Road Trip Reports!
| Subject | Images | Dates | Type | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 to 1988 Business Trips | 99 | Various | Business | Pictures from when I stopped flying and started driving... |
| 1992 & 1998 San Antonio | 238 | Jun 5 - Jun 14, 1992Jun 12 - Jun 21, 1998 | Business | Nothing like going to a conference in a hot place during June... |
| 1996 West Illinois | 27 | Jun 7 - Jun 9, 1996 | Vacation | Putting break-in miles on my new car. |
| 1996 West | 323 | Aug 31 - Sep 13, 1996 | Vacation | My first venture out West to the Black Hills. |
| 1997 West | 790 | Sep 13 - Sep 27, 1997 | Vacation | My first trip to the Southwest, my destination was the Grand Canyon. |
| 1998 West | 647 | Sep 8 - Sep 19, 1998 | Vacation | My destination was Yellowstone this trip. |
| 2000 Florida | 81 | Mar 16-Mar 30, 2000 | Business | A conference in Orlando allows me a road trip to the Southeast. |
| 2001 East | 135 | Jun 3 - Jun 14, 2001 | Vacation | This trip touched 6 of the last 9 (continental) States I hadn't been to. |
| 2001 West | 623 | Sep 4 - Sep 15, 2001 | Vacation | A trip Northwest, with Glacier National Park as my destination. |
| 2002 New Orleans | 214 | Aug 30 - Sep 13, 2002 | Vacation | A visit to Sin City before a hurricane hit it. |
| 2003 South Florida | 92 | Oct 22 - Nov 1, 2003 | Vacation | A visit to the Everglades and Key West. |
| 2005 Rocky Mountain | 28 | July 31 - Aug 6, 2005 | Business | Hey, if you're going to a class only 60 miles from Rocky Mountain National Park, you go there! |
| 2005 Desert Southwest | 417 | Sep 6 - Sep 22, 2005 | Vacation | This is one of my favorite Road Trips. Tombstone, Disneyland, Death Valley, Yosemite... |
| 2006 Pacific Northwest | 1034 | July 23-Aug 12, 2006 | Vacation | This was my Lewis and Clark trip. It was definitely my longest and most memorable Road Trip! |
| 2006 Pennsylvania | 116 | Oct 14 - Oct 27, 2006 | Business | Autumn colors, rich history, and sick as a dog. |
| 2007/2011 Smoky Mountains-BRP | 156 | Oct 17 - Oct 29, 2007 | Vacation | Purpose of this trip was to see fall colors. Fail. (Also here are pics from 2011.) |
| 2008 West | 1382 | Sep 12 - Sep 27, 2008 | Vacation | An almost exact, but very different redo of my 1997 trip. |
| 2009 Venice, Florida | 157 | Dec 10 - Dec 12, 2009 | Vacation | A trip to the Gulf Coast after a visit to WDW. |
Road Trips!
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| Some of the Road Trips I've taken |
On the road again,
Goin' places that I've never been,
Seein' things that I may never see again,
I can't wait to get on the road again...
-- Willie Nelson
The Road Trip was born the afternoon of May 23, 1903. It was that day when Horatio Nelson Jackson (and his mechanic Sewall K. Crocker) pointed his 1903 Winton east from San Francisco and became the first person to cross the country in an automobile.
Was it a race? Was this some company's marketing gimmick? Was this to somehow achieve greater glory?
No. It was done on a $50 bet that it couldn't be done.
In 1903, there was no infrastructure for the automobile. There were 33,000 cars in the country versus 14 million horses. Of the 2.3 million miles of road, 138,000 were considered 'improved', (which meant gravel roads) and most of those were East of the Mississippi. 150 miles were paved, but all those were in cities. There were no reliable maps, and most roads had no name. There were no gas or service stations, no auto parts stores, few bridges (other than those the railroad built), no fast-food drive thrus... Not to mention early automobiles were highly unreliable.
But they did it in 63 days, 12 hours and 30 minutes. And Jackson never even collected his $50.
Now that is a Road Trip.
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| Oregon Trail Wagon Reproduction on the Historic Oregon Trail, Whitman Mission National Historical Site, Walla Walla, Washington. Road trips were a lot harder back then, especially since there were no roads... |
Willie's little ditty probably comes to mind anytime someone mentions a road trip. Well, at least it does to me. And I've been on a few. And I've enjoyed almost every mile. (Tropical storms and being in the Black Hills during the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally comes to mind as not fun, but if I could do it all over again, I'd do it all over again!)
I'm a city kid. There's nothing like seeing a double rainbow from end to end over the desert with nothing to block the view. Nothing puts the self in perspective more than standing on the rim of a deep canyon looking down at a roaring river that looks like nothing more than a small stream, or standing the top of a mountain peak breathing the thin air and being able to see to the horizon with nothing blocking the view. From the enclosed, twisty little passages of one of the myriad caves around the country, to the seemingly endless grass and farmlands of the Great Plains, to the tourist traps that draw you in to see their sights and tell a little local lore, there's thousands of things to see, do, hear, drink, smell, eat, touch and just experience.
I'm not one of those "Interstates are Evil" kind of guys. Interstates actually enable me to road trip where I want. America is a big place, and sometimes you have to drive a thousand miles just to start your real road trip. The one you planned...
There are interesting Interstates, but by law (yes, real Federal Law), they've "tamed" these narrow corridors through the country making them relatively safe for both auto and truck. If you really want to experience what this country's really like, you gotta hit the back roads.
If you're really bored (or are considering a road trip) see How I plan a Road Trip for some (maybe even helpful) information.
