WOW! What an adventure driving out west was! We have been wanting to do a road trip out there for several years. Mike has been to a lot of places out there but I have never done any sightseeing in the west before. I have been to several cities in California and Texas, but that was about all my seeing the sites consisted of.
Think about it, most people including us want to go to exotic foreign places with beautiful scenery and beaches and mountains without ever considering the cornucopia of places to visit right here at home. From sea to shining sea, there are awesome parks, towns, cities and attractions for every taste, So for us as travel advisors, and just for ourselves, this was a journey of exploration of the wonders in the West of the United States.
We decided late last year that if we didn’t plan it and do it, we never would, so we started by setting a date. We wanted to go at the end of the summer this year. We thought maybe several weeks would allow us to do everything we wanted to do. That ended up growing to 5.5 weeks.
Mike did all the planning. I had input in lots of the sites but he has been to some and knew what we should see better than I did. He spent weeks checking out different sites and planning a possible route to see the things we wanted. Then he started planning the exact route. We also had to consider how long we wanted to spend at each site. Then look for any other sites near the top things that we might enjoy looking at. He did extensive planning and it went perfectly!! Every hotel was planned ahead and reservations made (we did leave plenty of leeway to stop for things we found along the way), all the parks reservations were made (some are required, some are not) and he planned the route for every day – mileage, time in route, and what time we might leave and arrive.
We visited friends and family all the way out to California, not just sites. We started on a southern route first. On the way out, we went through Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada and California. We wanted to see as many National Parks in Utah, Arizona, Wyoming and California as possible, as well as as many things near the parks as we could. Of course, several caverns and trains since they are always on Mike’s list of things to do.
So join us on our adventure of 40 days and 40 nights over just shy of 10.000 miles as we explore just a very few of the things to do and see in the western part of our great nation. The hope is that inspiration will follow, and you will take to the road or the skies to make a journey of discovery as well.