You can move the map around by clicking on it and dragging it around, zoom in and out with the tools and click the marked items to view a notation of the day and location of that portion of the trip.

The map may take a minute to download. Please be patient.

They were also leaving to catch a plane that morning, so we couldn't stay there forever. She cooked us some breakfast and we chatted for awhile on all the things we'd seen and our plans for the next few days. We packed up the car with our massive amount of bags, took a group photo and kissed everyone goodbye.

We left Newport News, Virginia at about 11 AM taking the 64 west towards Richmond. At Richmond we connected with 95 north heading for Washington D.C. The trip was uneventful with little traffic and took about 2 1/2 hours. We did have a little mishap in Arlington, Virginia -- our first stop -- when the map I had printed out took us to downtown Arlington and not right to the Arlington National Cemetery. We asked for directions and quickly found our way there.

We walked through Arlington National Cemetery amazed at the amount of headstones. There are just so many. I had been here before when I was young, but back then the impact isn't as great and I reflected a lot as I passed sections I recognized. We stopped at the Bataan section for a minute. My wife is Filipino and the meaning of those who died in Bataan definitely intersect both of our lives. Without those brave men we would have never met.

After stopping for a minute we walked the small hill up to the John F. Kennedy plot with the burning Eternal Flame. This kind of brought things full circle for us having stopped in Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas along our cross-country journey.

John F Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy with the Eternal Flame

Jackie Kennedy is buried next to John now.

From the JFK flame we walked on to the Tomb of the Unknowns. We watched the changing of the guard. I explained to the kids about the monument to our unknown soldiers.

As we left I took a picture of the building that stands in front of the tomb. It is really a beautiful building. As we headed back to the front of the cemetery we stopped so I could see Joe Louis, the heavyweight champions, grave.

Tomb of the Unknowns and Joe Louis' headstone

Arlington National Cemetery is really large and we didn't get to see it all, but just the parts we did see make you think about the true sacrifice that has been made by those before us for this country.

We got back in the car and drove across the bridge into Washington D.C. and then drove around the Lincoln Memorial in a circle about 3 times while I tried to find a place to park. After the third time around I gave up and just headed up towards the White House in hopes of finding a place to park up there. We did find a spot eventuallyin the vast expanse that is Washington D.C. We walked down the streets passing all the vendors selling shirts, hats and other souvenirs. There sure are a lot. It was dreadfully hot that day.

To say the White House is well defended is an understatement. There were Secret Service and checkpoints everywhere. You can't help but think of all the cameras watching you as you walk along. Not that they're obvious or visible, but you just know because you can feel it. We finally got in front of the White House for some pictures.

We moved on. I had a small map of downtown and we stopped as we walked around at spots I wanted to see. Out front of The Treasury Department I stopped for a photo of the statue of one of my personal hero, the first geek, who was known as Alexander Hamilton. The guy was a pure genius.

The White House	Alexander Hamilton	"BlackJack" Pershing	Jefferson Memorial

Across the street from Hamilton is a monument to General John "Blackjack" Pershing. The area was pretty vacant. I doubt many everyday people know who Pershing is or what he did for our country. Hell, nobody has probably stopped at his monument in years to say thanks. Pershing is particularly interesting to read up on in this day and age of Muslim extremists.

From there we headed down towards the Washington Monument and walked around it. It's just as impressive today as it was when I was a kid.

There's a new addition to the area since I was here so long ago and that is the World War II Memorial that has been placed between the Washington Monument and the reflecting pool. We sat there for awhile and the kids dipped their feet in the water for awhile. At first I was going to tell them not to, but you know what, those guys who served in World War II -- and those who died -- would probably smile if they saw two little girls sitting there dipping their feet in a pool that they made possible, so I decided not to say anything.

Did I mention it was hot? The wife and youngest decided they would stay there while me and the oldest walked down the reflecting pool towards the Lincoln Memorial. It was a long walk in the heat that went a little faster due to my crazy kid chasing the geese into the pool over and over. I was sweating by the time we got down there. It was a much longer walk than it looked and we still had to walk back!

Abraham Lincoln was a great man.

We walked back after hanging out there for a little while, stopping to watch some people play softball and soccer along the way.

We rested once we got back to the World War II Memorial for a little while and then took a leisurely stroll around the Washington Monument again before we started heading back to the car. We didn't get to the Capitol or any of the museums, we just didn't have time on this trip. We stopped and bought some t-shirts and hats along the way and then got back inthe car.

We were getting hungry and decided we'd hit Chinatown for dinner. We ate at this great place. I think it was just called China Express. It had a window in the front where you could watch a guy make the noodles. We had a nice dinner.

After dinner is when things went downhill a bit. We decided to check our funds and found out that we were running extremely low and that meant we weren't going to be able to head out of town and find a place to stay for the night. We'd have to finish the journey in 11 days instead of 12! It was depressing and I was pretty pissed for a moment, but I got over it rather quickly and felt I could make it all in one shot, but it would be close.

It was already late, around 10PM or so, as we drove out of Washington D.C. The trip to Rochester, New York would take us through Maryland, Pennsylvania and all the way across New York. It was a 7-hour Journey. We took 270 north out of Washington D.C. 270 is a huge highway, I think it's 6 or 7 lanes on each side at one point. 270 turns into 15 north and we followed that for several hours into Pennsylvania. There's a 30 mile little detour you have to take near Williamsport on 180 west to connect back onto the 15 north. It is a little strange how it does that.

