Last year we drove to Alaska, then to the West Edmonton Mall and Yellowstone National Park. This year we are going the other direction. We are visiting my sister in Dallas then heading up to Springfield Missouri to visit some friends, instead of driving straight from Dallas to Springfield, we are going to go through Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Fort Walton Beach Fl., Bowling Green Kentucky.

We went over 6000 miles covering 16 states in 17 days.

6000 mile road trip map

Days 1-3: Home (Stockton Ca.) to Ft Worth Texas

packed

This doesn't look like enough snacks to get us to Texas.

too early I didn't know that life could to start this early

gate leaving home

It was a great morning when we left at 6:00 a.m. from Stockton California.

I-405

on I-405 we got postponed by the traffic, due to President Reagan's funeral procession

family picture by San Diego

We are at the beach by San Diego

Hunter checking out the wild life by the beach.

Arizona State Line

We made it to.......uuuummmmmmm?

The girls watching the Hunter flying show

Of course we had to keep the tradition of having Dairy Queen when we leave California

at one of the rest stops in Az. We didn't get on the news here.

we made it ,to the rest stop

What is ironic, 10 years after coming through this area a couple times, Robin's parents moved about 30 miles away from this rest stop.

such a drastic scenery change from Arizona to New Mexico....NOT

then on to Texas

Since we where in El Paso so close to the Mexican border, we went to a Greek restaurant and had pizza, go figure

time to wash the desert dirt off

as we headed further into Texas we got stopped at a border patrol check stop. They didn't know that we had smuggled Nicole in from Canada.

A B1 bomber flew over us as we headed into Fort Worth

We saw this storm chaser on I-35w as we headed into the Ft Worth area. They had been under severe weather for the 3 days prior to us getting there.

Days 3-4: Cleburne Texas, Ft. Worth Zoo

We made it to my sisters in Cleburne, just south of Ft. Worth

on our way to the zoo

the 3 amigos

Hunter was terrified of the squirrel.

This is a great way to cool off

Days 5-6: Cleburne Texas, Ft. Worth Stockyard

and I thought our kids were good. You raise them right and they still turn out bad. I think Oscar is the bad seed ;-)

Just yesterday he was terrified of a squirrel

The girls got their Texas size gumballs, they were hollow. What a jip

Aunt Robin got Hunter a gun set

Then she shot him

my poor poor boy

I think he liked the gift.

from being afraid of squirrels to riding bare back

helping with the chores

family picture time before we leave

I can't believe I got my kids Dallas Stars stuff. But at $4 bucks, I couldn't pass it up. 2 weeks earlier our pastor was in British Columbia and the hockey stuff was way over priced.

bye Cissy.....again

Days 7-8: on to Louisiana, with a stop in the big Easy, Mississippi, Alabama

we made it to Louisiana. Uh oh, where is Cole? Did we leave her in Texas?

those clouds look pretty serious as we head towards Baton Rouge.

not too bad

didn't need it but I guess it was good to know

Baton Rouge across the Mississippi River

thats where we are headed

the French Quarter. They were hosing the barf out of some of the bars into the street. It stunk.

The buildings were really awesome to look at.

On to Mississippi

Out of it already???? Hello Alabama

USS ALBAMA Now, That is a boat

ADays 9-11: Fort Walton Beach, if you go here you have to stop by the Old Bay Steamer and have the seafood boil, it was the best food on the trip.

We stayed at the Ramada which was a great family hotel.

oooooooohhhhhh mmmmmmyyyyyyy. This is the view from our room. As soon as we saw this view, we called down to stay an extra day here.

yea dad, this is our room.

The girls wasted no time hitting the beach.

this is my favorite picture, this was taken from inside our hotel room. I love the wave crashing.

it started raining for a while, so we went and did laundry.

quick everyone lets go... the sun is out.

because of the weather front that moved through, the waves were great.

the girls getting ready to go body boarding at 11:30 pm.

the 3 girls out at the surf after midnight.

they decided to call it a night when the lightning started to get close.

the next part of the front made it in.

We were on the beach for about an hour and half between the rain, and boy did we get cooked.

except BD just got browner

we seem to be getting redder

The slide worked suprisingly well for being very humid. Hunter flew off the slide

the last night, go to check our emails.

Days 12-14: on to Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas

there is a gator over there

we just passed the highest point in Florida and then we dropped into Alabama (345')

on our way on a side trip to pick up some boiled peanuts

Nashville? or LA with trees

We want to go to Kentucky again and spend more time here

The pool felt great on the sunburns

bye Bowling Green

We just watch the Godfather the night before. I don't think we have any enemies like Sonny Corlione.

the show me state.......show me the way out.....

trying to get to the arch they had everything closed off. St Louis sucks.

this was as close as we got....stupid Missouri

we don't have lightning bugs in Calif

on to see my parents. They live in Arkansas. I will get some pictures up from there pretty quick.

We had a great evening watching T-ball game.

go girlfriend

Days 15-16: on to Kansas Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona

look, we're not in Kansas anymore (I think it is a law that you have to do that picture)

this McDonalds goes over the highway. Too cool

we stopped at the Oklahoma City Bombing Museum. It was very sobering.

this tree survived the blast

as we came up to this statue across the street, Hunter was saying, 'Look, Jesus is crying'. Here is a 2 year old who can grasp the concept that Jesus was crying. Another family was walking by and the mom told her kids that they let a church put this statue here because the church got damaged during the attack. How about it is here because 168 people lost their life because of terrorist attack.