7,438 miles, 335 gallons of fuel, 17 days, 16 States, 4 time zones, & 1 shirt*
In June of 2004, a number of factors came together which alowed a 25 year dream of mine to become a reality as I embarked on a 17 day, 7,400 mile cross country road trip. I drove west, mostly along I-70, I-25, and I-40 (with numerous detours) to Long Beach, CA. I then followed the Pacific Coast Highway north to San Francisco before turning east for the long ride home along I-80. Stops along the way included the Gateway Arch, Kansas Cosmosphere, Pikes Peak, Royal Gorge Railroad, Meteor Crater, Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Valley of Fire, the Queen Mary, and the Golden Gate Bridge
Needless to say, I had a blast! I wish I could have taken more time to complete the trip, but that was all the vacation time I could take in one block. Some highly recommended places which I stumbled across enroute included dinner at Jake's Steaks in St. Louis, MO; the spectacular 25 mile drive along Route 89A from Flagstaff to Sedona, AZ; and the stunning mountaintop community of Jerome, AZ. The map above shows my route based on real-time tracking data being transmitted from my vehicle every 3 minutes via ham radio. Click on the round buttons to see photos from the trip!