We took 15 north all the way into New York and then hopped onto 390 north. 390 north is only about an hours drive to Rochester, but by that time I had been driving for nearly 6 hours after several hours drive in the morning, hours of walking in the hot sun not to mention the previous 10 days of driving and excitement. It was a real push to make it all the way into Rochester, but I did it. We arrived early in the morning around 6 AM. I was exhausted and it was a bittersweet moment finally getting to our house here.

Getting here was a relief. After 11 days, 4,850 miles, 100+ pages of trip plan, many hotel stops and countless tanks of gas, we had completed our plan and arrived safely without major incident.

It was the end of an excellent adventure and exciting trip that had made us, as a family, grow closer together and experience things as a family that we constantly bring up daily and probably will for the rest of our lives. Even as I sit here and write this I am a little sad thinking back on it, not because it was horrible, but because it was such a great experience and it is over. It is a part of our history that we can never recreate no matter how hard we try.

The kids will never be this age again. Going back to day one and looking at the picture of us in the ocean having fun makes me sad because one day they won't be here. One day they will be off on their own. One day they wont want to ride on daddy's back in the ocean...

I've never driven onto a ferry before and found it to be an exciting adventure.

Taking the ferry to Ocracoke Island

It was a beautiful day and the wind created a nice breeze that kept everyone cool. We sat up on the deck of the ferry and watched the seagulls that followed alongside. One guy had brought some bread and balled little pieces up and threw them in the air. The seagulls would dive and catch them before they hit the deck. I should have taken a nap at this point since it was a long enough journey at nearly an hour and a half, but I couldn't.

We finally arrived at Ocracoke Island. It's beautiful there and has a small town feel to it with little gift shops and the famous lighthouses.

We took a few pictures and looked around a little before hitting the road to drive to the other end of the Ocracoke Island and catch the other ferry, which goes to Cape Hatteras. The speed limit is slow along the roads on the Outer Banks and trying to determine your driving time in terms of miles is unreliable as I found out. We arrived just in time to catch the next ferry. We were very lucky that things went really smooth with this portion of the trip. This ferry was only about half an hour to 45 minutes.

We drove off the ferry and started our way across the long, thin Outer Banks. It's really an amazing leisurely trip with water on either side of you and incredible beach houses. About midway through we stopped at Avon -- I think it was -- and had a bite to eat. They have a lot of tourist type things there like go-karts and bumper boats. The kids and I did some go-kart racing -- as if I wanted to drive anymore -- and hung out for a little while.

Racing the go-karts on Cape Hatteras

There are some very cool beach houses on Cape Hatteras

We got back on the road and headed north stopping occasionally to take a look at the ocean and beaches. We passed through Nags Head and continued on arriving at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. This is where Orville and Wilbur Wright first accomplished powered flight. We stopped at the Wright Brothers National Monument. This is where our National Park Pass that we bought back at the Grand Canyon paid off once again, as we didn't have to pay to get in. I was excited, the wife and our youngest weren't. They stayed down by the car while my oldest and I walked around and headed up towards the monument.

It's a helluva walk up to the monument in the middle of summer and it took a good 10-15 minutes all uphill. We had fun though and looked at the monument for a bit. We then decided to be idiots and ran down the hill, running through weeds and getting a ton of those little pinchy things in our socks.

We got back to the car and drove around the monument. They have a road that circles the monument stopping in a few spots and having more information on the Wright Brothers and their flight. We stopped and got out at a re-creation of the first flight, the plane is made out of metal.

Back on the road heading north we came to this really long bridge that is just so cool. It connects the Outer Banks to the mainland.

The long impressive bridge from the Outer Banks to the Mainland

After the bridge we took state route 158, which heads west towards Elizabeth City, North Carolina. I chose this route because I wanted to come into Virginia from the south avoiding all the traffic that goes through the tunnel if you come in from the Norfolk side on the east. It was about an hours drive and then we hooked up with our old friend 17 north that had went through the mainland of North Carolina. The printouts I had gotten from MapQuest from Elizabeth City to Virginia were way off on mileage. We ended up having to drive an extra hour more than we had expected.

We went through this area called The Great Dismal Swamp on the 17, which runs along the North Carolina and Virginia border. The Great Dismal Swamp is such a cool name that I couldn't resist taking this way when I was planning the trip. There was some construction there, but it wasn't that bad. This route heads through a tree lined area that is very beautiful and kept things cool. We joined up with the 664 north that goes through this long and impressive tunnel under the James River. Later it joins up with 64 north, which took us into Newport News, Virginia. We made a few turns off of the 64 to head to my mother's house where we would spend the night.

The driving finally ended at about 7PM. Even with the period of time I had been awake and driving I didn't go to sleep for hours. I hadn't been home in 16 years, ever since I went into the Navy, and it was surreal to see my old bedroom and the places I had stayed up programming all night. I hooked the camera up to the TV after we had dinner and showed them some of the pictures taken along the way. It felt good to take a shower. We hadn't stopped the night before and with the heat, walking around and playing there was enough sweat to go around. Finally, exhausted, we all went to bed and ended day 10 of our trip. Day 11 was to turn out to be another day that tested our endurance.

