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We began discussing what we were going to do for our 50th wedding anniversary last year sometime, probably right after we celebrated our 49th.  We had always thought that going on an Alaskan Cruise or a big fancy party would be nice but the closer we got to actually committing to something, we decided that to go around the USA one more time would be the best for us.  We had done a similar trip in 1971 & 2007 and we had a blast, so a repeat sounded like the best way for us to commorate our 50th.  In '71 & '07 we took the 'northern' route along the Canadian border so this time we took a more central route.  We began roughing out the routes and who/what we would visit on the way.  We had planned to leave the 7th of May so we could be “on the road” on our anniversary, the 8th.  Then sometime in early March, I began getting messages from our friend Lou, about “The Arsenal of Democracy” flyover of Washington D.C.  I really like old airplanes and started to work a plan to convince Linda that we should leave on Monday the 11th, so I could video the once in a lifetime airplane event.  (Click on the Mustang to the right and check out the video I made) I guess it’s one of the reasons we have endured together over 50 years….I didn’t need a plan.  When I started to hint about the conflict with our start date and the airplane event, she said she knew it was important to me so why didn’t we delay the beginning of our trip till the 10th (a compromise)!  Even though we are both still crazy in love with each other….we respect each other and want the other person to be happy….that is how it’s supposed to work!

 

The last week of March we started making the reservations with the motels and finding out details of things along the way we wanted to see.  We wanted to see Linda’s Aunts, Uncle and cousins in Kansas City, MO and Auburn, CA.  Linda wanted to visit an old friend in CA that she went to HS with and hadn’t seen in almost 40 years.  We wanted to visit with my little brother Joe and his wife Beverly in Napa but decided to get together with them in Bakersfield, Ca.  We wanted to spend some time with my best friend Lee and his wife Brenda in Phoenix, AZ.  After that we would go south to visit our transplanted Virginia friends, Ron & Jean, which had moved to Maricopa, AZ a year ago.  Then we would go further south to Tucson to visit Linda’s sister and her daughter Sherie.  After that we would work out way up to Tahlequah, OK to visit the Cherokee land where some of Linda’s people came from.  The last stop would be in Lake City, FL to stay with our good friends Steve & Vicki.  Along the way we had other diversions we wanted to check out but those were the main dots we wanted to connect.  It would be a fun trip and maybe a little intense at times too.  Most of our friends here couldn’t believe we were going to ride for 22 days in our little KIA Soul.  They wanted us to put a GoPro on the dash, facing us and live stream it so they could watch us, I said no thank you!  We told them we both rode in Linda’s ‘33 Ford coupe for 3 years.  I guess they don’t understand that we actually LIKE to be together and don’t mind rubbing elbows occasionally…..hehehehe  So Sunday, May 10th we would leave on our 7023 mile, 22 day sojourn across this great Country we proudly call home….God Bless the USA.

 

I have fired up this website to chronicle our odyssey.  Each page will be a separate day of the trip….with all the details of that day, a map of our route that day and a slideshow of all the pictures of that day.  When you mouse over the slideshow, there is a nav bar at the bottom.  Just click the arrow on the far right and the slideshow will start with the images changeing every 5 seconds.  If you want to stop the slideshow just click the pause icon.  The nav bar will also show how many images are in that slideshow.  When viewing the pictures please remember that all of the pictures that were taken from our car were done by Linda while the car was moving between 25 mph and 80 mph.  We didn’t realize until we got back and I started editing the pictures that the red dash in the car was reflecting in the lower half of most of the pictures….which makes balancing the color….fun.  Also sometimes the pictures were taken into the sun.  The choice was either miss the picture or take it and try to fix it later.  We wanted to share our adventures with everyone that is interested and record our trip so we can relive it in the future….we hope you enjoy it!

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