The Great American Road Trip: Intro

 

It’s hard to believe it’s been almost a year since our Great American Road Trip and I never completed the post I promised. Since it’s getting close to summer, I thought I’d share our adventure, albeit a bit abbreviated, for any prospective travelers.

Towards the end of last June, we moved from our home in Ewa Beach, Hawaii to Northern Virginia. When we left, we didn’t know precisely where we would wind up but my sister, Keli, had recently moved from New Jersey, so we had family to crash with while we arrived in Virginia and began looking for our new home. Not knowing exactly where we would end up and enjoying the time between my husband’s jobs created the perfect situation for a long, carefree journey.

We began in June and ended in August. Looking at the distance traveled on Google Earth is staggering and it’s hard to believe we traveled all that distance.

Google Earth Map of The Great American Road Trip

Since living in Hawaii and flying in and out of Honolulu, you learn to recognize land as a tiny speck in a big blue sea. Landing in Seattle, it is a hard stop between land and ocean. I remember commenting to myself; we are really going to drive from one coast of this continent to the other. And drive we did, as best as we could we avoided interstates and stayed to the backroads and scenic byways, especially out west. We left the interstate in Northern California by Mount Shasta and didn’t get on another until eastern Colorado. If you have the time, this is the best way to see the country.

In the next few posts, I’ll share some our favorite stops. They include:

The Great American Road Trip

Yosemite National Park

Death Valley

Grand Canyon National Park

Monument Valley

Telluride

Missouri

 

Virginia

I don’t know that we’ll ever have a chance to repeat this trip, but it certainly was an excellent opportunity to show our son this great country of ours and get some serious appreciation for distance.

I hope in the next few weeks you will follow along and get excited about planning your Great American Road Trip for your family.

You may also like to read about my trip to Hong Kong and favorite travel items.