Cross Country Trip Begins Saturday!

A couple nights ago hubby decided to change our South Carolina to Colorado trip into at true cross country trip by adding San Pedro, CA as a destination. He has family out there, who'll we'll be seeing in CO anyway, but I've never been to CA or touched the Pacific so he thought it would be cool to visit them before the party. Our route looks something like this:

Charleston, SC
Atlanta, GA
Birmingham, AL
Memphis, TN
Little Rock, AR
Oklahoma City, OK
Amarillo, TX
Albuquerque, NM
Flagstaff, AZ
San Pedro, CA
Las Vegas, NV
Boulder City, NV
Kanab, UT
Shiprock, NM
Montrose, CO [where we're staying for the 100th bday party, which is in Austin, CO]
Grand Junction, CO
Denver, CO
Topeka, KS
St. Louis, MO
Nashville, TN
Kannapolis, NC
Cary, NC
Okeneechee, NC

The places in NC are side trips, really. I'm taking an aerial silks workshop at a dance studio in Cary with a friend, and it just so happened to be at the end of the vaca. Hubby wants to meet up with some friends in Okeneechee for a Monte Carlo SS meet up - we haven't seen them in a couple years. Kannapolis is where my parents live, and we get free room & board in NC there

So far I made a list of things to see/do, our actual time schedule will dictate if we get to do it all. I'm being pretty touristy, and used a website called Roadside America to find most places along the route.

Atlanta is no big deal, I can go there for a weekend trip any time. In Birmingham, I put down a Civil Rights park, because some of the statues and history seemed interesting. From there it heads to Memphis, where we'll spend the night. I put down Graceland as something to see. My TL at work says I MUST go to a restaurant or bar and listen to a true blues band. I also put down Elvis's first house, though you can't tour, getting a picture would be fun. The Peabody ducks sound cute, but I don't know if we'll catch them at the Peabody Hotel if we end up there.

Little Rock, mainly want to see the AR river, and maybe find Little Rock's little rock. Sounds touristy. Depends on time. The longest serving WWII sub sounds interesting as well, and the electric chairs & torture telephone.

In OK City the OKC bombing memorial and anchor from the USS Oklahoma are on my list. I was only 8 when the OKC bombing happened but I remember reading and hearing A LOT about it. The USS Oklahoma anchor is historic, and I like historic things. Also want to stop at Lucille's Famous Route 66 Gas Station in Hydro, OK, just for a pic with the Mustang

In Amarillo, I put the Cadillac Ranch When I was originally planning the trip, I was hoping we'd go through Amarillo for that. Maybe will bring the spray paint, but probably not. They encourage spray painting the cars according to Wikipedia and all the travel sites I saw about it. The Helium Times Columns Monument just because it was interesting looking.

Want to stop at the Route 66 Midpoint for a picture.

Maybe stop in Albuquerque for the Cruising San Mateo I - Chevy on a Stick.

In AZ we're going to head north from Flagstaff to see the Grand Canyon. Probably will only get to see the South Rim, but seeing anything is more than I've ever gotten to before! From there it's back down and headed across the Mojave to San Pedro. We'll visit with hubby's family if they are there, and I will jump in the Pacific!

On the way back, we'll go to Vegas. It turns out two of our Charleston friends and their wives are going to be in Vegas the same time we plan on driving through, so we're going to take some time to hang out with them. They're there after winning a billiards tourney here in Charleston. Got some fun things to take pics of on the Strip.

