road trip photos

Photos from my son's road trip across the USA.

road trip is over

Well, it is official, the next to oldest son's road trip is over. He arrived in Emeryville today after seeing the beach in Morro Bay and then traveling up Highway 1 for a while and then looking all around San Francisco. Tomorrow he has his orientation at school and moves into his apartment.

Even though I was all the way across the USA, my day was pretty exciting in a bad way. My car has not been starting very well since Saturday and then today as I was leaving work my car would not start. Fortunately the person who was car pooling with me knew the number to call for our company's security desk. He showed up within a couple of minutes as he was just driving our way when he was paged. He jumped my car even though it was raining lightly. Instead of going home I stopped by my favorite mechanic. It turns out that my car had a good battery but the starter died. After a two hour wait, I finally made it home. Not exactly what I needed was an extra expense with the road trip, but better this happen to me than my son on his road trip!

road trip : almost there

I talked to our road warrior son this evening and he has made it to Bakersfield, CA. They decided not to go to Roswell on the southern route and instead stayed on I-40 on the northern route. They stopped in Albuquerque for the night and then got up late before setting off to see Meteor Crater which I thought was a bit of a tourist trap when we saw it several years back. They spent several hours at the Grand Canyon, which on the other hand is worth every minute you spend marveling over the beauty and majestic of it all. They spent the night in Williams, AZ which is where we spent the night the last time we visited the canyon as it right on I-40 as you exit the park. They were running out of time so did not see my mother in Tucson, but instead continued to California. They want to see the beach and the large redwoods before our son's best friend leaves by airplane to return home on Thursday morning. The great road trip is coming to a close already...

road trip plus family life

It is official, our next to oldest son has traveled half way across the USA. I talked to him this morning as he was at a rest stop in Amarillo, Texas. After stopping in Nashville, TN the first night and Fort Smith, Arkansas the second night, they now hope to reach Carlsbad, New Mexico this evening after passing through Roswell, NM. I convinced him to forget about the alien's tourist trap in Roswell and go Carlsbad Caves. Plus I told him to go to White Sands National Monument as these are places we have never visited as a family. Hopefully he will make the right decision. As I spoke to him on the phone while at the rest stop, he saw a road runner and was trying to get his friend to look at it. I think sights like these are helping him appreciate the life he has had as we have seen so many things as a family together. Once he arrives in Arizona, then the sight seeing will really begin as he is planning on seeing my mother in Tucson, then drive through Phoenix on the way to Flagstaff to see the Grand Canyon.

While holding down the fort at home, my daughter helped me paint his old room in our house and it is looking very nice indeed. This morning I took a break and played cricket with a couple of friends. On the way back home I stopped by a lake near our home and ran around it for some more physical activity. I visited Home Depot to get ceiling paint to touch up the mistakes we made yesterday and when I got out to my car it would not start. I called home twice but no one answered the phone, so I made an executive decision and went back into Home Depot to get a socket set. I took out my battery and in a Home Depot cart I took the battery to Wal-Mart which is in the same shopping center. They tested the battery and said it was fine. When I got back to my car I took a cloth I had in my car and cleaned the battery terminals and my car started. When I got home I used my battery cleaning tool and finished the job the right way. Hopefully I will have no problems tomorrow morning to go to work.