Road Trips versus Trip/Event Reports
There is another page dedicated to Trip and Event Reports. These are different from Road Trips, since they're mostly dedicated to the Florida Theme Parks and Disney Events. They're sometimes closely related, but are being kept separate since it's the destination that's the focus, and not the road...
If there were "Road Trip" elements in a Theme Park visit, the road trip part is documented here. For instance, my drive to Key West is documented as a Road Trip, even though I visited the Florida theme parks to and from Key West. My visit to Venice, Florida and the surrounding area was the second half of my vacation after being in the theme parks.
Finally, there are pictures that may have been removed from the Place pages because they were duplicates from other trips or lacked context, but will still be found in the Trip Reports. The Trip Reports really are just a photo album of the trip...
Here's the summary and highlights of my roadtrips:
| 1986 to 1988 Business Trips | |||||||
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1986 to 1988 Business Trips were from a time I worked for a three letter marketing company.
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| 99 Images. | |||||||
| 1992 and 1998 San Antonio Trips | |||||||
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1992 and 1998 San Antonio Trips were both computer security conferences in San Antonio.
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| 238 Images. | |||||||
| 1996 West Illinois | |||||
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My 1996 West Illinois Vacation was really just a way to break in my new car.
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| 27 Images. | |||||
| 1996 Minnesota-West Vacation | |||||||||
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My 1996 Minnesota-West Vacation was half 'my annual fishing trip' and half 'real road trip out west'.
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| 323 images/46 per day | |||||||||
| 1997 West Vacation | |||||||||||||||
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My 1997 West Vacation was my first real excursion out West to the National Parks.
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| 790 images / 56 per day | |||||||||||||||
| 1998 West Vacation | ||||||||||||||
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My 1998 West Vacation was a visit to the other Major parks of the West.
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| 647 images/59 per day | ||||||||||||||
| 2000 Orlando Trip | |||||||
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My 2000 Orlando Trip was to a computer security conference in Orlando, Florida. It was also my reintroduction to Disney World but that's another page.
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| 81 images | |||||||
| 2001 East Coast Vacation | |||||||||
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The main purpose of my 2001 East Coast Vacation was to touch the six Northeastern states, in my quest to be in all 48 lower United States.
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| 135 images | |||||||||
| 2001 West Vacation | ||||||||||||||
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My 2001 West Vacation was mainly to visit Glacier National Park, with a visit to Yellowstone one the way back. Halfway through the trip, the Twin Towers were attacked on 9/11.
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| 623 images/52 per day | ||||||||||||||
| 2002 New Orleans Vacation | |||||||||
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My prophetic 2002 New Orleans Vacation was to visit Sin City before a hurricane took the city out.
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| 214 images/31 per day | |||||||||
| 2003 Southern Florida Vacation | |||||||
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My 2003 Southern Florida Vacation was a late year vacation. The trip to Key West was actually sandwiched between a stay at Disney World and Universal Orlando...
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| 92 images/46 per day | |||||||
| 2005 Colorado Trip | |
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The 2005 Colorado Trip was a business trip. The only real place I visited was Rocky Mountain National Park. |
| 28 images | |
| 2005 Desert Southwest Vacation | |||||||||||||||||
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My 2005 Desert Southwest Vacation was my first long planned vacation since 2001.
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| 417 images | |||||||||||||||||
| 2006 Pacific Northwest Vacation | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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My 2006 Pacific Northwest Vacation was a vacation to fill in the last area of the country I hadn't been to, as well as a celebration of Lewis & Clark's bicentennial.
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| 1034 images/49 per day | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2006 Pennsylvania Trip | |||||||
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My 2006 Pennsylvania Trip was a business trip to attend two classes. I stopped in four places.
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| 116 images | |||||||
| 2007 / 2011 Smoky Mountains | |||||
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My 2007 Fall Vacation was a quest to find colorful fall trees in the Smoky Mountains and along the Blue Ridge Parkway, but I found mostly grey. Also included here is the return trip from Dragon*Con in September 2011. Same grey...
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| 156 images | |||||
| 2008 Southwest Vacation | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The route for my 2008 Southwest Vacation was almost identical to my 1997 trip, but went around the Grand Staircase counter-clock-wise this time. Though an almost identical route, I'd never been to half the attractions on this year's list.
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| 1382 images/86 per day | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2009 Florida Vacation | |||||||||
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My 2009 Florida Vacation was an odd trip. It was a couple of days on the Gulf after a trip to Disney World.
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| 161 images/40 per day | |||||||||
Horatio Nelson Jackson, The Father of the American Road Trip...
Horatio Nelson Jackson really is one of those unsung American heroes, a name almost no one knows, but was the pioneer of one of the most changing aspects of American culture in the 20th century.
Sure, it took him over two months to do what a train could do in a few days, but this wasn't about time. It was about proving that the automobile could take man anywhere, anyplace, anytime one felt like it. If you have the willpower, fortitude, time and money that is. It sparked a revolution and love for the car in America that lives to this day.
The story of Horatio, Sewall Crocker and a bulldog named "Bud" (who joined the expedition in Idaho) has been amazingly well documented by Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan in Horatio's Drive, a 2.5 hour PBS documentary. Duncan and his wife were able to track down two granddaughters, who had letters Jackson wrote to his wife, complete with pictures he took with a Kodak camera on the trip. With the accompanying newspaper articles, the story comes alive, and you can feel the optimism of the man, even as the Vermont (his name for the Winton) broke down around him.
It's a must see for any Road Trip enthusiast, or anyone interested in what a cross-country automobile trip in 1903 was like. Five Stars. See it!
- 04/20/2016 - Update to v4
- September 2022 - Upgrade to v5.0.
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