We arrived at Daytona Beach about an hour or so later and stopped. It's pretty cool at Daytona Beach, you can drive your car right onto the beach which was great because I didn't want to have to waste a lot of time parking and walking etc... We slipped into our swimsuits and ran toward the waves while the wife took a nap on the beach. The kids would finally be able to compare the Atlantic to the Pacific 8 days after departing from Redondo Beach, California as I had promised them. I had told them at Redondo Beach to note everything about it so they could compare it to the Atlantic.

The first thing they noticed was the lack of seaweed. In Redondo Beach you would sometimes come up out of the water and have a "seaweed vest" hanging over your shoulders. The second thing they noted is that you can walk, walk and walk into the water. The slope is much gentler at Daytona Beach and they noted that the sideways current seemed to be greater. They also found the water to be saltier and that the sand was also different here, being more hardly packed and flat compared to the "fluffy" sand in California. It was much easier to make sand castles in California, for kids anyway. In California they had no problem finding sand crabs that had dug their way into the sand by following bubbles after the water washed over it. They had more trouble in Florida doing that.

The general consensus from the kids though was that they liked Daytona Beach better. I think the lack of seaweed and the shallower water had a lot to do with it.

Driving down the beach at Daytona Beach

Redondo Beach from day 1, eight days earlier

We stayed at the beach for an hour or two playing and having a blast in the water. We went to a public restroom right off the beach to clean up afterwards. It took forever for the girls to get cleaned up. I must have stood outside waiting for a good half an hour.

Daytona Beach

Finally, we got back in the car.

We headed north on the A1A, which parallels I-95, but stays closer to the ocean and was enjoyable. It was a little slower, but I like to take some time just to relax and not be "go! go! go!" on the highway all the time.

We passed by Marineland about an hour later and it had been one place I looked at stopping originally, but it was a Monday and it was closed, so I had marked it off our trip plan. Marineland use to be quite an attraction, now they have things like swimming with dolphins and the like.

At St. Augustine I decided to jump on the I-95 and start heading north after the relaxing morning drive.

We passed through Jacksonville and on to the Georgia border. I could actually see a storm coming at us in the distance. It hit with a fury and visibility dropped to zero within 3 seconds as the water dumped on us like from a waterfall.

I slowed and about a minute later it was totally gone. We hit another one of these about half an hour later, but it lasted for a good 15 minutes and the driving was slow. I'd say scary is a good way to describe driving through a storm like that. I gripped the wheel like a madman my knuckles white and my concentration fully focused. I hate that type of driving, it wears you out rather quickly.

Thankfully we made our way through it and continued on. Several hours later we arrived near Savannah, Georgia. I wanted to stop in Savannah, the "most beautiful city in America" some say, but it was dark and rainy. I just wanted to drive around for awhile and check things out.

We skipped the drive around Savannah and kept going, jumping onto 17 north. We entered South Carolina soon after leaving Savannah and there were no scheduled stops in the state so it was a straight drive through.

Jacksonville, Florida to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina is about 350 miles and a good 6 hour drive. We arrived late at night since we had spent so much time in Florida that morning. We wanted to get a room and then head down to the strip for awhile and walk around. There were teens and college kids for the most part walking all around. After fruitlessly searching for a place -- they all wanted hundreds of dollars down as a deposit on the room in addition to the nightly rate due to damage these punks do-- we decided to just park and get a place outside of Myrtle Beach later.

We walked down to the beach just to take a look and then we walked around all the gift stores on the strip. We hit an open-air arcade and the kids wanted to play, but they'd only accept $10's or something like that so we had to go break a $20. We walked across the street to a "buy 3 t-shirts for $10" store and grabbed a few. By the time the girls had picked out what they wanted and we got back to the arcade it had closed. Then in rapid-fire succession each store closed one by one as we walked by them.

We stopped at the one place open, an ice cream store, and grabbed a couple scoops. Then everyone decided that Myrtle Beach really sucked and we left.

We jumped back on the 17 heading north planning to get a place soon for the night. We stopped and grabbed some coffee and my programming genes kicked in giving me the uncanny ability to stay awake for several days straight at a time and we decided to skip the stop all together and just continue on.

We drove into North Carolina and through Wilmington, Holly Ridge, Jacksonville and Morehead City. Around Beaufort I just couldn't do it anymore, I had reached my peak with all the night driving. It's about 200 Miles from Myrtle Beach to a place called Goodwin Hills, North Carolina where we were heading and portions of it were along really slow roads so it had taken 5 hours and was approaching 6AM. I finally woke the wife and told her I couldn't make the final half-hour. She took over driving for the first time in the trip and I napped for half an hour until we arrived at our destination of Goodwin Hills, North Carolina.

This ended day 9 for me. By no means did it actually "end the day" for me though as after 1/2 an hours sleep I would not see sleep again until nearly 16 hours later.

Day 8 started off with a finishing drive of about 2 and a half hours into Orlando. I wish we had gotten closer the day before so we could get there earlier, but it just wasn't meant to be.

After some minor turnoffs and general confusion in the downtown Orlando area we arrived at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom.

This was by far the most expensive portion of our 12-day journey across America. Originally, when I was drawing up our trip plan I wasn't sure if I was going to add this detour or just cut across the south, but I decided since we were so close we might as well do it.

We took the monorail from the parking area to the main gate. Lines, lines and more lines.

