Across the USA

My son, Colin, a friend of ours, Paul, and I are heading out tomorrow morning to drive across the U.S. I have not been across the country by car since 1978! Hard for me to believe that it has been almost 30 years, but with easy air travel it just took too much time.

We did make a trip in 1991 to Wyoming - at least some of the way across -- but Colin was pretty young.

Our route this time will be from the San Francisco area up through Reno and on over to Salt Lake City. From there we are planning to head southeast to Moab, Utah. That's near Arches National Park and lots of four wheeling activities, hiking, and mountain biking. As we are driving a Jeep 4x4 and my son is an off road lover, this will be his trip highlight, I think.

I am an avid photographer so I will enjoy the arches, which make some astounding photos. Keep checking back here and I will post a few pictures. More will be posted at www.kwheeler.com, my photography site, over the next few weeks.

After Moab we are heading up to Wyoming with Paul, our friend whose family lives there. We are taking him that far with us, staying at his family's ranch for a day or so, and then heading up to South Dakota and Mount Rushmore. From there to the Badlands and then across South Dakota and southern Michigan into Chicago. We'll spend a couple of days there and on to Niagara Falls. Then it's the home stretch across New York into Vermont to my parents home in Woodstock.

We've spent today, Saturday, getting the car packed. As a 2001 Jeep 4x4 is not overly roomy, we have had to keep it simple. Just clothes, some snakes,a small cooler, camera gear, some coats, extra shoes and a few books. Of course, I have to take along my computer, and a pile of other electronic stuff. This includes a MP3 player (not an iPod), a small Casio digital camera, a small flashlight, Koss earphones, a Sony Vaio T370 laptop (just 3 pounds with CD burner), my Treo 650 with charger and sync cable, a Treo bluetooth earpiece and a card reader for my camera.Hope you enjoy the trip along with us. We'd love your comments on what to see or do.