Event Coverage UPDATED WITH PHOTOS! Going For Broke...50 day Cross-Country Road Trip Family Style

congrats on the award. I always felt Peoples Choice was the most meaningful.

 

You must be getting pretty close to "home" by now, but you just missed a decent little southern swell (you shoulda been here yesterday!). You'll like the water temp. though, it's up to 72 degrees. Welcome home bro (and family) ...

 

Loved following your travels. Gives me the bug again and KKOA Salina KS is on the list.

 

This is what my wife does actually, she gets on Shutterfly (I think) and makes a book for our vacation and its professional and bound and all, well worth the price since the kids and everyone else always looks at them. (Sorry such a long sentence) LoL!

 

We do the same thing....except in our house I am the official book maker. LOL Shutterfly is what I use and often find coupons for 1/2 off on Groupon.

 

Cool that you saw the Stiefel Theatre, lots of 'national acts' (Chris Cornell, ZZ Top) play there. Looks like your almost home from your Instagram pix.

Chris Nelson
Kansas

 

Well, did we make it home safe and sound? inquiring minds want to know.

 

Epic trip, just epic.

 

Sorry for the delay in finishing the trip coverage. Once we got home unpacking at our new place and fixing plumbing issues took over. But wait no longer, here is the final 8 days of the trip...
Day 46 Greenburg, KS to Amarillo, TX

After breakfast I went out and gave the wagon a quick going over. That's when I noticed a front tire looked like it was going bad. I am sure it was the combo of extreme heat and airbag suspension changing the angles that caused the tire to go. So after we ate breakfast I headed over to the Greenburg tire shop, and they lifted the car and sure enough one of the front tires had gone bad. The worse news was they didn't have the right size tire and I would have to drive about 55 miles north west to Dodge City to get a coupe tires. I started calling ahead as we babied the wagon at 40mph, and I had no luck finding a pinner white wall. Since I couldnt find a white wall, I decided to buy the cheapest blackwalls I could at walmart. $120 later and we were on the road headed towards Amarillo.


West Kansas in a nut shell.

I'll be doing a post on road trip essentials tomorrow but in this photo you can see 2. First, a good radio does wonder for morale, this one is from Custom Autosound and I was very happy with its performance. The second must half is a good USB adapter for charging your phone. I got this one from @Gasser_Dave with www.bracketron.com here on the Hamb. It is amazing how much faster a high quality adapter charges than a cheapo gas station adapter.

 

Day 47: Kenna's Birthday so we stayed in Amarillo
Since it was Kenna's Birthday we decided to do no driving and hangout in Amarillo another night. We also made one of the smartest decisions of the trip and rented Kenna a KOA Kamping Kabin for her birthday, and boy are we glad we did since that night we had the craziest lightening and rainstorm of the trip to that point. Kenna spent the day at the Spa getting pampered while the kids and I enjoyed the pool and catching frogs around camp. When she got back we went bowling for the Air Conditioning. For dinner we had to do the Big Texan, and the bet thing was they brought a free limo to pick us up at our Kabin. Nothing but the best for Miss Party Mom!







This poor dude was stuck with a $72 bill.






When we got back from dinner I had to take care of the wagon a bit. I had noticed the day before that we were starving for fuel under acceleration. I checked the plugs and they looked good so I decided to throw on the spare fuel pump I brought to see if that solved the problem. Sure enough it did, and when I pulled the pump there was fuel leaking out the back...

 

Day 48: Amarillo, TX to Santa Fe, NM

I'll let the photos tell the story...














Stumbled upon the summer concerts in the Santa Fe Plaza and danced the night away before heading back to camp!

 

Day 49: Santa Fe, NM

We decided to spend another day in Santa Fe. I think we were dreading getting home and back to normal life! The girls spent the day shopping in Downtown Santa Fe, while Cormac and I spent the day hiking. We only got one photo of the day.

 

Day 50 Santa Fe, NM to the Grand Canyon, AZ





Grand Canyon Selfie!

 

Day 51 Grand Canyon, AZ to Santa Maria, CA

This was our longest day of driving. We had planned to get a room in Laughlin, but when we got there all the hotels were sold out. At that point we decided there was nothing worth stopping at between Laughlin and Santa Maria. Close to 700 miles later and we were sleeping in our friends camper on their side yard!

Breakfast in Bedrock City


IF YOU HAVE NEVER BEEN TO OATMAN AZ, GO!!!!!

 

Did you go to the auto museum in sant rosa , that is where the blue hole isn't it ? Great museum . Love the trip , thanks for taking us along .

 

Day 52 Visiting friends in Santa Maria.

Day 53 Santa Maria, CA to Torrance, CA
After picking up our dog in the morning it was time to drive the final, bitter sweet 175 miles of our trip. It was so strange for this amazing adventure to end. Kenna summarized it best when we got home and she said, "I make a better gypsy than a housewife."

Thanks for following along on our adventure. Tomorrow I am going to post a final wrap-up with a 10 most important things for a successful road trip, and hopefully I will help inspire some of you to hit the road in your old car and see America!

 

I hate to see this trip end, I looked forward to the new pics and places. I was a truck driver but rarely got to stop at the small towns and attractions.

 

Just So Cool...your kids have enough memories to last a lifetime!

 

I have really enjoy the ride. HRP

 

Such a great trip. Thanks for taking us along.

 

Absolutely wonderful trip!! Can't thank you enough for sharing it with the rest of us. What a great family, maybe we'll get lucky enough to run into y'all one day.

 

God Bless your family!
Just Awesome !

 

An amazing trip with an amazing family. Thanks for taking us along!

 

My wife and I have followed the entire trip. Thanks for letting us be part of your summer. We've enjoyed it and it's spurred us to start talking about and planning one of our own!

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

 

Thanks for the great trip.

Ryan.

 

Very cool! Thanks for taking us along for the ride

 

What a trip. You folks are the greatest. Like others have said, thanks for letting me travel along with you on your adventure.

 

Great trip....great dog ( we have 2 of them, my father and me also grew up owning them) .....great family....vacations are important, and I'm sure your kids will talk about this one for the rest of their life...

 

Thanks for taking us along Shawn!!! Have so enjoyed following along here and on IG and found myself wishing the whole time we were were running along with you to enjoy it in person.

 

Loved it ! vacation of a lifetime glad I got to go.