The kids bought these autograph books to get characters in the park to sign. We ended up standing in line for signatures with Pinocchio and Goofy and other characters. I'd say we wasted a good hour and a half right off the bat in lines for autographs. Finally we got around to some rides. We went in the Pirates of the Caribbean and The Haunted Mansion and then checked out the parade which was very well done.

Mickey		Evil Characters	Minnie and Others
Click Images To Enlarge

After the parade there was thunder and lightning and it started drizzling. My wife was a little pissed at paying so much for tickets and having all the rides close. Me? I just went and grabbed a turkey leg and started chowing down.

It stopped raining and we ended up getting on a few more rides including Splash Mountain which my oldest loved.

It was getting late by then and we stopped to watch the nighttime parade, which was pretty dazzling with all the lights. It wasn't so dazzling for my camera though which seems to really suck at shooting moving lights.

Cinderella	Demon	A Fish	A Peacock
Click Images To Enlarge

The kids got on a few of the smaller rides after the parade, but still had to wait in lines. Soon the night was wrapping up and the fireworks were about to start. We got in a fairly good position.

I can honestly say that this was the most incredible fireworks display I've ever seen in my life and I've seen quite a bit, D.C. on new years and fourth of July for instance. My pictures don't do it justice and they also don't catch the most amazing event which was in the beginning when Tinkerbell flew, yes flew, out of the very top of the castle and over the crowd. You should have heard everyone oohing and ahhing throughout this display.

Click Images To Enlarge

The fireworks alone finished the day off with a bang and actually cooled our heads a little about the money spent, but still it was a considerable amount for such a short day.

We decided to take the ferry back to the parking lot since we had taken the monorail in. The guy on the tram taking us from the ferry to our car was hilarious and we ended the day on a laugh as we drove out of Orlando just a little and found a cheap motel.

Everyone was out immediately after all the walking and the long trip we'd already been on.

This ended day 8 of our amazing journey across the great USA.

We washed up, packed the car and hit the road. I initially wanted to get in some touring of civil war battlefields when I was planning this trip, but decided against it because I don't think the kids would have enjoyed it. So I had nixed that plan and instead substituted a haunted mansion.

There was not much in Mississippi that I found interesting to do with kids when I was planning, so we jumped on I-20E and zoomed across the whole state. We went past Jackson and jumped onto US Route 80E for awhile, which parallels I-20E, so that we could see some of the real Mississippi and not just a major highway. We got back on I-20E and headed through Meridian, Mississippi.

We approached the Alabama border and once again got onto US Route 80E since it headed across the middle of Alabama and we didn't want to stay on I-20E which started heading more northerly.

We continued on and ended up after 3 hours at the town of Demopolis, Alabama. Demopolis is on the Tombigbee River and was founded by a group of Frenchmen who followed Napoleon. After awhile they found they couldn't farm there well with what they wanted to grow and abandoned it. The town square is quite incredible and done up in brickwork roads.

Now I had done my research on the Internet and was sure that everything was in order. This was the first downturn in our journey though as far as attractions. We finally got to Gaineswood, a mansion said to be haunted, and it was closed! It was a weekend, but they had apparently decided to cut their hours and didn't update their website.

As close as we got to Gaineswood. Locked gate on old creepy fence.

I was right! Bluff Hall, a mansion just down the street with just as interesting a historical past, though not haunted.

It was a beautiful mansion. When we got there and entered the tour/gift shop the girl there was very pleasant. We paid the small fee and she gave us a solo tour of the house, which allowed us to linger and ask questions. The kids had just as many questions as I did. I took a ton of pictures and some of them are below.

Great Room		Kitchen	Backyard
Master Bedroom		Womens Room
	Study	Bedroom
Click Images To Enlarge

We completed the tour and thanked the guide for her generous descriptions and time taken to answer our questions and allowing us to linger.

There was nothing else on the slate for us this day other than to drive. We continued along US Route 80 east and went through Selma, Alabama, center of the civil rights movement. From Selma to Montgomery along US Route 80 it is named the Selma-to-Montgomery National Historic Trail. Here's a little history on this from the National Park Service

The Selma-to-Montgomery March for voting rights ended three weeks--and three events--that represented the political and emotional peak of the modern civil rights movement. On "Bloody Sunday," March 7, 1965, some 600 civil rights marchers headed east out of Selma on U.S. Route 80. They got only as far as the Edmund Pettus Bridge six blocks away, where state and local lawmen attacked them with billy clubs and tear gas and drove them back into Selma. Two days later on March 9, Martin Luther King, Jr., led a "symbolic" march to the bridge.

...

On Sunday, March 21, about 3,200 marchers set out for Montgomery, walking 12 miles a day and sleeping in fields. By the time they reached the capitol on Thursday, March 25, they were 25,000-strong. Less than five months after the last of the three marches, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965--the best possible redress of grievances.

The Original plan was to continue east along 80 to Montgomery and stop for the night. When we got there though I decided I wanted to continue on. Our next destination was Florida and so we went from US Route 80 east onto US Route 231 south. I kept driving for about 125 miles and several hours and entered Florida.

I then took I-10 East for several hours, about 160 miles and passing Tallahassee. Midway through the state I took I-75 south and we stopped soon after for the night. I was pretty exhausted, but happy at our progress for the day.

It was pretty late when we got in and I collapsed on the bed as we had a long day planned for day 8.

