Home again, home again, jiggity jig!

We put in a long day of driving on Friday and made it home in time to sleep in our own beds. 

Penny was very glad to have Chris back in his favorite chair.

Total miles put on the van  = 4,236

Order of states driven through in 13 days = MI, IN, IL, MO, TN, AK, OK, TX, NM, AZ, (4 corners UT, CO, AZ, NM), CO, NE, IA, IL, IN and MI.

This road trip far exceeded everyone's expectations (especially our 15 year old).

Exactly 30 years ago, my parents had done a similar trip when I was Emma's age.  However, in 1983 smart phones didn't exist. Neither did portable dvd players, Or, instagrams.  Or texting. Or facetime.  Or vines for sharing videos. I was completely cut off from 15 year old friends.  My sister and I drove each other crazy in the  backseat of my parent's Buick sedan.  

In 1983, I made a scrapbook of our family's road trip vacation and have held onto it all these years.

Although we used quite a bit of technology to record our trip, I also brought along a 3 ring binder with plastic sleeves.  In the binder were our daily driving routes (which included how many hours we would be in the van each day), along with our motel reservations/addresses, and some suggested sights to see along the way.   The notebook was used to keep us organized, and it also helped the girls see visually how far we were traveling each day. 

 As we picked up postcards and paper souvenirs along the way, I slid them into the plastic sleeve for that day of traveling.

As you probably guessed,  I'm planning on helping the girls put together their own scrapbooks later this summer of our trip.

In our addition to our reference book,  EZ66 Guide for Travelers, we also used the Roadside American App on Chris's cell phone to find additional roadside attractions.  

My goal was to find at least one kitschy photo-worthy stop in each state. 

Despite the 107 heat, some of my favorite memories were around the Holbrook AZ area.  

 


If I would have had more time off from work, Chris and I would have liked to complete the entire Route 66 journey all the way to CA.

I can't say enough about the Junior Park Ranger program.  

Josie loved earning badges and learning more about our national parks.

Emma did a fabulous job driving...especially in Oklahoma city under rush hour traffic and construction zones.

The United States is such a beautiful country. 

I am happy to report that we were with each other 24 hours a day for 13 days and survived.  

The girls were troopers with time zone changes and hundreds of miles logged every day in the car.

It was definitely a family trip of a lifetime.