Day 6 Amarillo TX

Day 6:

Began the day driving to Oklahoma City. We stopped to visit the National Memorial; it was very moving. If you ever have an opportunity to visit it, we highly recommend it. It is filled with beauty and symbolism tied to the event and the people who died.

Next, we drove a stretch of historic Route 66. We stopped at Lucille’s, a ‘diner’ that looks like it has popped up out of the past. We had deep-fried pickles, onion rings, corn dogs, milk shakes, and icy cold Cokes. It was delicious and fun!

We arrived in Amarillo, Texas and stayed in a Best Western with a warm indoor swimming pool and a HOT, hot tub. We had the pool to ourselves for an hour and a half. Then a chauffeured limousine arrived to take us to dinner, I kid you not! Harold arrived in a Buick limousine, complete with a longhorn rack on the hood, and drove us to the most incredible local restaurant The Big Texan. At this restaurant, if you can eat a 72 oz. steak in 1 hour, you get it for free. You should see the size of that steak. Two people tried the challenge while we were there; both failed…costing them $72.

For being a big travel day, this one was rated highly!

Photos will follow..

St. Louis and 13+ hours driving!

Looking down at the flood waters and the shadow of the arch from the top.














Looking up at the arch, I found this structure/sculpture amazingly beautiful and took well over a hundred shots of it alone. -S



















Flooded walkway!

Day 5: We decided to stop and visit the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. What an amazing experience! It is huge…indescribably tall and elegant! The stainless steel structure set against a clear blue sky seemed to stretch upward forever. To ascend the arch, you travel in elevator pods shaped like eggs with 5 seats each. As you travel up the arch, the pod shifts so you are always vertical, even as the elevator moves diagonally. From the top, you look down through tiny windows. The people seriously look like ants!

We just happened to be there on the day the floodwaters from the Iowa region were at their maximum in St. Louis. We could see the streetlights poking out of the river on the street below us. The river was cloudy brown and you could see floating debris.

This was a serious driving day…we spent 13 ½ hours on the road.

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Fun with Family in Cincinnati, Ohio

Cincinnati, OH

Time for good food, conversation and final shopping for the trip. The challenge, now that we have 'I', can we fit her in the car??? The C family generously offer to keep her. But after tightening a few sleeping pads, some serious rearranging, and sending some non-essentials home by mail, we squeeze her in. It's good to be all together again.




Our next stop is just north of Indianapolis, Carmel (pronounced like the candy), Indiana. We had a great time visiting our old friends from our camp Akiba counselor days back in 1985! Great conversations, food , music room, lap pool and a good night's sleep! Good luck on your driving test B and in college S!

Strawberries & Falling Water

Day 2: We had a great visit with B.C.E.A. in PA yesterday. It included, catching up, pigging out on strawberries and an evening at Hershey Park (thanks for the passes guys!). It was hard to believe we were in school only yesterday! The new rollercoaster Fahrenheit 97 is awesome as were the classics: the Bear and the Lightning Racer. We do love rollercoasters!

Day 3: We drove to Cincinnati today to visit PGAP and to pick up 'I'. On a whim we decided to detour to visit Frank Lloyd Wright's house, 'Falling Water'. It was amazing! We've successfully connected with 'I', now we need to figure out how to fit her and her bag in the car...I'm not kidding!

Limmerick Day 1 of Epic Journey (By Xi)

There once was a family from Maine
Who packed up their ride in the rain;
They jumped in the car
To travel quite far,
And by Hartford, they began to feel sane!

Individual Goals for this Summer’s Trip

Q's Goals:

• Be completely independent in my camping
• Meet new people
• Keep an extremely awesome photo journal of things that I see, interesting signs & the sword
• See an Airstream

I's Goals:

• Take pictures of everyscenic view we go by
• I want to swim at least 3 times in every swimming pool we visit
• I'd like to send postcards twice each week
• I'd like to take up drawing
• I'd like to make my journal interesting and fun, so I can keep the memories of the trip
• Leave something (non-destructive) at everyplace we go that lets people know we've been there

Xi's Goals

• Escape normal day-to-day life and master the camping life
• Take time to read (&share books), write, draw and relax
• Do fun and spontaneous things with my family
• See new sights
• Share with my family some favorite places & people from childhood

S's Goals:

• Learn to juggle 5 balls
• Shooting top quality images of what I see
• Create memories with my family
• Hike in and to amazing places
• Draw everyday
• Meet interesting people
• Be a sponge and soak it all up
  

The Journey begins…

The Journey begins…

Actually it began about a year ago when we were in the depths of graduate school, working full time jobs, parenting, running a small business, and trying to not go crazy. One of us suggested a big road trip to celebrate our graduation. Now, just weeks after receiving official notification of the acceptance of our final portfolios, we are nearly ready to roll. We plan to follow the last buses out of the school yard and begin our 9 week long American west road trip.

The 4 of us intend to use this blog to chronicle our journey. We will post thoughts, images, ideas and anything else that moves us. Keep visiting this site to see what we are up to.

-S