I'm a bit of a John F. Kennedy assassination nut having watched just about everything imaginable on the events of November 22, 1963 in Dallas at Dealey Plaza, so I was very much looking forward to the day.

We continued on our way down I-35 south and into the Dallas area.

It's quite the tourist attraction as there were vendors everywhere and we had to pay for parking at the Book Depository which now houses The Sixth Floor Museum. I walked around with the camera shooting a bunch of pictures of this well covered area.

Being in such a historic place that you have learned about for 30 years, but never been to was electric. I couldn't believe I was actually there in Dallas.

They have ominous X's on the street where the first and second shots hit John F. Kennedy that day.

First X	Second X	Both X's
Click Images To Enlarge

You can see both X's in the third picture above, the first X is hard to see, but there are also marks on the curbs on both sides of the street that you can see.

One of the first things I noticed was that going into the street and standing on the first X it was a clear shot from the Book Depository, but not from the grassy knoll. The trees are a little taller than they were back then.

However the second X was a very easy shot from the grassy knoll and not much more difficult from the Book Depository.

The picket fence, where some famous Dallas photos (see below) seem to show someone, can be seen in the picture above. It is almost directly behind the light post in the picture above up on the knoll, behind the fence.

I wandered up to the grassy knoll and around the fence to to take a look and here's what I found.

Grassy Knoll From The Street	Grassy Knoll Picket Fence	You Can See The Second X From Here
Click Images To Enlarge

The X on the street that can be seen through the tops of the picket fence in the third photo above is shot number 2. Along the picket fence you can find carved graffiti with stuff such as "who cares" and "X marks the spot".

Some people had a theory about shots coming from the sewer drain at street level and up towards John F. Kennedy, but I made a fool of myself and went ahead and looked down in there. I can assure you that no one was shooting from in there. Also from the angle of the sewer looking up with the height of a car I don't see how a shot could be made to hit him from there.

We went into the The Sixth Floor Museum. I forgot how much it cost, but you can go right up to where they claim Lee Harvey Oswald shot from. They have the corner blocked off from floor to ceiling with plexiglass and boxes staged how they were found that day, but you can see the X's from the window right next to it.

You can also see the path they claim that Lee Harvey Oswald followed and the place they found the weapon stashed.

Most of the museum follows John F. Kennedy's election and has a lot of documentary type movies running. They have a lot of original film equipment that was on the scene that day and a lot of the original papers headlines from the day after. They also have coverage of Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald and a history of Oswald. Nothing you couldn't see by watching documentaries on the Discovery Channel.

The thing that makes the museum special is just being in such a historic spot and seeing for yourself what is claimed to have happened.

Unfortunately the museum will not allow any photography, so I couldn't take pictures from the windows up there showing the X's on the street.

After annoying my family with a prolonged stay -- and an overabundance of John F. Kennedy knowledge -- we headed out of Dallas taking I-30E and I was shocked to find that the way we left took us right through Dealey Plaza and we drove straight over both X's on the way out. I said "Wow!" as we did it and my wife was like "huh?". She didn't see the big deal of driving the same path John F. Kennedy took as I did. We drove down and under the overpass, as we did I gave a casual glance to the sides of the overpass where some have theorized another shooter was located.

We took US-80E and merged onto I-20E driving for about 4 hours towards Shreveport, Louisiana which was our planned stop for the day.

We ended up passing Shreveport and into Bossier City where my wife spotted a Harrah's casino. We stopped by and they had valet parking. I was a little nervous as I handed the guy my keys since our whole life was in that car and we'd be screwed without it. We went in and looked around. They had slots and games on one side and Louisiana Downs race track on the other. We took the kids out to the track and sat there for about half an hour before realizing they had just run the last race even though the post seemed to indicate there was one left.

Welcome to Louisiana	Louisiana Downs	Crawfish Hole #2
Click Images To Enlarge

They didn't seem to have a hotel there because I knew my wife was dying to play some slots. We were both extremely nervous about the car and decided to take off. We hopped back in and followed the nice leisurely US-80E, which parallels the I-20E, and crisscrosses it throughout the state. It was a nice little ride and not as hurried as the highway.

While in Louisiana I made it a mission to treat the family to some crawdads. We stopped at a place called Crawfish Hole #2 (I was wondering where the Crawfish Hole #1 was, but never asked). Crawdads turned out to be out of season, but we did have some frozen ones in our meal.

It was getting dark and there was still one last stop for the day. About 45 minutes east of Shreveport is a place called Gibsland.

We came to Gibsland and hopped on HWY-154 south. I set the trip odometer because 8 miles down this dark winding road in the middle of nowhere is where Bonnie and Clyde were ambushed and killed in 1934 by law enforcement. There was a little sign on the edge of the road that said "historical marker 1 mile" and I slowed. In the pitch dark I couldn't see anything as we drove along.

I saw a little pull-off to the right, but passed by it. As we kept going I was watching the trip meter and realized we had gone too far. I asked the kids to look back as we passed another sign on the left side of the road. It said "historic marker 1 mile", so we had driven a mile too far. I turned around and went back. It was the little pull-off we had gone by earlier.

It was solid pitch black out in a swampy-forested area in the middle of nowhere. When I turned the headlights off you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. I broke out the flashlight and we got out. You could hear the chirping in the trees and the sound of frogs. The monument was made of stone and had worn down over the years. There was grafitti all over it

I turned my flashlight on the monument and took a picture and it came out looking like crap. After a few more experiments I posed next to the monument in the pitch dark with the headlights on the car off, my flashlight off and set the camera on full flash. The kids took a picture and finally it came out good.

