Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Santa Fe, and THE GRAND CANYON! I haven't visited the Grand Canyon since I was a sophomore in college - that's a long time.

Last week we headed out to where all good road trips begin - The Auto Club!  We waltzed in with our map and left with two Trip Tiks (one for each direction), thirteen tour books, and sixteen maps!  Wow!

So on Monday morning we'll be heading out on a great adventure - I'll keep you posted!