Month: June 2022

Good morning from Denver, Colorado!!!

We are up to head into Rocky Mountain National Park! We have a 9am entry time and it’s an hour and a half from our hotel so we had an early wake up!!

It was worth it though! The park wasn’t crowded at all and we entered it without any lines. The day before it had been sleeting, hailing and raining in the park but not today it was beautiful and sunny out!!

We decided to take the Trail Ridge Road to the Alpine Visitor center and view the sites and see the amazing creation of God!

Our first look out was magnificent!!

Words cannot even begin to describe the beauty, so I am not even gonna try!

We also saw a few wildlife, elk, pika and marmots!

One marmot even tried to visit Bree in the car!

When we got to the visitor center we did a little souvenir shopping and enjoyed lunch at 11,000 feet!

On the way back down into town the girls finished their junior ranger books and received their badges at the bottom!! Ryanna says you are never to old to do the junior ranger activity and that made me smile! I love watching them be kids! We also got our picture at two miles above sea level!

After a gorgeous morning/afternoon in the park we still had quite the journey ahead of us!

We had to go north out of Colorado and then West through almost all of Wyoming before entering Idaho and traveling a few more miles!

We traveled all evening and chased the sun as we headed west through Wyoming. When we finally reached the border of Idaho it was 10 pm! It had been a very long fun day and now it was time to finish daddy’s states!!

We did it!!! All 50 states for all 4 of us!!! This is something I told myself I wanted to do for my family. I wanted them to visit all the states in this great nation, 🇺🇸 then they can travel the world.

I think seeing our nation is so important, there are so many amazing beautiful things here in the USA that Americans never get to see! Even though we’ve visited all 50 states there is still so much we haven’t seen!

The journey of a thousand miles, begins with just one step!

Good morning from Lexana, Kansas!

Today we have a long day of driving! We stopped for the night just over the border of Missouri in Kansas. We will cross the entire width of Kansas today and a little into Colorado with a final destination of Denver!

We traveled all morning, stopped at a Love’s and made sandwiches in the car! It is much cooler today and a little windy!

Driving takes a lot out of you! Everyone napped a little bit today…except Ry she just closed her eyes for the picture!

Welcome to Colorado!!

We pulled into Denver in the early evening and headed downtown for some sight seeing!

We parked downtown next to Union Station and headed up the 16th street mall to the Capital building! On the way we found a Caribou Coffee and had to stop! Ry and I absolutely love Caribou, iced turtles coming right up!!

Next stop, a mile above sea level in the Mile High City, on the steps of the capital building!

There is a small discrepancy as to where the exact mile is, so we made sure to sit on both steps just in case! 🤣

Next up, let’s tour Denver! By scooter!!!!

We found two to begin with and rode double around town for a bit! Then we found two more and each had our own!

We traveled by the civic center, the Denver coin Mint, union station, the University of Colorado Denver, and the Rockies stadium!

We made sure to find the University of Colorado Denver, this is where my Grandpa John, the girls Great Grandpa attended and graduated with a degree in engineering!

We had so much fun riding all over Denver! As we were exploring we realized that the Colorado Avalanche were playing in the final game of the Stanley cup finals. There began to be a lot of people downtown so we decided to head back to our hotel and grabbed pizza for dinner!!

By the way…the Avalanche won the Stanley cup! 🏒🥅

At our hotel the Rocky Mountains were absolutely beautiful!

Tomorrow we head into the park to see what we can see!!

Always focus on the front windshield and not the rearview mirror!

Good morning from Clarksville, Tn!

We arrived late last night due to no hotels being available in Nashville. We decided to push on through another hour to this hotel!

We had a leisurely start to the morning, we left Tennessee and passed through Kentucky. Right before we crossed into Illinois the tire pressure light came on. It was so nerve racking to watch the pressure go down, down, down as we drove to the nearest rest area. Thankfully it was only two miles away and we were

able to pull in, find a shady spot and access the damage.

When Alan was in high school he worked at a tire shop, so my anxiety was low knowing he could handle whatever he discovered. What he found was a slashed tire, no fixing that, so we unloaded part of the back to reach the release for the spare which thankfully was under the car!

After the spare was on, now to find a new tire! Low and behold there were 8, right at this particular exit.

Alan knew the kind of tire he wanted and the place he picked had them in stock so he knew it was the place to be!

They let us know of a BBQ place right next door where we could grab lunch while they fixed up the car.

Bill’s was delicious and we were soon back to the car and ready to head off, but not before we realized where we were!!

Metropolis, Illinois the home of Superman!

So we made a quick visit to town and then were off to St. Louis

Alan found a phone booth!

Thankfully we traveled to St. Louis without incident!! When we arrived the city was very busy and as we exited our car to head to the arch we heard a loud roar! It was the crowd at the Cardinals game!! 🤣 The cardinals had just scored two runs in the bottom of the eighth to take the lead!!

It registered 100° in the car when we got out and boy was it stifling!!!

We walked through the city to the park and enjoyed the air conditioned visitor center and museum. The trams to the top of the arch were sold out by this time. Not that I was going anywhere near that thing! So tiny!!!

We walked around outside and took pics, the last time we were all here was in Jan. of 2008. Bree wasn’t even a year old and we propped her up against the arch with Ry holding her. I wish I had that pic but it’s in the cloud somewhere!

Here they are now, enjoying the shade of the arch.

We also took a pic with the mighty Mississippi and some river boats!

Alan found the perfect place for family pics!

After finding our car and getting out of the city we headed west towards Kansas City! We arrived only to find our cooler plug had busted and the ice water had leaked all over the back of the car. 🤦🏻‍♀️

We dried it up as best we could, and got some deserved sleep…we’ll tackle this in the morning!

It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters!

It’s that time again! Road Trip!

We are embarking on our last huge cross country road trip with the girls. The sad reality is that in two summers Ry will be heading to college…and in three summers off Bree will go! Needless to say, this is our last drive across the country with our little girls! There is no telling where life may take them or us, so we are gonna cherish this time!!!

And what a better send off than to achieve Alan’s 50th state! Years ago in 2015 when I was headed to my 50th state the girls and I traveled through a huge portion of Idaho on our way to Washington state. I was riding shotgun with my dad, not Alan. He was back in Georgia working and would fly to meet us in Washington. So that’s how the girls hit Idaho and he didn’t.

Not this time! This time I am riding shotgun with my man and we have an amazing trip planned with tons of fun planned in Idaho!

I’ve been trying a new tactic with vacations, don’t stress about leaving at a certain time. It has been a game changer, the peacefulness that happens in our family when we pack up to leave now is amazing. Ry said to me today, I think this is the calmest it has ever been before a trip! Yes! Mission accomplished! It doesn’t help anything to get angry and irritated right before a family vacation, especially one where you are gonna spend about 7,000 miles in a car together!

So, there we were at about 6pm packing up for a 30 day trip around the country!

I produced matching shirts for us all and got our photo shoot on! I mean did it really happen if you don’t have pictures and matching T-shirts???

Our first official stop was of course Buccees! We know all the good places to stop and visit when it comes to travel plazas and Buccees is by far the best!

After a quick stop for restrooms and snacks we were back in the car!

Our original plan was Nashville, just get a few hours down the road to make the next two days not as long, but come to find out, NASCAR is in Nashville this weekend and hotels are booked up or extremely expensive. So, here we are headed about an hour further to a cheaper hotel!

Fun Fact: Tennessee is actually Alan’s first state!! 😜

Travel is the only thing you buy, that makes you richer!