After taking a few more pictures with the kids at the Bonnie and Clyde historical marker, and listening to my wife's nervous calls to go, we wrapped things up and headed back up HWY-154 towards Gibsland.

We got onto I-20E and drove the 2 and a half hours across the rest of Louisiana -- without stopping -- through the night.

We crossed the Mississippi River and into Vicksburg, Mississippi where we stopped for the night. I don't remember what motel, probably a Super 8 or Motel 6 or something.

Thus ended a long Day 6.

The plan of the day was a straight trip down I-40 East, across the Texas panhandle, through western Oklahoma to Oklahoma City for the nights stay.

It was about a 5 hour drive that was uneventful as we passed through Amarillo, Texas and on through Oklahoma. There was nothing of note long the way.

We were ahead of schedule getting to the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial early in the afternoon, but too late to actually go in the museum portion, which had closed. We did view the memorial itself and it was moving as you walked through the area and thought of all of those killed by the murderous domestic terrorists Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols. While I'm not entirely convinced they acted alone they're the only ones we have to pin it on at this point.

The memorial was built right on top of the Murrah Federal building.

The Wall	The Wall
Click Images To Enlarge

When you stare at the wall with all the stuffed animals and other things left for the victims of the attack you can't help but be moved. There are chairs lined up on a lawn inside next to the pool. Each chair is a different size depending on the age of the victim. You can imagine as you see the smaller chairs a little child sitting there looking out over the pool.

The Pool	Jesus Wept
Click Images To Enlarge

Outside the front of the memorial is a figure of Jesus holding his head in his hands in grief with the simple engraving of "Jesus Wept" at the base of it.

By far the most impact was made on me when we walked around the other side of the memorial and down towards the museum building. There, on the wall, is a message that was left in spray paint by firefighters at the scene that day. It reads:

Team 5

4-19-95

We search for the truth.

We seek justice.

The courts require it.

The victims cry for it.

GOD demands it!

We originally had planned to get a place to sleep in Oklahoma City, but since we had gotten there too late to go to the museum we decided to head towards Dallas, Texas, one of our stops on Day 6. We headed south on I-35 for an hour or two and stopped for the night. I can't remember the town or the motel, because I was so tired, but it was a generic EconoLodge or something similar.

I crashed hard and that ended Day 5.

Boy was I wrong on the allocated time for this! One good thing is that we had purchased our National Park Pass for $50 at the Grand Canyon and so we didn't have to pay the entrance fee's to the museum. My wife and I were happy about that. We spent a good hour alone at the museum watching the movie on the formation of the Petrified Forest and looking at all the polished trees. We then headed out behind the museum and took a walk around where they had some larger tree's that were in their raw state. They're really pretty rough, but they have a majestic art quality all their own in their natural state. This park was originally designated a national monument by Teddy Roosevelt in 1906.

Petrified Forest	Petrified Forest
Click Images To Enlarge

We got in the car and started off on a journey that I hadn't expected. A long road that heads north about 30 miles through the Petrified Forest and the Painted Desert. It ends up looping around at the end and hooking up with the I-40. They have stopping points along the way where there are some really incredible views. Included in these stops are some Indian etchings called petroglyphs and some archaeological digs are still underway at Puerco Pueblo, a 100 room pueblo built around 1250 that may have housed up to 1,200. You could see the little dig tents and we even could look into one. It was pretty cool.

Painted Desert	Painted Desert	Painted Desert	Painted Desert
Bird Petroglyph	Petroglyphs	Faces Petroglyph	Three Deer Petroglyph
Click Images To Enlarge

We finally reached I-40 and started off east across the final portion of Arizona.

We were way behind schedule entering New Mexico. Passing through Gallup we continued along I-40 all the way through Albuquerque. We had planned on stopping at Tinkertown, a little place just outside Albuquerque in a place called Sandia Crest. Tinkertown is named such because over the past 50 years the couple that runs it has created thousand of wooden miniatures and staged them in scenes. Their slogan is "We did all this while you were watching TV". Unfortunately with the prolonged stay in the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert this was the one planned stop along the whole journey that we missed. I thought it would be really cool for the kids to see. It was a major draw along the old Route 66.

Along the final half of New Mexico we passed some strange things I didn't expect like the giant cross and windmill farm below. I have been through the 680 area in California where they have the large windmill farms on hills, but I didn't expect to see one out here in New Mexico. We also passed some plowed fields that were bright red in color.

Large Cross In New Mexico	Windmill Farms	Red Plowed Field
Click Images To Enlarge

I'm not sure what church that cross is for, but it was pretty impressive in scope.

We headed to our final stop after a long drive across New Mexico, stopping in Tucumcari, a place I had never heard of, but a lot of the old timers I talk to smile when I mention it. Tucumcari should just be renamed to Motel Town because that's what it is. Miles and miles of every motel and hotel you can imagine. The one good thing about all of these motels is that with so many they're in competition and we found a motel run by a Pakistani family (at least I think they were Pakistani) that was only $21 a night for a double. It was dark when we checked in and after dropping our stuff we grabbed a quick bite to eat at a fast food place and hit the rack. My wife and I both agreed that it was much better than the overpriced Hualapai lounge and the toilet didn't overflow.

