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.
Days 1-3: Home (Stockton Ca.) to Ft Worth Texas
This doesn't look like enough snacks to get us to Texas.
I didn't know that life could to start this early
It was a great morning when we left at 6:00 a.m. from Stockton California.
on I-405 we got postponed by the traffic, due to President Reagan's funeral procession
We are at the beach by San Diego
Hunter checking out the wild life by the beach.
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.
just west of OKC we passed through the Canadian section of Ok. I didn't know they had a canadian section.
Cole getting emotional at the end of Return of the King
yea I'm still back here
We stopped at the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert again. It is worth the stop
it's not time yet!!??
should we be concerned?????
these things are huge
except for Cole's scowel, this is a nice picture, at least Bon is happy.
we picked up some ice cream cones to help cool off
through Las Vegas
look at the all the great things to do on highway 95
area 51........oooooooo scary
the Ramada was like an oasis in the middle of the desert. The hotel and restaraunt were fantastic.
back to Califonia
Mono Lake
Hunter had a chart of bugs and he was excited to match it up.
hi bunny
on to Panum Crater. The girls went up to the top and I had to change a tire.
fun times for me
we always find snow on our trips.
since we had to change a tire, we went to Yosemite instead of Bodie. I didn't want to take the gravel road to Bodie without a spare tire.
we always try to get a penny smushed
it is over already. Droppin' of Oscar Cole