In Boulder City, we want to see the Hoover Dam. Then to Kanab, UT if we have time to visit Best Friend's Animal Society I donate $ to them every year it would be nice to visit them. The scenery is GORGEOUS in their pictures. After that, we want to go to Four Corners (Shiprock, NM) and stand in the 4 states at once

From there we're going up to Montrose, CO, where we're staying at the Black Canyon Creek? Inn with my in-laws. We got a double room suite for $90/night. Party time at the Inn! Hubby's grandparents will be staying there as well, and I think his family from San Pedro. Saturday the 21st is hubby's great-grandma's 100th birthday party (I believe she turns 100 on the 18th) so we'll be in Austin, CO for the day. Then we leave the 22nd and head up to Grand Junction to see the Colorado National Monument, then east to Denver where I'm going to meet up with a friend I haven't seen in about 10 years. Then to Genoa, CO to see the Wonder Tower attraction

Out to Topeka, KS to see Truckhenge, then to St. Louis to visit the Gateway Arch and touch the MS River. Maybe take a tour of the Budweiser plant if there's time.

From there it's off to Nashville, maybe stop at the zoo out there, and possible the Lane Motor Museum, depending on time again. As long as we're in Cary, NC by 6pm on the 27th we're golden

If anyone has any suggestions along that route, let me know Going to have A LOT of pictures! Taking my laptop with me, along with my Sony DSLR camera, old digi cam, and video camera. That way I can upload pics each time we spend the night in a hotel. I also have to worry about the first week of school starting the day after we leave CO! So I'll be doing school on the road since I took all online courses.

Whew! Going to be a long, fun adventure!

Sounds like fun!

How long are you going for?

Wishing you a safe and wonderful trip!

Sounds like a lot of fun; I would love to see those Peabody ducks. Hope you get to do that.

Woohoo ROAD TRIP!!!

Sounds like tons of fun...If your going to the Budweiser brewery take a wee detour towards Fort Leavenworth KS...Thats where I used to live haha! We made trips every summer when we lived there to see the Budweiser Clydesdales it was really close to the army base. Funny that I see this thread BF and I were just talking about KS last night because we saw a van with KS plates and I was telling him about going to see the brewery. Id love to go again that place was nice.


If you ever take an east coast trip you can stop on over to my house we can have a BBQ on the farm and go fishing in the pond. But watch out for turtles and frogs haha!

Originally Posted by Natalie_ca

Sounds like fun!

How long are you going for?

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Two weeks, we're leaving tomorrow morning, and returning to Charleston by the 29th Some things will probably end up being cut out depending on time but we want to see as much as possible. Its gonna be a heck of a lot of driving, but we're used to driving big trips - we take a few every year, usually to buy something, visit people, etc.

Originally Posted by nurseangel

Wishing you a safe and wonderful trip!

Sounds like a lot of fun; I would love to see those Peabody ducks. Hope you get to do that.

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What time we leave tomorrow is up to me, so I may have to try and plan to get to Memphis before 5pm, when the Peabody ducks do their march back to their elevator! If I miss them this time, well then I'll just have to take a long weekend trip to Memphis one day and stay there for an anniversary or birthday! It's about 11.5 hours from here.

Originally Posted by 3CatsN1Dog

Woohoo ROAD TRIP!!!

Sounds like tons of fun...If your going to the Budweiser brewery take a wee detour towards Fort Leavenworth KS...Thats where I used to live haha! We made trips every summer when we lived there to see the Budweiser Clydesdales it was really close to the army base. Funny that I see this thread BF and I were just talking about KS last night because we saw a van with KS plates and I was telling him about going to see the brewery. Id love to go again that place was nice.


If you ever take an east coast trip you can stop on over to my house we can have a BBQ on the farm and go fishing in the pond. But watch out for turtles and frogs haha!

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I LOVE road trips We DO go up to New Jersey every other year, where I'm from. We have also driven to and from Maine before. What a drive home ME-SC was ... 20+ hours straight through ughhhh. We adopted Nero the morning we got home though There certainly will be more east coast trips in the future! Next summer is our NJ/NYC summer BBQ and fishing sounds nice

We are back!! It was an amazing time!