We nodded off and looked forward to the next day of our trip across the USA.

Day 3 was one of the most packed on the whole trip and had multiple stops. Our first stop was about 1/2 an hour east at the Grand Canyon Caverns.

This stop was well worth the cover price -- which I think was about 40 bucks for the four of us. Bring a flashlight if you go, it makes things easier to see. They load you into an elevator and take you 21 stories underground into this massive cavern that has incredible rock formations in it. The guide was great and explained everything, including the fact that it use to be designated an evacuation location or fallout shelter and there's still giant cans of supplies in there from the 50's or 60's. The tour is anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour.

When they were initially exploring the caverns they found a preserved bobcat from the 1850's that hadn't deteriorated because of the lack of germs and a giant sloth's claw from the dinosaur age. The bobcat remains there and they have a reproduction, to scale, of a giant sloth right where they found the claw. I'm not into rocks, but they had some incredible formations that exist in only few places on Earth and it was both awe inspiring and beautiful.

Giant Sloth	1850 Bobcat Corpse	Helictites	Snowball Palace
Click Images To Enlarge

I was so interested in things that the guide even offered me a job as a tour guide if I wanted to stay there in Arizona. I declined, but it would make a fascinating life for a year or so. We had a family from England in our group, so I'm sure they have people from all over the world come there. It used to be a Route 66 classic stop before I-40 routed around it.

We hopped into the car and headed east hooking back up with the I-40 and towards Flagstaff. It took about 2 hours I think. We took 64 north and drove the hour up to the Grand Canyon. If you're going to hit several national parks on your trip it's worth getting the national park pass. It's good for a year and gives you free entry into all the national parks. It's about 50 bucks so we bought one and it saved us money later on in the trip.

What can I say about the Grand Canyon other than it scared the crap out of me! I have a minor fear of heights as it is and this thing was just massive. The "rails" seem all old and rusty and are right on the very edge of the canyon. Hell, there are parts without rails! One step forward and you drop like a mile or something straight down.

It was simply amazing though and one of the most incredible things and was quite beautiful when I could get up the courage to sneak on my hands and knees to the edge and take a look. Meanwhile my two kids were running around like a couple of monkeys and giving me a heart attack the way they would jump around next to the edge of a one-mile cliff!

You see that white edge just past the railing at the bottom of the picture above? You step there and you're toast.

The Grand Canyon	Digger Crapping His Pants	Crazy People, There's No Rails!
Click Images To Enlarge

Don't get me wrong, it was well worth it. I was just scared to death most of the time I was there.

We spent about an hour and a half there stopping at a couple of the viewpoints and then headed back south for an hours drive and then back on I-40 east for about an hour and a half to reach a place called Two Guns, Arizona. Just past there you come upon the Meteor Crater. This massive hole, while not as big as the horrifying Grand Canyon, was still impressive.

It's over 4,000 feet across and 550 feet deep and was created by a meteor impact millions of years ago. There's a 1,400 Pound piece of the meteor in the lobby area of the museum along with some interactive computer simulations and a movie about the impact. Astronauts used to do moon training for the Apollo mission in the crater because of it's similarity to conditions on the moon. They have an original test capsule from the Apollo mission and the American Astronaut Wall of Fame with all the missions listed on it and who was on them in a courtyard area.

A panorama of the meteor crater -click to enlarge

Digger at the capsule	A strange rock	Digger on the rocks	Arizona Sunset
Click Images To Enlarge

I really loved Arizona. The landscape was beautiful and they had a lot of these flat red rocks that I found curiously appealing to me. You can see them in the image above. The sunset was also impressive. The one above was taken by my daughter through the back window while we were driving.

We made our way east on I-40 again about an hour to Holbrook, Arizona where we managed to snag the last room available at our planned stop...the Wigwam Motel! I suppose there's a lot of people who don't know about the Wigwam Motel (or Wigwam Village as I remember it being called), but it really is cool. It was a Route 66 staple and if you get the chance you just have to stay in one. It's cheap too, I think it was only 40 bucks a night.

You sleep in a concrete teepee that has everything a normal hotel room has including a TV, bed, shower, A/C unit, etc. We ended up having to use our air mattress because the only room left was a single bed, but the kids were more than willing to sleep on it because they were so excited (plus the mattress is electric and self-inflating so I didn't have to hyperventilate blowing it up). The interior reminded me of the Smurfs with a little bed and little window on the side. I have to admit that I was a little giddy about sleeping there too.

Panorama shot taken the next morning. Click above to enlarge.

I was out smoking a cigarette at about 9:30PM leaning against the teepee when this older lady pulls up in a car and gets out. She seemed amazed at the Wigwam Motel and started asking me about it. The office had closed and I told her we had managed to get the last room. She asked if she could see inside, but I told her my family was getting ready for bed and that I was sorry, but I couldn't. I kind of feel bad at not letting this fascinated woman have a look inside. I could tell she really, really wanted to see what it was like.

Our wigwam at night	The bed
Click above to enlarge.

We took showers, watched a little TV and then hit the rack. An eventful day 3 had come to an end and we were pooped. We rested well in the little bed and awoke for day 4 of our journey.

