Road Trip! California bound.

St. Louis Arch

 So in March we took the scenic route to San Diego, CA in Jim's 1990 Mazda Miata.

Just the two of us in a convertible with no power steering, cruise control, a/c (not that we needed it), radio or passenger side air bag.

Yeah, we might just be crazy.

MU Columns

Our first night was in Columbia, MO.

Broadway Diner

Of course we had to see some of our old stomping grounds.  We went by MU, where I used to work and where Jim's ROTC unit was stationed.  Bonus?  We had Broadway Diner for breakfast.  Great fuel for the start of another day on the road.

Canon City, CO

There were plenty of miles with absolutely nothing to see.  Yea, Kansas I'm looking at you here.  But for the most part it was a beautiful drive.

Monument Valley View

Colorado was gorgeous!  And I think Jim really enjoyed driving these winding roads.  And I have to admit I did kind of like that the speed limits were higher than I'm used to.  So in reality I wasn't speeding.

Monument Valley

Monument Valley Selfie

We were able to visit Monument Valley along the way.  For those of you who may not know, this is where many a John Wayne movie was filmed.  We had to get a selfie with Monument Valley in the background.  And wow was it bright outside, hence the sunglasses.  And so VERY windy.  The dust was pretty vicious.

Grand Canyon

We also were able to visit the Grand Canyon.  This had been on my bucket list.  So yay!

The Grand Canyon is the size of Delaware.  So as they say, two birds one stone.  We were fortunate enough to have another couple offer to take a photo of us.  We returned the favor, of course.

We were very fortunate that while on this trip we were able to stop in Arizona to visit my Aunt Laura and Uncle Harvey.  I hadn't seen them in years and Jim hadn't seen them since our wedding day.  Such is life in the navy.  So we were able to stop and catch up with them.  It was great getting to see them!

The original reason for coming out to San Diego was to drop off one of our three vehicles and scout out locations for a place to live.

However, a definite perk was getting to see many of our friends that are already out there.

We enjoyed getting to see a few of our friends, plus trying out great new places to eat.  Sadly we couldn't see everyone, but fear not my friends we will return in September/October time frame!

Even bigger bonus?

We flew home in First Class!  What a way to end a really great road trip!