Road Trips
Chronological road trip stories and travel journals from our journeys across the country. These posts follow our routes day by day, sharing the experiences, stops, and memories that define each trip.
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August 13–16, 2015: Birthplace of Route 66 Festival – Springfield, Missouri
✨ INTRO As chatter started building among Route 66 roadies about the Birthplace of Route 66 Festival in Springfield, Missouri, we knew it was something we wanted to experience. We had missed the festival in Kingman the year before—and wouldn’t be able to make Los Angeles the following year—so Springfield felt like the perfect opportunity. When it came time to plan the trip, we debated between taking the car or traveling with the trailer. After recently purchasing our truck and Shasta Oasis, the decision became pretty easy. If that setup was going to collect dust, it had better be road dust. And just like that, another road trip memory was…
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May 11-14, 2015: NCPAA Conference, Lexington, Kentucky
This was my first time attending the National Citizens Police Academy Association’s conference, which was hosted by the Lexington Police Department and Lexington Citizens Police Academy Alumni Association. It was a great time, I learned a lot of new things that will assist my community and our police department. I also had a good time touring some of the Lexington area’s attractions: Keeneland Race Course, Calumet Horse Farm, Buffalo Trace Bourbon Distillery, and Kentucky Horse Park. I was introduced to the delicacies of bourbon candy (not so good for my waistline though!) and bourbon cream (mixed with root beer makes a really good “adult” root beer float!). Photo Gallery Click on…
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June 20, 2015: Cozy Dog Run
It was a great day to go on a road trip for the day, so we decided to take our grandson to lunch over at the Cozy Dog Drive-in on Route 66 in Springfield, Illinois! Photo Gallery Click on any photo below to launch the photo gallery. [FAGP id=2779]
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The Road Trip That Made Me
Sometimes I sit and wonder when I became addicted to road trips and all of the memories they create. Growing up, we frequently vacationed in northern Minnesota and drove some 800 miles each way from Indianapolis to our destination, which was a cabin at a resort on one of 10,000 lakes. But I think I can point to a trip 30 years ago in July of 1985 that really opened my eyes to what a road trip vacation is all about. It was July 4th weekend of 1985 when my mom, dad, and I loaded up in my folks’ 1977 Chevrolet Impala. I was getting ready to head into my…
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My Cannonball Fugitive – A Trip 8 Years in the Making
For those couple of you who follow my blog, we sometimes incorporate photographing movie filming locations into our road trips. We first researched the filming locations for My Cousin Vinny in the fall of 2008. We had decided (as we regularly do), that it was a great movie to watch for some laughs. But of course, instead of watching the movie like normal people, on this evening, our curiosity was piqued and we ended up breaking out the laptops to start researching filming locations and continually pausing the movie. At the time, there wasn’t alot of info on the Internet, but we did have satellite images and maps available, as well as the…
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July 9, 2014: Route 66 – Seligman – Needles – Williams
Today’s Map Below is an interactive map of our trip, tracked using my Trimble Outdoors Navigator iPhone app. You can zoom in, or click the link below for a bigger, fullscreen map. Feel free to browse and refer to the map for details about where we traveled, the photos were taken, etc. Last Day Westbound Today would be our last day westbound, and we would turn around in Needles and return east, taking 66 most of the way (when possible) and in particular, some areas of 66 that we missed on the way out. Due to time constraints, in a few areas where we did take 66 west, we might skip…
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July 8, 2014: Route 66 – Holbrook to Seligman, Arizona
Today’s Map Below is an interactive map of our trip, tracked using my Trimble Outdoors Navigator iPhone app. You can zoom in, or click the link below for a bigger, fullscreen map. Feel free to browse and refer to the map for details about where we traveled, the photos were taken, etc. Even though we had a perfectly acceptable stay at the Magnuson, it would have been nice to sleep in a Wigwam (we have at the Cave City, KY location). But here’s a morning photo on our way out of town. Next, we stopped at the Jack Rabbit Trading Post. Glad we went and checked the door, because it looked…
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October 17 – 19, 2014: CubaFest
October 17, 2014 Today’s Map Below is an interactive map of our trip, tracked using my Trimble Outdoors Navigator iPhone app. You can zoom in, or click the link below for a bigger, fullscreen map. Feel free to browse and refer to the map for details about where we traveled, the photos were taken, etc. Road Trip! When deciding on a route to Cuba, we realized there aren’t alot of options that we haven’t taken, at least for state or US routes. Nonetheless, Pat decided upon SR 37 south to SR 450, then US 50 to St. Louis, at which point we took Route 66 to Cuba. We arrived right around…
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July 7, 2014: Albuquerque, New Mexico to Holbrook, Arizona
Today’s Map Below is an interactive map of our trip, tracked using my Trimble Outdoors Navigator iPhone app. You can zoom in, or click the link below for a bigger, fullscreen map. Feel free to browse and refer to the map for details about where we traveled, the photos were taken, etc. We decided to try having breakfast at a place recommended by a coworker of mine – not on 66, but very cool, The Owl Cafe has a very cool structure! Afterward, we drove down to Central Avenue (Route 66) to take a few photos of some of the excellent signage still remaining. I only took a fraction of what…
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July 6, 2014: Amarillo, Texas to Albuquerque, New Mexico
Today’s Map Below is an interactive map of our trip, tracked using my Trimble Outdoors Navigator iPhone app. Feel free to browse and refer to the map for details about where we traveled, the photos were taken, etc. You can zoom in, or click the link below for a bigger, fullscreen map. We got started from our hotel in Amarillo and headed over to Route 66. First, we spotted this now-closed shop called Spudnuts Coffee and Donuts. My grandson got a huge laugh out of “Spudnuts,” so for quite a while he amused himself by repeating “Spudnuts”…over and over and over…we felt alot like Charlie Babbitt in Rain Man, as Raymond repeated…