Time....

Well a new challenge arises. We spent a long evening with my parents getting into the details of the trip and looking into what stops we really wanted to make and how long we wanted to stay at each one. The good news is there are plenty of amazing things to see in our country...the bad news is to see all the sites we want will take 7 weeks which is 1-2 weeks longer than we planned for. There is going to be some tough choices to make as we move forward and in our planning phase. One of the easier choices for me is Dollywood - it just seems really cheesy - but who knows.... much to think about.

What to see in the Mid-West

We have planned most of our route but have a gap between Chicago and Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota. Any ideas on what to see in that area of the country? We have a stop in Sioux Falls but that is a long trip from Chicago. We are afraid that a 9-10 hour car trip when we are 3/4 through the trip will be really tough for us and the kids. If you know of anything that would be interesting for the kids or the whole family let us know. We would truly be grateful.

Major Stops Planned

We have finished the initial planning of the major stops we plan to make on the trip. We stayed up a little later than planned last night, but the map we posted at the top of the page is the fruit of our labor. It is a rough sketch of the places we plan to visit and pictures of some of the sights we plan to see. This being a rough draft we are open to new ideas and places to consider. Any suggestions??? If you think there is something we should see that is on or near our route let us know. When our plan is more concrete we will post a list of all of our stops including what we plan to see there.

Our road trip began around 30 years ago when Therman and Karen Striplin took their sons, Dan, Jim and Mark on a 5-week trip around the United States. Those memories are still so vivid in Mark's mind that he wanted to share the same experiences with his children. A year ago, the dream began. We actually started visualizing what our trip would look like and where we would visit. This past spring we laminated a map of the USA and outlined the trip Mark took and then started talking about why they stopped in the places they did and what we would do differently. Last night we sat with the kids and mapped out our trip. It is now up on the wall and we are so excited. We are mainly going around the perimeter of the United States. Some of the highlights will include the canyon country, some family in Texas, The Alamo, New Orleans (can't forget the jazz capital for our jazz drummer), University of Tennessee, Martin where my great aunt has a building named after her and they apparently have a pretty awesome marching band program (nothing like shopping for a college early), of course Washington DC and New York, Niagara Falls and much more. Our plan is approximately 6 weeks. Being a Social Studies teacher teaching US History, you can only imagine Mark's excitement. Being a teacher and having never been anywhere but the West Coast, you can imagine my excitement to share this experience with my husband and kids.

More to come . . .