Day 1: We left Charleston around 8am and drove towards Birmingham, AL for our first stop, at Kelly Ingram Park, a civil rights history park. We passed through Atlanta but since we can go there any time we didn't bother stopping. We got to Birmingham and walked the park, took a lot of pictures. From there we headed to Memphis, TN for the night. We walked down Beale Street and planned on eating at Alfred's, but it was standing room only available when we got there. Ate at a place called Huey's, which was really good.


Day 2: Left Memphis, didn't do all we planned though. Headed to Little Rock, Arkansas to try and find the "little rock" at a park by the river. Took pictures of the AR river and park, then headed out to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Went to the OKC bombing memorial. Definitely a saddening time. The memorial was beautiful and we learned a lot about the set up of it. From there we headed to Amarillo, Texas for dinner and sleep. We ate at the Big Texan, and no we didn't not try the 72oz steak Took pictures there, and went to our hotel.

Day 3: Headed west out of Amarillo. Went to the Cadillac Ranch and got to paint on some of the cars before it started to rain. From there we hopped onto Route 66, surprisingly in the center of a group of 2010-11 Mustangs as well! They were stopping at a cafe located at the Route 66 midpoint. Took a picture of the sign and of the cars, and headed on our way to New Mexico. In NM we stopped at a place called Russell's Travel Center, a very nice family owned truck stop with a museum of classic items and cars inside!! We drove on through Albuquerque, and on and on into Arizona. We stopped in Williams, Arizona for the night, and ate at the hotel's restaurant. I learned eating clams in a landlocked state might not be the smartest decision

Day 4: Left Williams and headed north to the Grand Canyon. BEAUTIFUL. We walked along the south rim and west rim before leaving. From there we drove out through the desert and to San Pedro, California. Some of Rob's family lives there, so we dropped in on his uncle first, then to his aunt's and cousin's apartment. They took us to In-and-Out Burger and we chatted for a bit, then went to our hotel which was across from the LA Worldport.

Day 5: We planned on leaving San Pedro earlier, but it didn't happen. We spent the day hanging out with his cousins and waiting for his aunt to come home. We grabbed lunch at a nice little cafe, and I go to stand in the freezing cold Pacific Ocean for the first time. Went back to their apartment and FINALLY his aunt came home around 6pm. We chatted a bit more and left at 7ish for Las Vegas. Drove through the desert to get to Vegas, and arrived around 1am. Tried staying at the Luxor but it was full, so we stayed at the Tropicana. The newly remodeled room's AC didn't work, not good in hotttt Vegas! Took 2 hours for the maintenance guy to finish up and even then it only blew semi-cool air.

Day 6: Woke up and left Vegas, my pictures were taken while leaving. Didn't get to see our Charleston friends who were there at the same time because we had a "deadline" to get to Colorado and didn't want to miss out on our other sights. We drove to Kanab, Utah and visited Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. Didn't get to go on any of the tours but visited the gift shop and the larger animals outside. From there we headed to Four Corners, and arrived an hour after the park closed, boo! Took a picture of the park sign and drove up to Cedaredge, CO, where we'd be staying the next 3 nights. The hotel lady was rude to us because we "showed up too late and she was expecting a phone call telling her that".

Day 7: Hung around Cedaredge, Rob's uncle and cousins from CA arrived that morning to the hotel, and while they went to bed, we looked at some of the scenery until the in-laws got into town. Their hotel was 35+ miles from ours! We ate lunch with the in-laws and Rob's grandpa, then went to their hotel for a bit.

Day 8: Met the in-laws for breakfast by their hotel, then did some laundry by ours. Rob's great-grandmother's 100th birthday party was that day, and we lucked out because the party was a whopping 5 miles from our hotel! We were wondering why his parents tried to get us to stay at their hotel so far away! The party was nice, met a few new people, hung out for a bit, took pictures, and then went back to the hotels once great grandma went inside for the day. Ordered pizza and went swimming in the indoor pool.

