Happy Easter 2009 Road Trip's 20th Anniversary

Who knew the hometown of Dwight Eisenhower was Abilene Kansas? Presidential library is there!



Who knew the Oregon Trail goes through part of Kansas?

Happy Easter! Our thoughts were family today as we whizzed down the highway today. It turned out to be a pretty cold day, then cold and rainy. We needed jackets and rain gear and luckily we had them.

We left Marion Illinois this morning after a nice breakfast. Quickly, we reached St. Louis, Missouri.
It was fun to see the Arch again after 20 years. Last time, we had two little shits with us. No, not the cats! Joey was 8 and Amanda was 11 when we did our first 3,000 mile road trip 20 years ago. Amazing! In some ways, this trip is a little easier, but perhaps more boring. LOL

Last time we ate Twinkies and HoHos out of a cooler in the back.
Last time, we had no cell phones- and no computer. My Apple II GS was in the hands of United Van Lines.
Now, we have the newest Blackberry and iPhone, and two laptops.
WiFi connections are ubiquitous, even available at the roadside rest stops.

Last time, I kept a journal in a little notebook. This time I photo blog, twitter and Facebook. And email. And Text.

Mostly, our route is different than it was in 1989. A common point was in St. Louis though. But, this time, we're going to Pikes Peak. Last time we went to the Dinosaur National Monument in Vernal Utah.

Each evening, we check the route with Google Maps. Then we decide how far we think we should go tomorrow. We have GPS on my phone, and a spiral bound atlas and the book, The Next Exit. Sometimes we pick up a state map at the road stops.

In 1989, we had AAA maps. And lots of tour books.
This time, I look up a lot of stuff online as we are driving. That's how we decide what to stop and see. Fairly planned spontaneity!

Tomorrow we plan to drive from Salina, Kansis to Colorado Springs, Colorado. We'll stay there two nights. We're planning to ride the Pikes Peak Cog Railway. Mom had gone to Pikes Peak when she was young, so maybe she will relate to this. I'm sure they drove up it. Edward Straight had told my Ed a lot about that trip, buying extra tires for the car in case of flats etc...Cool.

Ed is tracking daily expenses in his journal. We will know about home much it really costs us eventually. Maybe we don't want to know though 8-)

We are having a nice trip, I'm driving some each day. Ed is pretty wired and doesn't sleep well at night, but sleeps fine when I drive after lunch, so it works out.

I think we covered over 500 miles today. Probably too many, but we will be able to make Colorado Springs tomorrow night.
Planning to do laundry there since we'll have two nights there.

Tough part of the trip will be from Pikes Peak to Utah, might be in snow. We'll see. We would love to see more of Utah, like see Arches National Park. So we will try.

My flight leaves S.F. (Actually Oakland) Sunday evening at 10:30PM. I'll be sad to leave w/o Ed though. Maybe after several more days in the car together, I'll be happier to leave, who knows. Trip is going well though.