road trip usa ~ how it all began...

The year was 1971 and we had been married only a few months...when we took our first lengthy road trip. We celebrated our first Christmas together in our new-to-us home, then packed the car and headed south for California. The trip through Washington, Oregon and on to Los Angeles took us two days. We spent the first night in a Motel 6 in Redding, California...and then stayed with my uncle and aunt in West Covina (LA area) for the rest of our vacation. We did Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm and took in the Rose Bowl Parade on January 1, 1972. On the trip home...



...we traveled north along the coast, visiting Hearst Castle and spending a night in Monterey. We so enjoyed that first road trip, we decided then and there that we would take many more in the years to come. We thought we might even buy an El Camino one day...
 

 (El Camino that we spotted in California a few weeks ago.)

...and do an extensive road trip of the USA. Wouldn't that be fun? We could drive where we wanted and sleep in the back (we were envisioning one with a canopy). Why...that would be much more economical than Motel Six! :)

And that is how the dream of seeing all of the US states was was first hatched...over four decades ago. We hadn't really factored in how children might affect our plans...and so things never unfolded quite as we envisioned so long ago. But the idea never quite died...and now we can say, 'we did it!' From that first road trip in 1971 to our entry into the last state (Kansas) on October 31 of this year, many changes occurred. We took a few road trips with our children, but mostly we carried on with our 'road trip usa' once our kids left home.

The following is an overview of the many trips involved over the years that eventually led us to complete our goal of driving in each of the 50 states.

1971...Washington, Oregon, California 

(Photo at Hearst Castle ~ Jan 2, 1972)

 1973 ~ Florida

(We toured Florida in a rented Pinto following a missions trip to Haiti)

1977~ Hawaii

(The Hawaiian sunsets are timeless!)

1977 ~ Nevada, Idaho (along with Washington, Oregon and California)

 (in our pick-up and camper with a two and four-year-old)

 
1986 ~ Iowa We flew to Iowa for my brother's wedding and rented a car.

(this was not our rental vehicle!)

1988 ~ Texas We flew to south Texas with Kris, Jeremy and Heidi to visit my sister and her boys.

(photo at the Alamo, San Antonio)

1999 ~ Alaska We drove to Alaska with our Swiss friends, Pierre and Ute.

(an Alaskan rainbow framing our rental motor home)

2005 ~ Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Utah. We finally made the long road trip out to visit my brother Bill and his family in Iowa...and visited many sites along the way.

(our first visit to Yellowstone)

2007 ~ Arizona  After thirty years, we traded our camper in for a small motor home. 

(our first major trip with the new RV)

2010 ~ Colorado, New Mexico

(Garden of the Gods ~ Colorado)

2012 ~ Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama   We flew to Houston and did a driving tour of the gulf coast in a rental car.

(Gulfport, Mississippi)

And that takes us to this year...with 28 states left to visit.  This summer we were in North Dakota, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, New York , Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine,

(Acadia National Park, Maine)

Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania.

That left 11 states...and those are the ones we paid a visit to on our last leg of the journey this fall.  West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma ...

...and last (but not least) Kansas!

 

We did it.  We 'coloured' in every state!  That doesn't mean we won't be crossing that border ever again.  There are plenty of places still left to visit...and re-visit.  But maybe we should finish 'colouring' in the Canadian provinces first.  We have yet to visit New Brunswick and PEI.  Maybe one day!

So that is how our Road Trip USA unfolded...bit by bit...over four decades.  I'll be sharing some of our most recent adventures with you over the next few weeks...but thought I'd give you a little of the history behind our 'road-tripping' experiences first. 

Have a great day!