Day 9: Went to breakfast with Rob's cousins while his uncle played golf with grandpa. Sat with them until he came back, then left for Grand Junction and the Colorado Natl Monument. What a gorgeous area. Took TONS of pictures there, enjoyed the beauty. Rob enjoyed the sharp curves with the Stang After that we headed towards Denver, to have dinner with a good friend I haven't seen in 10 years. We got stuck in traffic in the mountains but never saw a reason why. Ate at Buffalo Wild Wings with my friend, but an hour is nowhere near enough time to make up for 10 years!! Hope to see her again soon. We spent the night in Denver.

Day 10: Left Denver and drove to North Platte, Nebraska to visit Fort Cody Trading Post, a Buffalo Bill attraction. It was pretty interesting. NE hadn't been on our list but we had plenty of time to get to Topeka, our stopping point. Took some pictures there, got some souvenirs, and headed back on the road to Kansas. We spent the night in Topeka.

Day 11: Planned on seeing Truckhenge, but it was now locked up with a sign to call for tours and whatnot. Took some pictures through the fence and we were on our way to St. Louis, Missouri. When we got to St. Louis, of course we went to the Gateway Arch. We unsuccessfully searched for the "whispering arch" at the Union Station. The real Arch was pretty cool. Rode to the top and took pictures of STL and Illinois. Walked through a frontier museum. When we left, I put my foot in the Mississippi River. We were staying in Fenton, Missouri that night. I wanted to see a pink elephant holding a martini glass there, but forgot about it

Day 12: Left Fenton and drove back to St. Louis on our way to Bowling Green, Kentucky. We crossed through Illinois and southern Indiana, finally getting into Kentucky. Visited the National Corvette Museum located there. It was pretty cool seeing all the different years and how well they were taken care of. We then drove on to Knoxville, Tennessee for the night.

Day 13: Woke up and went to Floyd Garrett's Muscle Car Museum in Sevierville, TN. Forgot completely about going to Nashville like we had planned, and since it was west of Knoxville, we just headed on to my parent's house in Kannapolis, NC for the afternoon/night. My dad was disappointed we were only staying over night, but I had signed up for an aerial silks class in Cary the next day so we had to leave in the morning. Him and Rob washed the big nasty bugs off the car.

Day 14: Planned on going to the Asheboro Zoo before going to Cary, but overslept until noon. Left Kannapolis around 3:40pm and headed towards Cary to meet up with my good friend and do the silks class. At first I wasn't feeling doing it, but once we started it was AWESOME. We actually stayed and took a 2nd class and got to learn even more moves. My friend already ordered her silks by that evening and received them today - jealous! I have yet to order mine, figuring out the rigging and where in my house to put them. Spent the night in Cary, used our free night from hotels.com and only paid $9 for a hotel rated 4.8 out of 5!

Day 15: We were going to go to a Monte Carlo club meet in Occoneechee, but Rob put a different address in the GPS, ~235mi from where we were! Once I saw I-20 on the directions and crossed into SC, I knew where we were going Since I missed out on the Nashville Zoo and Asheboro Zoo, he was taking me to the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia What a great hubby! Spent a few hours at the zoo taking pictures and having a good time. When we left there, we headed home to Charleston. It was a day earlier than planned, but it was okay because I missed my furbabies! They were excited to see us! Well Neko had to accept us again and spent 30 minutes staring at us from afar, but then all was well.

I took 1807 pictures on the trip. They are ALL uploaded to my facebook, and I may pick through some tomorrow to post if anyone is interested Hubby really enjoyed himself, which was a rarity, as he always feels like he needs to be working instead of relaxing. He drove most of the trip, but found it enjoyable to take in the sights and see so much. He said the trip made him realize he needed to make changes in his life, and spend more time focusing on me than he had been (working A LOT before we left). He told me he was going to start leaving work at 6pm instead of 7-8pm or later, help me around the house with dinner and chores, and do more to spend time with me and not always put work first and foremost. Everyone was surprised that in the entire 2 weeks we only argued once, for ~10 minutes. We enjoyed every minute of time together and still are crazy about each other, not at each other Most of our friends said they couldnt stand being that near their spouse for more than 2-3 days!

