#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......