“Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me as is ever, so on the road.”  Jack Kerouac

We have set off on our 4^th annual trip to Seattle and we are excited to be on the road again! Once summer hits, we begin counting the days till our date of departure and like Santa we make our lists and check them twice so nothing important is left behind. So far, we have been pretty successful in not forgetting but the older we get we know that is a dwindling commodity!

Our journey this year is minus our usual two companions. My sister, Caryn, is not joining us for this trip as she had other irons in the fire this summer. Therefore, there will not be any banter on the walkie-talkies, no looking back and seeing her in our rearview mirror, no compadre to snap photos with, and no shared tales around dinner at night. To be honest, it feels incomplete. She promises to come along next year, so here’s to hoping!

On a sad note, our dog Sadie, passed away last month before what would likely have been her last trip. She was almost 14 so she lived a pretty long life and she surely was well-loved so we are comforted knowing these things. But it will be sad not seeing her sit in the driver’s seat watching Art pump gas or dipping her paws into rivers or laying in the sunshine after a day of adventure. It’s funny but when we stop for lunches now (a time when we would have taken her for a walk to potty), we still take those walks. So though she is gone, she is very much with us in spirit.

Our route this year is decidedly southern. From our home in NC, we will head south to FL and pick up I-10 to begin our trek west. We will not leave it until it ends in Los Angeles where we will turn north on I-5 to take us the rest of the way to Seattle. We expect to be hot as we travel through the Deep South, Texas, and the Southwest deserts in August and back home in September, but we have not journeyed through these places before so are looking forward to new discoveries! We will pass through some large cities and bypass others but expect that most of it will be pretty wide open middle-of-nowhere kind of spots. In a word, perfect! When all is said and done we will pass through 12 states, visit 4 national parks and travel over 6000 miles round trip!

As always, hope you will follow along!  Here are a few pics from the first day’s drive to Savannah…