From Pacific to Atlantic

We spent more than three months, from late October to early February, skipping winter and soaking up the southern California sunshine. When we first traveled around the country back in 2012, California easily earned a place in our hearts and we were very glad to return. In southern California, you don’t have to decide if you’re a “beach person” or……

California or Bust!

Here’s where we confess to how far our blog accounts are currently behind our actual travels. Sometimes we just get so wrapped up in living our adventure that we take less time documenting it. Somewhere there’s a balance between living in the moment while still taking time to reflect on what we’ve done, but it’s not always easy to find…….

Remember the Alamo!

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……

Old El Paso

Southbound again to another border town. El Paso is very rarely on recommended road trip lists and responses when we included it in our itinerary ranged from confusion to fear for our safety. No one shared tips for things to be sure to see, but we got a few suggestions of places to avoid. Admittedly, El Paso would probably never……

The Impact of Hurricane Sandy

While Hurricane Sandy slammed the East Coast, we were high and dry in the deserts of Arizona and New Mexico. Our media exposure was limited and while we’d heard there was a big “superstorm” back east, it took us a few days before we understood the impact the storm would have on our route. Recalculating route… Recalculating route… Our plan……

Grand Canyon part 1: The adventures of Lukas

Meet Lukas. Lukas joined our family on Emelie’s first birthday and has more or less been a part of everything we’ve done since then. Although for over 2 years, Lukas didn’t have a name. Whenever anyone asked Emelie what her baby’s name was, she looked at them like they were crazy and said, “It’s a baby” or some variation of……

Hoover Dam

Heading east from Las Vegas, our first stop was the Hoover Dam. An impressive feat of engineering, to be sure. But to be honest, we were disappointed by the Hoover Dam and in the end we didn’t stay long. It was difficult to find information about visiting the Hoover Dam online ahead of time, and even that which we did……

Viva Las Vegas

A little known fact about Las Vegas: there is a campground on “the Strip”. There’s a wall around most of it for security and sound-dampening, so if you’re not looking for it, you probably wouldn’t see it. But nevertheless, there is a large parking lot behind Circus Circus, and it’s run by KOA. Really there’s very little about camping on……

Zzyzx Rd

When was the last time you saw a 5-letter word using only the last 3 letters of the alphabet? No? Me neither. It’s in the middle of the Mojave Desert in California, but the car ahead of us exited so apparently people go there. Imagine my surprise when I asked Mr. Google about this word and it turns out it……

Hits and Misses in the California High Desert

(Fear not, loyal reader… after a brief hiatus when celebrating Christmas and the New Year with our families took priority over blogging, we’re back. We WILL continue sharing our trip and we’ll hopefully finish before memories start to fade. Thanks for sticking with us and for your patience!) Our last night spent in California was a stop at the KOA……

Crystal Cove

Crystal Cove State Park is along the Coast Highway in the Laguna Beach area of California. We went there mostly to check out the tide pools and let the kids play in the sand on the beach while we waited for low tide. What we discovered was a beautiful beach, perfect conditions for a swim in the Pacific, and an……

Hangin’ in the O.C.

Our friend Maggie lives in Orange County with her five kids. We connected over Facebook and she invited us to come and stay with them on our way through California. We happily took her up on the offer! A chance to catch up with an old friend and a free place to stay? Definitely! Here we met our first driveway……

Hollywood Drive-by

We left Santa Barbara, headed for Orange County, California, and took a detour off the interstate to drive through Beverly Hills and Hollywood. Even on a Saturday, there was a lot of traffic and since we were towing the trailer it was nearly impossible to park. So Beverly Hills for us was a drive-by, and all our pictures were taken……

On the eve of return…

Tomorrow we are heading back to my parents’ house in Pennsylvania. I know the blog is dreadfully behind and if you’re only seeing my blog posts, you’d think we were still in California. We’re not. With the exception of tonight’s post, I plan to “go back” to California and continue to add each post in chronological order of what we……