Historic Route 66 - Enjoying its Delights Along the Way (National Parks Trip #3)

This post represents another installment in the series documenting our West Coast National Parks trip in the summer of 2017.  Alan and I, along with our 18 year old daughter, Kyra, logged a total of 8,513 memorable miles of adventure over the course of five and a half weeks during the months of July and August.

It’s no secret that Alan and I are road-trippers at heart.  I absolutely love our home, love being at home and love coming home to our home.  After varying lengths of time, though, I start to miss life on the road.  Decades ago, when we started traveling together, vacations were a string of truck stops, tent sites, mom and pop motels and fill ups of cheap gas.  We cruised up and down the east coast so often that nearly every interchange on Interstate 95 became familiar.  So, what could possibly make two die-hard road trippers happier than including stops along historic Route 66 in their travels?  Not a thing.

The Saga Continues (National Parks Trip #3)

This post represents another installment in the series documenting our West Coast National Parks trip in the summer of 2017.  Alan and I, along with our 18 year old daughter, Kyra, logged a total of 8,513 memorable miles of adventure over the course of five and a half weeks during the months of July and August.

Alan, Kyra and I were stuck in the customer waiting area of the GMC dealership in DuBois, Pennsylvania.  It was Day #2 of our 39 day cross-country trip, and we were waiting for a mechanic to change the transmission fluid in our 2013 GMC Sierra 1500 pickup truck.  The truck’s transmission was failing.  We found ourselves with a truck that would get us home (if we drove carefully and didn’t tax it), a travel trailer that wouldn’t be coming with us, and five weeks of camping reservations ahead of us.  Sprinkle in a fair amount of stress and a whole lot of disappointment and, at that moment in time, life was not a pretty picture.  It was time for some creative thinking.

Strike Two! (National Parks Trip #3)

This post represents another installment in the series documenting our West Coast National Parks trip in the summer of 2017.  Alan and I, along with our 18 year old daughter, Kyra, logged a total of 8,513 memorable miles of adventure over the course of five and a half weeks during the months of July and August.

There are only two photos in this post because I know nobody wants to see pictures of people sitting around crying.  Bear with me, please, and things will get better.  I promise.

On our first day out of the starting blocks, we added an additional two hours of travel due to our return home to pick up the extra contact lenses Kyra had neglected to pack.  Our seven and a half hours of drive time turned into nine and a half, so we knew we had a long day ahead of us when we left home for the second time.  We just didn’t know how long that first day would be.