Tuesday, 12/23 Planned Itinerary: Chicago to Washington D.C. to Philadelphia Actual Itinerary: Chicago to Pittsburgh to Harrisburg to Philly Clue to improvised travel - "...and leave the driving to us”. Well these recliners certainly aren’t comfortable for sleeping. Sure glad we were able to get the sleepers from San Francisco. I did get about 5 hours in fits and starts while Lisa got a lot less. She was watching videos pretty much all night. When I got up at 6:00AM and got ready for breakfast at 6:30, she “happily” accepted my invitation to join me. Not that she loves breakfast (this [View Full Entry]

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After a nice early Christmas the night before, Mom, Dad and Lisa headed off to Emeryville loaded down with bags of food, presents, and clean clothes. The train left on time - after all this was the Amtrak California Zephyr’s starting point. Mike would be getting on in Davis, a few stops north. He was able to walk to the train station from his house. The plan was for Dad, who had Mike's ticket because he had paid for it, to get off the train and meet him on the station platform of our sleeper car and give it to him [View Full Entry]

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I woke up at my usual time around 6:30AM, just in a new time zone an hour later. We were about 30 minutes west of Lincoln Nebraska, our next stop. I quick went outside when we stopped to take a picture of basically nothing, which describes the scenery most of the day. There are a few inches of snow on the ground in some places instead of a few feet of corn. I had breakfast with some passengers that got on in Denver. I haven’t met anybody yet that is going as far as we are. We get a lot of [View Full Entry]

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It was a restless first night for all with the train motion, tight quarters, and “unfamiliar” bedding. Dad was up first, beating the sunrise. He finished yesterday’s blog in the observation car waiting for outside light. The train was moving pretty good across the flats about half an hour outside Salt Lake City when dawn finally arrived. He did not expect to see “the kids” for a long time so he went to breakfast and was engaged in conversation (all passengers have stories to tell) with three other early birds when they arrived at the station. Dad was shocked to see [View Full Entry]

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Hi friends and family, It has been a long time since we communicated via this tool. In 2006, my then 16 year old daughter Lisa and I drove cross-country from San Mateo to Philadelphia in 16 days and documented our trip on travelblog. It was a great experience for both of us. As the 2008 Christmas holidays approached, I thought it was important that our son Mike joined the rest of us in visiting Pennsylvania this year to see his grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, and family friends. It had been quite a few years since he had been back east, [View Full Entry]

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As Lisa and I did after Leg 1, John and I summarized favorites, etc. for the last leg of this cross-country round-trip marathon. Top tier attractions: John • Dealey Plaza • Great music scene in Nashville, Memphis & Austin • Clinton Library • LBJ Ranch • Stax & Sun Records in Memphis • The Alamo • Acoma Mesa • Atomic Testing Museum Vince • Dealey Plaza • Acoma Mesa • Congress Avenue Bridge Bats • Carlsbad Caverns • Threadgill’s - meal plus music • Alamo • Clinton Library • Atomic Testing Museum • LBJ Ranch • Meteor Crater Disappointments: John • [View Full Entry]

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John and I had breakfast, took care of some little things around the Tahoe house, and hit the road about 9:15AM, reveling in our success. After dropping John off in Sacramento, I headed for home. Somewhere around 2:30PM I pulled in the driveway, feeling great. The odometer read 11,321. At the start of this trip way back on July 3, it was at 1,957, meaning the RAV-4 and I logged 9,364 miles together, with Lisa, Jackie, and John making their respective driving and companionship contributions across the country and back. Nobody got a ticket anywhere and the car performed flawlessly on [View Full Entry]

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We decided we had one priority stop today as an antidote to that extravagant monument to excess that was Las Vegas. We would take the route into California that would enable us to visit the ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest on the way to Big Pine and Bishop. CA. This forest, which is well off the beaten path, especially coming from the Nevada side, is the home of the oldest trees in the world. Some date back about 4,000 years! The short growing season and tough soil lead to extremely dense resinous wood that resists insects and disease. As parts of the [View Full Entry]

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This may be a short entry because, as you know, "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." We diverted from the interstate at Seligman to drive a 40 mile loop of Historic Route 66. We had been led to believe there was some new activity on portions of this route, such as bringing in old historic neon signs and renovating some of the establishments along the way. We didn't see any evidence of this. There were only a few "towns" along the way, only one of which offered anything interesting in the way of historic artifacts and memorabilia. That was Hackberry. [View Full Entry]

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Our first stop today was at Acoma, the oldest continually occupied community in North America. It is the home of a clan of Pueblo Indians that have lived her since around 1100AD. It is a fascinating place. Our guide told us how the Spanish came here, followed by the Franciscans who tried to force the native americans to give up their beliefs in favor of the "one true" Catholic religion. The blending of the two was really interesting and evident in the church and village. The guide was very secretive about the clan's traditional religious beliefs, practices, and rituals, and our [View Full Entry]

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