It was quite a trip. We left San Diego early Monday and arrived Thursday early afternoon in Southern Maryland. I have no idea how we made it across so quickly. We probably had a few angels watching out for us, considering we drove safely the entire time, driving the speed limit and extremely long hours. My brother at the last minute also flew in to help us with the driving and this helped us immensely.

Left San Diego early Monday morning and decided to take the Rt 40. But we took the scenic route on the way out. Showed my brother downtown San Diego on the way out of town. Took Rte 8 East to hook up to the 10 and head north through Phoenix and eventually hit Flagstaff. John took some pics as we approached Flagstaff. The weather difference in Phoenix was outrageous compared to Flagstaff. It was 92 degrees in Southern Arizona, and as we pulled into Flagstaff at the sun came down it was around 39 degrees!

John seemed really excited to see the country. I think he was impressed with the landscape out west and how it changed when we got to New Mexico. It became complete grassland. Mountains and desert to grassland for miles…

This was the view of the Sedona valley, John kept reaching over me as I was driving around the mountain range about 6,000 feet in elevation to get a good shot of the sunset. It was very exciting. With a frantic golden retriever in the car and a little brother who had never seen Arizona matter of fact never been out of Maryland…I had my hands full on the first day of driving.

We had to stop in Flagstaff, AZ for something to eat. We decided on Carl’s Jr. John got the Terriyaki Burger. He loved Carl’s Jr. It is definitely a west coast thing. We got about an hour outside of Flagstaff that night and stayed the night around 10pm we stopped for the night.

The next morning we got an early start on Tuesday. We made it quickly through New Mexico, and stopped stopped in Amarillo, TX. We had to go to the BIG TEXAN. It is known for the 72 oz steak. If you can finish it in one hour you can get it for free. One poor guy was sitting at the table with the clock going. He had 2 minutes left and 2 slices left. Couldn’t quite make it. The catch is if you can’t eat it all not only do you get sick, you pay 72 dollars for the steak.
I begged John to take some pictures of me there, Jason was about pictured out.

Here I am with my new cowgirl hat which I was very excited about. Of course Bail bail crushed it afterwards.

John and the big boot. He is 6’6″ This boot is still huge in comparison.

Jason wasn’t really down for many pictures. He was pictured out from graduation (IDC) graduation which I will get to….

So anyway we got back on the road…through texas…into Oklahoma…and got stuck in traffic. It was great. Bailey hates traffic. As long as you put the window down he is okay. He was climbing on top of the cooler on my side and sticking his head out to check out what the deal was with the back up.

So we made it through four states on tuesday: Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma. We stayed the night on the border of Oklahoma and Arkansas in a town calledwn called Fort Smith around 12 pm Midnight. We were all exhausted.

Got up 530am the next morning and on the road by 7pm for the longest day of the whole trip we had alot of road still to travel on Day 3. We started at 7pm and didnt get off the road till 1pm. So around 18 hours on the road. We drove from Arkansas, and all the way through Tennesee. Which is insanse. There was so much construction and traffic. At one point on I 40 in Tennesee literally 10 miles from the 81 North we were stuck in traffic for an hour and half.

So after passing through Memphis we missed my favorite BBQ shack along the border so it was getting late and it was grub time. I saw a billboard for some authentic country southern food along the 40 in Western Arkansas. It was a little difficult to find off the exit, after asking for directions from the locals at the gas station she told me to keep going down the side road till I saw the “choo choo” train. I said Ok lets go. Jason wasn’t very excited. He was especially happy when I slammed on the brakes to take a this picture:

We stayed the night somewhere in Virginia on the 81 North right on the border of Tenessee and Virginia. We had about 6-7 hours to make it to Maryland. John took this picture of the sunrise as we came into the Shenadoah Mountains of Virginia.

Finally we were in Maryland: I was so happy. So was bailey, so was John.

Here is Day 3.5 Bailey and I very excited:

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