Mann's Chinese Theatre

For those who don't know this is right along the Walk Of Fame where actors, writers and directors get their stars in the sidewalk. In front of the theatre itself though is cement where stars throughout the years have placed their hand and feet impressions and signed their names. We had a fun time walking around and seeing our favorite stars on the Walk Of Fame. We also had fun putting our hand where the stars once had. The kids loved it. Here's a few shots.

Click on the images above for a bigger view

Two of my favorite actors are James Woods and Christopher Walken. Also above is Marilyn Monroe and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

We were running a little late leaving Hollywood. The wife made us stop at every gift shop it seemed. By the time we got out of there it was past 11:30. Sure, an hour and a half doesn't seem much for Hollywood and all it has to offer, but we were on a schedule, so we could see the other things we wanted to along the way on day 2.

We headed east out of Hollywood passing Pasadena, Azusa and on towards San Bernardino. Along the way we passed Baldwin Park.

RoadTripUSA.com was a great help in us planning our trip and I highly recommend them if you are planning on traveling anywhere in the USA, check them out.

We picked up the I-15 North to Barstow and then I-40 East from there to Needles, which is right on the California/Arizona border. Along the way we had to endure the Mojave desert in our car with no air conditioning. It wasn't too bad though with the windows cracked. Our backs were sweaty when we got out of the car throughout most of the 12 day cross country trip. I can't remember exactly how long it took us, but it was about 5 hours. We decided not to take Route 66 into Oatman, AZ, but we did end up taking it out.

Oatman, Arizona is a place you just have to go. Here's a quick story on Oatman history. Back in the mining days a bunch of miners came here and numbered in the 10's of thousands. When the mines slowed down they deserted the place leaving their mules behind. The mules continued to breed. Now mules roam the streets at will and we even saw a couple wild ones running in the hills. You just have to visit it. Donkey's and Mules are one of my favorite animals.

Click images above for a larger view

We stayed in Oatman for awhile and shopped in all the interesting stores and the kids had fun feeding the donkeys some carrots. We took Route 66 north out of Oatman headed for Kingsman. This was the most impressive drive I've ever taken and I'd highly recommend it to anyone. It was simply incredible and it's hard to explain exactly why. It's a slow drive with hairpin turns and the views are just beautiful. I will remember it for the rest of my life. We saw wild donkeys running in the hills while we drove and there were a few abandoned gold mines that offered tours along the way, but we just didn't have time to stop.

When you're in the middle of nowhere they can charge what they want

From Kingman you can catch the I-40 again, but we took Route 66 north towards Peach Springs and the Hualapai Indian reservation where our planned stop was. We stayed the night at the Hualapai Lodge which was $100+ a night. Both the hotel and the restaurant were overpriced. We got in about 8PM and the restaurant and their "salt water pool and spa" closed at 9PM. We decided to eat first -- since we hadn't eaten for a long time -- and then we'd go for a quick little dip .

We figured we'd be done in 30 minutes or so since we got some pretty basic dishes. I got some sort of Indian wrap like a burrito kind of thing for example. It took them more than 15 minutes to take our order and then took them another 45 minutes to even serve us even though the restaurant was fairly empty at that hour. So the pool had closed by the time we got out of there. The kids were pretty disappointed. I was disappointed in the food and price.

We went back to the room and I took a shower. The shower sucked. The showerhead was messed up and water was spraying out of the threads. When I climbed out there was water all over the floor from the leak. Then I climbed into bed while the kids washed up. One of the kids used the toilet and it overflowed.

I was furious at this point. It was nearing 11 PM by this time and I picked up the phone and called the desk. They offered another room, which I took, even though I was pissed at having to repack everything that was out for 4 people. When I mentioned all of the problems and that I'd appreciate some sort of discount for my troubles because of their crappy maintenance the girl at the desk seemed to scoff. Then I told her I'd appreciate a full refund and that we'd just leave.

I was really pissed off at this point. The wife talked me into just staying there and I got dressed and got the other key from the desk (they didn't even have the courtesy to come to the room to drop it off or offer to help move our bags to the other room). I lugged the 100 Lbs. of luggage to the other room and finally got to sleep after going out for a smoke. It was near midnight by that point.

Needless to say I would not recommend the craphole known as the Hualapai Lodge. We passed a little hotel about 15 minutes before we got there, so if you're heading up Route 66 from the west I'd suggest you stop there instead before you get raped and sodomized by incompetent and unhelpful people.

Day 2 as a whole though went well. We slept away as Day 3 approached.

Day 1 consisted of a 6 hour drive from Sacramento to Redondo Beach straight down I-5. We've been going to Redondo Beach for our vacation for the past few years.

From Our Redondo Beach Vacation. August 2004 [Click For Popup Panorama]

We usually stay at the Best Western Sunrise (about $160 a night with taxes and everything) which is located right next to the marina there and a short walk to the beach. I guess I waited too long to reserve it however and it was booked solid for two weeks when I checked a few days before.

We ended up staying at the Redondo Pier Inn which is also a short few blocks from the beach and cost us about $100 bucks. It wasn't nearly as nice, but we were only sleeping there. It had some sort of water problem because there was even a little damp water on the elevator stairs.

We did the usual. We hit the beach, ate some seafood and played around in the ocean. I told the kids to note the way the ocean was because we'd also be stopping at the Atlantic on our trip and they would be able to compare the two.

A good time was had by all. We got up and ate some little packaged danish's for breakfast from the hotel office and then began day 2 of our adventure across this massive, great land.