I'd like to share my reflections of my road trip with my son, TJ, and his best friend, Travis, with you.
We have safely returned from an 11 day adventure to LA and back.
I left my house in Durham, NC, on Thursday, July 31 at 6:30am, arriving at my son's home outside Atlanta about 1:30 that day. We hung out for a couple of hours, allowing me to spend some time with my 10 year old son, Tyler, before we left. We packed the car and prepped for our journey.
Here we are, all dressed up with somewhere to go!!!
Me, TJ in the middle, and Travis on the right.
We left Atlanta at 3:30pm to begin our adventure. We stayed in Memphis, TN, that night.
Friday morning we struck west again, driving from Memphis, through Arkansas, and stopping for the night in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. While there we visited the Oklahoma City Memorial.
Needless to say, we were all moved by the memorial.........
On Saturday, we traveled on to though Texas to Albuquerque, NM. We were amazed at the miles of open spaces.....
While in Albuquerque, my son received a permanent souvenir.
Am I a bad father or what.........
Sunday morning, we got up at the crack of dawn and headed for Four Corners and the Grand Canyon.......
Who knew that TJ's butt was big enough to fit in 4 states at once!!!
During our drive to the Grand Canyon, we saw some amazing rock formations...
Then we stood in awe at the Grand Canyon..........
And of course the boys had to play mountain goat for a while......
I took 31 pictures of the Grand Canyon all total... What a beautiful area of this country.
We spent the night in a small town outside of Flagstaff.
On Monday morning, we headed west once more, arriving in LA about noon.....
where we checked into our hotel, chilled a while and headed for Laguna Beach.......
On Tuesday, we visited Chinatown (I left my camera in my car, so no pics of Chinatown), then walked down Hollywood Boulevard........
after a couple of hours, the boys needed a break......
and then we continued seeing the sights.....
and I couldn't leave Hollywood with out paying homage to Judy.......
After walking for a couple of hours we decided to drive through Beverly Hills, down Rodeo Drive, behind this Ferrari.......
A full day to say the least......
On Wednesday, we chilled at the hotel for a while, then went to San Diego for the afternoon, walked the beach, visted the famers market that was set up on the street, and visited with my brother.......
and my crazy son...........
just had to buy that coconut bra..........which he gave away at the end of the day to a California girl.......
The sunset was beautiful.......
On Thursday, we drove to Vegas, where we stayed at New York, New York.......
Spent the day looking around, (I confess, I hit the slots a few times.....and walked away 17 dollars richer), ate at a Vegas Buffet, and walked the strip after dark (all 4 miles of it) one way, we rode the monorail back.
(sorry about the quality of the last 2 pics, I couldn't find the batteries for my good camera and took these with my camcorder)
We were exasted by the end of the day........
On Friday, we headed for home, stopping for a few minutes at the Hoover Dam......
We stayed the night in Amarillo, Texas, if you can call arriving at 4am and leaving at 9am staying the night....
On Saturday we drove to Memphis, and Sunday arrivied back at Atlanta. I think I wore the boys out.......
TJ collapsed on the driveway when we got out of the car.......
I spent the evening on Sunday with the boys, went out and got school supplies with them. My ex and her new husband let me stay with them on Sunday night, and on Monday morning I got to see my boys off to school on the first day of school. Then I drove back to my home in Durham and completed my adventure at 2pm on August 11th.
The most fantastic, fabulous, laugh filled, whirlwind adventure I have ever experienced over a 12 day period in my life. Both of the boys were very happy with the experince and are still trying to figure out how we did all that we did in the short amount of time that we took.
It was so good, that we are planning for our next cross country adventure, this time to Seatle, Washington, to be experienced in 2010, after my son graduates.......
Thanks for sharing my memories of my trip with me!!!!
-- Edited by 24 fan tim at 13:34, 2008-08-12
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Be yourself!!! Don't try to fit into someone else's mold, you won't fit!!! And that just leads to utter misery!!! Live life to it's fullest in Christ's love every day!!!
Tim, the pics are great! Does your son & his friend always dress alike? That sunset picture is gorgeous. I bet you all were exhausted!! Thanks for sharing your trip with us.
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Grace is the acceptance of that which is rejected. ~Paul Tillich
The pictures of the Grand Canyon just took my breath away!
My Aunt Thelma and Uncle Eugene went there a few years back. They also stopped for a while in Vegas, too. They brought me back a mug with a number of drawings of Arizona's landmarks on it and the Grand Canyon was in the middle of them. They also went to that giant mile-wide meteor crater that's out there. They said that the sights (as well as the heat) was just unbelievable.
Wow! That's a lot to cover in such a short amount of time! I'd be crashed out on the driveway too! Thanks for postin' all the pics. I'm hitting LA in January (never been) and am really looking forward to it after seeing all your snapshots!
We had a blast, and yes we were exhaousted at the end of our trip.
And yes, the boys did dress alike alot of the trip. They're funny that way. They even went to prom dressed alike......
But anyway, I'm glad you liked the pics....
Here's a couple more of the Grand Canyon.....
Later!!!
__________________
Be yourself!!! Don't try to fit into someone else's mold, you won't fit!!! And that just leads to utter misery!!! Live life to it's fullest in Christ's love every day!!!
We had a blast, and yes we were exhaousted at the end of our trip. 
