During a 3 ½ week trip each summer with our two boys we've...

• Crossed the country 7 times in 9 years, covering 66,800 miles in our Lazy Daze motorhome
• Traveled through 49 states and 10 Canadian Provinces
• Visited 60 National Parks and 36 State Parks
• Hiked, mountain biked, fished, and rafted in some of the most beautiful places in North America
• Made enough memories to last 4 lifetimes!

Contents of this 400 + page site include...

• Itineraries - with stops and mileages for each trip
• Travelogues - our personal experiences at each stop
• Overview Map - of the USA and Canada with push pin links to each stop we've been to
• Activities - that we have done (such as hikes, mountain biking, etc.)
• Books - references we've used in planning our trips
• Photographs & Videos - of the various places we've visited
• Top Highlights - places and activities not to be missed
• Tips - to maximize your travel experience

July 2009 update - "Traveling Graduates"

While Lorry and I have had to scale back our family travels a bit due to care obligations for both our mothers, that hasn't stopped the boys wanderlust. Andrew has recently completed an 8-day backpacking traverse of the White Mountain Range in New Hampshire. I'm going to add a "backpacking trip" category, and see if he can be motivated to document his trip in words and pictures.

Tommy has just graduated from high school and found 4 buddies who would like to explore the country as well. Their proposed 3-week trip to out west, 2009 Cross Country Camping Trip, should cover many of the highlights of our previous travels. They have promised to update the travelogue nearly real-time with photos and narrative providing both an update to anxious parents and a more youthful perspective of cross-country travel for the next generation of vagabonds. I'll start the process by reporting the proposed itinerary and stops and update the narratives with cell-phone progress reports till they get enough internet bandwidth to submit photos and revise the narrative themselves.

Finally, if anyone is reading this, we would love to hear from you, especially if you are planning your own road trip adventure and comments from experienced travelers on each of the stops are also greatly appreciated. We plan on revisiting many of our favorite locations, and if you could add a bit of local knowledge, beyond that which we have already included, it would help us to continue our explorations.

A word of warning

This mode of travel is not for everyone. The daily mileages are considerably above what many would consider recreational, and the pace of activities might well be described as frenetic, so you might want to add a few days or remove a few stops to make your trip more relaxing. Still if you like..

• Exploring natural wonders
• Being physically active - hiking, biking, swimming, etc.
• Getting away from the crowds
• Bonding with your offspring or significant other

then you might find something of use in this site. Check out the routes we traveled by hovering your mouse over the year links on the map, and then select one that might be of interest. From that trip's itinerary, select a place of interest.

Go to About to learn more about our setup and who we are.

Thanks for visiting!