Itinerary #2016LWOW

We've taken this show on the road!

We were up until midnight getting ready and loading the car-- woke up at 5:30 and put the finishing touches on the minivan and were on the road by 7:00 am.

I thought I would give you a little run down of where we're headed in the next few days:

Day 1:  (TODAY!) Driving 11 hours total-- we will stop in Kansas City for some Jack Stack BBQ at dinner, then drive a little further to spend the night in Salina, KS.

Day 2:  We will drive 6 hours to Denver, CO-- will be going to City Park and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science for a few hours before driving to Jellystone Park in Estes Park, CO.

I'm going to wait right here for you to go back and read that last statement again.

JELLY.STONE.PARK.

Mr. Ranger, Yogi, Cindy and Boo Boo would like to say "hi"

We are meeting up with some other families in Estes Park and decided to go with the "family friendly" campground that had plenty of things for the kids to do (a.k.a. Putt Putt and a Swimming Pool) so the adults could visit at night once we are back at the campsite after a full day of hiking or exploring.

We got the "activity schedule" from Mr. Ranger last night via email and let me tell you.... it is going to be GLORIOUS.

Karaoke!!!!  Church service at the pavilion!!!  Flag raising ceremony with Yogi!

I may do a few Facebook Live videos from some of the more entertaining activities.  Stay tuned-- I'll let you know.

Day 3:  Estes Park, CO

Day 4: Estes Park, CO

Day 5:  Pack it up and move this party to Yellowstone National Park

#2016LWOW: What's different? What's the same?

Prepare for a ramblefest-

We've had a few questions about where we're going and what we'll be doing and how it will differ from #2013LWOW, so I'll try to answer those here!

Where did you go last time?  Where are you going this time?

In 2013, we had a goal of reaching the Pacific Ocean--  All the way to Southern California, up Highway 1 to San Francisco, then home.  That trip was almost 3 weeks and over 6000 miles.  

#2013LWOW

This time, we are hitting some of the Midwestern and northern states.  The  trip total will be 3500 miles and we are only going to be gone about 11 days.

#2016LWOW

Who will you see?

In 2013, we did the bulk of the trip by ourselves.  We explored LA and stayed with two sets of friends in Southern California, but all the camping and outdoor adventuring was just us 5.   

This time, we are meeting two families in Estes Park, CO.  Chris and Maggie are coming from Pasadena, CA; Jason and Nina live in Denver and are college friends of Michael and Maggie.  We will be continuing the journey on with Chris and and Maggie to Yellowstone National Park.  

Between the three families, there are:

6 adults

3 teen boys

1 teen girl

2 preteen girls

2 eight year old boys

{insert scaredy face emoji @ all the teens!!!}

I'm sure you'll get to "meet" all these fine people in a few days once we are all together.   

What did you learn last time that you want to implement this time?

In 2013, we did one long drive out to Colorado without stopping-- we drove 18 hours through the night and arrived at Garden of the Gods at 8:00 in the morning ready for a full day of exploring!  

NOPE.

Actually, we fell asleep on picnic tables waiting for the train ride up to Pikes Peak and missed most of the views on the way up the mountain because we were at a non-functioning level of exhaustion.  I don't think we ever really caught up on that missed night of sleep which made us all very cranky and too tired to fully experience some parts of our trip.  (By the time we got to Yosemite on the last day, we were all "Half Dome, yada yada yada.  El Capitan. Big Whoop") 

None of these were staged. Legit train sleeping pics

Michael:  Public sleeping next to Will practicing karate

We have chosen NOT to do that this time. 

We will drive 11 hours and stop in Salina, KS on the first day.  IN A HOTEL.  WOOOOOOOT!   We will sleep divinely in a Holiday Inn Express on Day 1.  

The next 7 nights will be camping in two different locations (3 nights in Rocky Mountain National Park and 4 nights in Yellowstone National Park) and then we will spend the last two nights in hotels on the road en route to Nashville.  

Our longest drive is 11 hours in one day.  

Last time?  26 hours.  We drove from Yosemite National Park to Oklahoma City without stopping longer than for gas or a quick meal.

Do that math and you'll see that we did an 18 hour drive on Day 1 of 2013LWOW and a 26 hour drive on day 18 of 2013LWOW and you'll quickly see that I should probably go take a nap right now to try and recover from that mistake over 3 years ago. Seriously.  I need a nap just thinking about that.  No wonder I'm exhausted all the time.

ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz......

#2016LWOW

What's that they say about the definition of insanity?

It's been 3 (THREE!) long (SHORT!) years since our last blog post chronicling our family's 6000+ mile trek to California and back.  We are all a little older, a little wiser, and feeling a lot more adventurous since #2013LWOW so we decided to do it again.

The things we loved and learned on the last few camping and adventure trips have stayed with us and we are ready to put it all into practice again.   (Let's just be glad we didn't book any campsites on the ocean.  If you were my Facebook friend about a year ago, you may recall the tropical storm that sprung upon our tent when we were camping in the Florida Keys last spring break.  As a result, we now have all new camping equipment!)  I'll post a few screen shots of that experience for old times' sake...

 that view though!!  would you just look at that view.  nothing could possibly go wrong with a view like that.

this was the carnage we left behind.  easily several hundred dollars worth of camping equipment that couldn't be saved.

shirtless michael & shirtless john driving for several hours after this was one of the funniest things I've ever seen

SO...of course the next logical step to take is to do it all again!  The definition of insanity might be doing the same thing and expecting different results, but honestly-- we would do it all again.  In spite of all the mishaps, the stories and memories we have made on these family adventures are truly priceless.  

For some reason the other night, our family happened to be home together (no small feat with a teenager and preteen in the house) and I decided to throw pictures up from past family adventures onto the apple TV and we scrolled through for probably 2 hours.  The first time we did this big LWOW trip, they were just tiny humans!  Will was only 5 years old; Maddy and John were 9 and 12. John is now the tallest person in our family and may do a little bit of driving on this trip as he is now driving permit-possessing.  (And honestly?  Kansas?  You're flat and straight and long and can you think of a better spot for a new driver to practice? Nope.  You've been warned, Kansas!) 

So here I sit, just 18 days away from our next adventure.  This time, we are going to Estes Park (Rocky Mountain National Park), Yellowstone National Park, Badlands National Park and Mount Rushmore.  Last time, we drove over 6000 miles and were gone almost 3 weeks.  This time, we are keeping it around 3500 miles and only 10 days. We will be seeing some friends along the way and are doing the bulk of the trip with our good friends from Pasadena, CA.  

I had a lot of people (at least 7 or 8-- at least!) enjoy reading the blog as we traveled last time, so I decided to resurrect www.l-wow.blogspot.com.  Hope you enjoy and feel free to share.