On the road planning. Internet, Overnight parking, ...

garyhaupt wrote:
Hey..dude...this time you guys have to travel is a gift..unwrap it slowly. I don't expect you to not do your planning and electronic wizardry, but, in the end....you will wish you had.

Get off the interstates...go the slow way. Every little town has a city park..you can stop there. I mean..Moab was just a name, there is so much to experience just hangin out in Little America. Trust me...I have done it and continue to do so. Small town rodeos, race tracks, fairs, pie eatin from farmer markets.

Another suggestion then...start a Blog...this is kind of a way to involve everyone in the adventure. Take lots of pix..every day..upload to the Blog...heck, have a bunch of Blogs. One for each person if you like..but a joint Blog has an energy. You can do and upload kids video and music and all kinds of neat..time consuming...stuff.


For what it's worth.



Gary Haupt
Canada

Good advice. Our last road trip was before we had the kids and at the time we had a single hiking gps connecter to a laptop with streets&trips. We stopped at the first tourism info center after every new state and picked up a couple brochures and went from there. Moab is just a general direction but the plan is to detour and adjust every day :) The phone is our map and our guarantee that we can park soon when the kids had enough driving.

We definitely want to see all the small attractions on the way. The less tourist-y the better for us. I'd rather eat from the pastry across the park at a small village than see the statue of liberty or some other tourist trap.

I'm not sure about the blog. Probably a good idea to do it for ourselves as a souvenir photo album but after a few days I think friends and family would not see the point as we are living it; not them. We'll try it.

"the statue of liberty or some other tourist trap.

I'm not sure about the blog. Probably a good idea to do it for ourselves as a souvenir photo album but after a few days I think friends and family would not see the point as we are living it; not them. We'll try it."



Oh geeezus...okay...uhm, you and I..being from Canada might indeed have a 'view' of the Statue of Liberty. But, people in the US have very very strong views of these icons and will make any further conversation unpleasant, should they hear you talking like that. And that will apply to many of the stops you will be making. You will need to be open to the knowledge that although we...people NOT from the US, might not see or share the relevance, people FROM the US do.

And, I want to add...now having see Ms Liberty twice, that although I do not have a connection to the history of the her nor of Ellis Island, those that do...really really do. It can be a very moving experience, just being among them and seeing the emotion on their faces. And you will see that in many of the National Monuments that you will have the opportunity to visit.


Blogs...I have one and many many people that travel/sail/RV/camp/cook/make movies...do. It is a very positive way to share and develop some pretty cool connections. There are literally thousands of Blogs and although it seems that no one will read yours, it it quite surprising how many people will find yours.
A person has to learn how to use 'keywords' to attract the search engines, and so on. Letting the kids tell their own story, thru their eyes, is likely to be a very engaging exercise.



Gary Haupt