Love, Adventure, and Messy Hair: Traveling with Kerri and RJ

"I just want to see some palm trees. I will try to shake away this disease." -"Santa Monica" by Everclear When we left Morrow Bay, we had a little more inland driving than coastal driving to get us to Santa Monica.  We passed through a lot of farm land - the kind of farm land you picture when you read The Grapes of Wrath  or Esperanza Rising  or anything that has to do with California's role during the Dust Bowl.  Strawberries were in season when we were passing through, and the scent of ripe strawberries in the air was absolutely tantalizing as we were driving along with the convertible top down.  As soon as we found a roadside stand, we had to buy some.  While we might have turned our noses up at California strawberries at a market in Pennsylvania, California strawberries straight out of the fields of California in the middle of July were just amazing.  We ate the whole big box in 24 hours!  What a nice, healthy treat to tak...

"I wanna build a home by the ocean Underneath the sky, gonna leave the door wide open So I can see everything, gonna build a home by the ocean Buried in the sand, gonna leave the door wide open so I can sing" - "The Architect" by O.A.R. On Saturday, July 7, we got back in our car after leaving it parked for two full days!  We drove to the other side of San Francisco to hop onto Pacific Coast Highway (PCH).  When we reached the Pacific Ocean on the opposite side of the city, we were treated to some spectacular views that would become everyday life for us for the next few days.  The photo above is at the Lands End Lookout Visitor Center at Point Lobos, which is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.  This stop got us our first National Park stamp on our National Parks Passport for this trip!   We left San Francisco behind us by jumping directly onto Pacific Coast Highway.  The first stretch of our driving for the d...

"We took the highway to the one up the coast to catch some sun..." -"Save Me SanFrancisco by Train In our last post, you may remember that we finally made it to the Pacific Ocean on July 5!  We made a short stop in a Pac Coast beach town called Stinson Beach.  It was such a cute town!  And the views were amazing!  After enjoying the best fish tacos we've ever had on the beach, it was time to hit the road for San Fran, and this was the view we were treated to as soon as we started to leave town.  The beach behind the car is Stinson Beach, where we had just come from.   That view was just the beginning of the beautiful sights we would be seeing on Pacific Coast Highway!  We began our PCH journey right there on the road leaving Stinson Beach.  If only this area was just ten degrees warmer!  The water is so beautiful and inviting, but it's a little chilly for our preferred swimming temperature!  It was o...

"Gas in the tank maps for the getaway All we have... All we have is time." -"Maps for the Getaway" by Andrew McMahon In the Wilderness On Wednesday morning, we enjoyed one last delicious round of Creme Brulee French Toast and Alaskan Eggs Benedict from the Alaskan Inn, and it was time to hit the road for Reno.  I-80 took us right past the Great Salt Lake, so we got a view of that from a distance.  It's unbelievable how much salt is out there. There are places where the lake is dry at the moment and the salt just cakes the ground.  As you can see from the picture at the top of this page, the lake isn't the only place that is salty!  Shortly after leaving the Salt Lake City area, we came upon the Bonneville Salt Flats.  This is where they do races for land speed records.   There were some brave people driving their personal cars around on the flats - which it appears you are actually allowed to do.  There were also people wal...

"A lot of moving, a lot of rolling A lot of driving, a lot of strolling A lot of leaving here, arriving there Trying to go just about everywhere A lot of thinking about where I'm going next." -"A Lot of Moving" by the Avett Brothers On Monday, we got back on the road and headed north out of Colorado. It wasn't long before we crossed the border of Wyoming.  Immediately, there was one big, noticeable difference in Wyoming - it was windy as get-out!  No matter where we went, the wind was gusting, but it was especially blustery on the highway. At first, we thought the truckers in Wyoming were not very nice and were initiating new drivers onto the highway by running them off the road, but it turns out it is just that hard for them to handle their trucks at 70-80 miles per hour in 40+ mile per hour wind gusts.  We decided to visit Cheyenne, Wyoming, since it was right along our route into Utah.  It was a cute town!  Many of our town...

"Only the wild ones Are the ones you can never catch Stars are up now no place to go, but everywhere" -"Only the Wild Ones" by Dispatch This was our second trip to Colorado as a couple and RJ's third trip to Colorado overall.  Neither of us had ever driven in before.  We were surprised after crossing the Colorado border to learn that the first two hours or so of the drive was very flat and empty with even less civilization than Kansas!  Lucky we've been keeping our gas tank from dropping below half very often, because it was quite a drive into Colorado before we found a place to stop and fuel up and use the bathrooms.  We caught our first glimpse of the mountains about 30-40 miles outside of Denver, and then the drive started getting more interesting and we started feeling like the end of our long day of driving was in sight. We weren't able to book any rooms for the entire five nights we were staying, so we split up ou...

"They've never drove through Indiana, Met the men who plowed that earth, Planted that seed, busted his ass for you and me, Or caught a harvest moon in Kansas, They'd understand why God made those fly over states." -"Fly Over States" by Jason Aldean Days Three and Four of our cross-country adventure involved a LOT of driving!  We crossed the border of five new states during these two days on the road and drove over 1,200 miles!  Kerri actually got to drive some of those miles, too, and RJ was a very good passenger.  Covering just over 600 miles on Day Three got us to Kansas City, MO for a night at the La Quinta Blue Springs , which was affordable, super comfortable, and provided a fantastic breakfast!  Not to mention, it was an extremely dog-friendly hotel, and there were a LOT of people traveling with their furry friends, which made us a little wistful for our own four-legged best friend who is at home with Bob, Michele, Cody, and Ryle...