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USA Roadtrip 2012
The impetus for pursuing a new way of life, an experiment in nomadic living, an all around life-changing experience. Lindströms on the Road started as a blog about our road trip around most of the USA in 2012 with the tagline “10,000 miles, 90 days, 2 toddlers”. Here you can explore the trip that started it all, including how we made such a trip possible, how we prepared for it, where we went and what we did. You can read about the whole trip chronologically, or choose a state to find ideas and inspiration for exploring with your family!
This is the last post describing what we lovingly refer to as “The Big Trip”. For those of you who have followed the whole journey, thank you for your patience in all the time that living life has made it hard to find time to write. If you’re new, we welcome you to read older posts about this amazing trip that……
On the road again to our last destination: northern Virginia and Washington DC. I have a cousin* in the Virginia suburbs of Washington DC that I hadn’t seen for years, so it was time for a visit. We arrived at their house on a Friday evening and spent the evening catching up. We met her husband for the first time,……
Continuing north, we left the I95 corridor and headed for the Del-Mar-Va Peninsula via the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. It was the closest and fastest route, and I remember crossing it as a kid and thinking it was really fun. Though the tolls were a bit steep with the trailer, it was a welcome break from miles of endless interstate. Both bridges……
While we weren’t the least bit tired of traveling or being on the road, we were a little tired of being tourists. The weather, though it had stopped raining, had turned colder and we weren’t inspired to head to any of South Carolina’s beaches. We also decided not to head in to Charleston but instead chose a leisurely morning at……
Despite all of the twists and turns we encounter in more than 12,000 miles of road, we often talked about our big trip having 4 main turns. We started by turning WEST in Pennsylvania, and though we wove around to see sights and visit friends, our general direction was west. When we reached the Pacific we made a giant left……
Since our friends were in a housing transition and staying with family, it was important to us to be able to visit with our friends at our campsite rather than expect them to host us. The Daytona Beach KOA gave us a great location to be able to do that. Here’s our campground review (spoiler alert: it’s a good one) Price:……
Jess and I met in college. We had the same major, the same minor, shared faith and a lot of common interests. We were fast friends. After graduation, she headed off to teach as a missionary in Ecuador, and except for an occasional email, we lost touch for a while. A few years later, she was married to an Ecuadorian……
Continuing east into Florida, we stopped and spent a night at the Tallahassee East KOA campground. We had plans to meet up with friends in Daytona Beach for the weekend, so we did not take time to see or do anything in the area. Here’s our review: Price: $33/night after KOA member rebate Location: Convenient to I-10 in the Tallahassee……
Leaving New Orleans, our next destination was Daytona Beach, FL. But since that trip was over 9 hours of driving time, we broke it up and made a couple of overnight stops along the Gulf Coast. We didn’t spend much time in Mississippi, essentially just driving across the southern tip of it. But the Mississippi highlight was this exit marker off……
Full confession: the title of this post comes from a line of a song in the movie Steel Magnolias. It’s been a number of years since I’ve seen it, but I think they dance to it in the wedding reception scene. For some reason, this song I barely know pops into my head every time I hear the word bayou…….
New Orleans is a city unlike any other we’ve been to, with a culture all its own. Since you could argue that this culture is built around alcohol and music, then for our purposes the music was in focus. ` We took a walking tour of the French Quarter and enjoyed beautiful architecture and waterfront views. We walked through……
Peter had his first birthday during our stay in Houston. Despite the amazing experiences we were having as a family, I’d be lying if I said my mom guilt didn’t kick in over not being able to give him a first birthday party surrounded by grandparents and other family. Mom guilt is a tricky, dangerous thing. Our friends really stepped……
We have a problem. With the camper. But we already talked about that. But really, does anyone ever talk about Houston without pretending to be on a NASA mission? I guess maybe if you live there. I’ll do my best to avoid any further astronaut references. Houston was another non-negotiable stop on our route. Three good friends live there (2……
The problem is I didn’t. Remember the Alamo, that is. I remembered that we’re supposed to remember the Alamo, but I couldn’t remember why. As we crossed Texas, we spent a night at the San Antonio KOA and decided to spend part of the day checking out the Alamo before heading on to Houston. In between the time of our……
Texas is big. That may seem obvious, and we knew that but it wasn’t until we decided to cross it that we understood it from experience. To go from visiting our friends in El Paso to visiting our friends in Houston, given our self-imposed 4 hour per day driving limit, was going to take several days. So why did we……