We cant wait for the next trip, hopefully in 2 years. It'll be a northern route, consisting of MI, WI, MN, ND, SD, MT, WY, ID, WA, and OR. (didn't include more eastern states as we've already visited them, but will find something else to see in different parts later). Then we'll only be missing VT (hopefully visiting next spring on the way to/from Maine), LA (random!), HI and AK (cruises in the distant future).

Sorry so long, but it will almost make you feel like you were there! And once I get some pictures up, it really will! My friends followed on FB and said they looked forward to my updates both on status and pictures! We drove 6,700 total on the trip, and my Mustang came back with 8,300mi total on it in less than 45 days of ownership! We only just put the official plates on it on Tuesday.

I'm glad y'all had a good time! I would love to see pictures. What is silks?

Will get some pictures up after work

Aerial silks is a form of aerial art - here is the wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerial_silk

I will post a few pics from the class I took later too. I certainly don't look as graceful being a first timer hahah

I wish I had known a little earlier you wanted to stop in Memphis. We have a friend there who is a musician (by night) in some of those live music places. (You've heard his work; he actually played the drums on the Bangles' "Walk Like an Egyptian," because none of the girls actually plays drums.)

These are just the pics Rob has uploaded to my photobucket and posted on other sites. I dont think my photobucket will support all 1800 anyway!

Kelly Ingram Park, Birmingham AL:


Beale St in Memphis TN:


Little Rock AR:


OKC, OK Bombing memorial:


Cadillac Ranch, Amarillo TX


Big Texan Amarillo TX


Route 66 Midpoint in TX


Rob at the Meteor Crater, Winslow AZ


Inside Russells Travel Center in NM


Desert in California


Grand Canyon



Us in San Pedro, CA


Pacific Ocean! COLD!


Mesquite, NV


Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas


Headed to Colorado


Colorado Natl Monument



Fort Cody Trading Post, North Platte NE



Gateway Arch St Louis MO



National Corvette Museum Bowling Green KY


Floyd Garretts Muscle Car Museum Sevierville TN



Riverbanks Zoo Columbia SC


And some aerial silks pics from Cary NC

I missed the thread before you went, but this was MUCH more fun!

GREAT pictures - looks and sounds like a GREAT time!

(And you look pretty graceful in the silks!)

Thanks! Wasnt TOO bad for my first time in the silks! Hoping to order some soon for use at home since there isn't anywhere that offers classes in SC. Going to be taking private lessons at the studio in Cary with my friend when we get a chance each month or so.

Everyone seems to enjoy the picture trip, you go 6,700 miles in a few minutes!

Well I'd have to say it looks GREAT for a first time!

And the pictures trip was fun - you went to a lot of places Gary and I never did even though we've been to many of the same cities. We lived full time on the road in the RV for 10 years, and lived and traveled all over the place.

Ahh that sounds like something I'd love to do! I love traveling, seeing new things, and being on the road. So definitely cannot wait for the next trip. I really had my eyes opened to a lot of the beautiful scenery that exists. I told Rob I'd totally move to Utah, Arizona, Colorado or New Mexico. He laughed at me Our biggest client at work is actually in New Mexico, I told him I'd go work there!


Hopefully I'll have new silks pics soon, and my friend I took the class with has an aerial/lyra hoop as well to play on and is bringing it over Sunday to our cookout, and hopefully will bring her silks as well.

The Grand Canyon is gorgeous. I would love to try the silks. I had never heard of silks until you mentioned it, but I had pictured something like what Angelina Jolie did in "Tomb Raider". And I was sort of on the right track.

Love the photos and I enjoyed going on a holiday with you guys from my lounge

Wow, looks like it was an amazing time!