Trip Of A Lifetime: Father and Daughter Cross Country Travels. Cali-Bound

 The first weekend of our most epic adventure was spent in Waynesville and Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge with Starla. We drove across The Great Smoky Mountains National Park on Hwy 441. It is a great drive with a lot of opportunities for hikes and overlooks.




 The goats made the girls very happy.

 The Ferris Wheel was fun.
Our view from the hotel room.
 Noel and I posing at Ozone Falls in TN after we told Starla goodbye and started heading west again,

On May 13 we started one of the biggest vacations I have had the pleasure of planning and taking.
After 4 years at ECU Noel graduated from college last weekend and the following Friday we hit the road.
Actually Noel and Starla left town a few hours before me and checked into the hotel we stayed at in Waynesville. We hung out there 2 nights, toured around the Smokies and visited Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg. The first weekend agenda was to enjoy the time we had with Starla before having to say goodbye and start a huge road trip.
Sunday Starla told us good bye and she drove back home to start a summer semester at Caldwell Community College and we hit the road, drove night and day to get to Colorado as quickly as possible. We had no other reservations or time schedule, just had to be back to work by June 5th... I am billing it as "The Trip Of A Lifetime".
The loose plan was to travel to the Rockies, hang out a couple of days then onto the West Coast and drive down the PCH, visit my sister Donna and family then get to see Yosemite. Whoo Hooo!!

We managed most of the goals but did deviate from the plan here and there. The biggest deviation would be unfortunately no Yosemite visit, it was still inaccessible due to snow. Mt. Evans was also a no-go due to snow and there was no camping at Echo Lake, too early in the season.
We also didn't log as many PCH miles as I had planned but we substituted them with miles on HWY 101, the Redwood Highway and Avenue of the Giants. We never made it to Oregon due to a flooded road and a detour through Reno NV, No regrets but we had our plate full and I don't think we wasted a second of time, what an incredible trip it turned out to be.

More pictures/posts of the epic journey west on the way.