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Welcome....we're glad you're here! Our mission is to encourage and support family adventures that create fun family memories...whether you're a seasoned travel enthusiast or just planning your first road-trip, you're sure to find something here to help you enjoy your next driving adventure. On the road again... 2009 "Mountain Escape" brings relief from Texas heat! Our annual vacation is the highlight of the year. Last year we started talking about doing something different for our 2009 trip...something exotic and romantic to celebrate our 35th anniversary. Our original plan was to take an all-inclusive trip to the Riviera Maya just South of Cancun, Mexico. I've always wanted to see the Mayan ruins at Tulum, and the idea of swim-up bars and lots of time to just sit and relax seemed like a good choice for recuperating from the hard winter of 2008/09... For some reason, though, I just couldn't make myself click on the "buy" button while pricing airfare to Cancun, and finally had to admit to K that all I really wanted to do was sit next to him in front of a campfire on a mountain-top far away from other people (and the heat of Texas!). After saying something like "whatever you want, dear," he admitted that he, too, didn't want to wait till September to take a well-deserved vacation. I think this also had something to do with the 13 days of over-100-degree heat we've had so far this summer, plus the realization that Cancun is in Hurricane territory and we'd be going right in the middle of the season. Once we got past the "well I thought YOU wanted to go to the beach" argument, we decided to do our favorite Colorado route amongst the jeep trails of the San Juans around Ouray and Telluride. We've probably done this tour 20 times, both with the girls and just the two-of-us, and we've always had a wonderful time. We know the trails pretty well, although there are a few that we have never tried either because we didn't have a vehicle capable of making the trek, or the trail was closed due to bad conditions. After our last few off-road events, though, we're more confident of our rig and have the experience to tackle some of the more challenging trails. So there will be some aspects of this trip that will be new, but we are also looking forward to repeating some of our favorite activities (such as our daily soak at the Ouray Mineral Springs). So come along with us on our Mountain Escape '09...we'll blog as often as possible, and try (once again) to get the gps tracks synced with Google Earth (I've been trying to do this for the last two years, but they say the 3rd time is the charm!). Plus, shoot us an email if you have any suggestions for trails or activities in the Ouray, Colorado area. I'M SO EXCITED!!! 2008 Grand Circle Tour...
Click here for the trip report, photos, and gps tracking maps of this memorable trip through the "Grand Circle" of Northern Arizona and Southern Utah. Who are we???
We are Kevin and Linda Sewell, and from our very first summer together (over 33 years ago!) our annual vacation has been the focal point of the year. Some years (when our two girls were small) we planned simple trips that were cheap, easy, fun and educational for the little ones. Other years were full-on, clean-out-the-savings-and-get-as-far-away-as-possible expeditions. Years later, we've become pretty efficient travelers, and the great places we've discovered have made wonderful memories that we look forward to sharing with our traveling friends.
The planning is always a fun part of the experience, and our collection of maps, brochures, photos and notes now fill file cabinets and bookshelves that we happily share with family and friends. Our get-togethers often center around travel stories and a lively exchange of tips and trips with other travel enthusiasts. If we can live long enough to do half of the trips we have plans for, we'll die happy! The kids are all grown up now, but we still try to spend at least a long weekend with them every year someplace near-by that we can all enjoy. When it's just the two of us, we mostly enjoy active outdoor vacations where we can get far away from civilization and test our self-sufficiency. We have also centered our trips around city activities and learning opportunities that not only enrich our minds but activate our imaginations, but we always try to enjoy the scenery and local culture wherever we go. So far, our travels have mostly centered on the Western and Southwestern regions of the country, but we hope to finally cross the Mississippi and sample the beautiful scenery in the Eastern states very soon. We'd love to hear from travelers who have information about the cool places they've visited, so be sure to sign our guest book and contribute a trip report...we're looking forward to creating a community of like-minded adventurers and sharing family travel memories that will last a lifetime! What you'll find here...Since we look forward to our trips all year, part of the fun is collecting information about possible destinations and planning "dream tours" using our huge collection of maps, brochures, photos and notes. We've been happy to loan these materials to friends and family for their own vacations, and now offer to share our resources with other enthusiastic travelers. In addition, we hope to offer a forum for others to contribute travel experiences and insights for the benefit of our travel community. We'd especially love to have contributions from people knowledgeable about parts of the country that we haven't visited yet. We will specialize in driving tours, but sometimes it's necessary to fly to a nearby city then rent a vehicle that will take us to our destination. We'll include as much information as possible about closest airports and vehicle rentals, however we won't attempt here to be a travel agency....we're really just a place to share information about fun places to visit from people who've been there and can offer interesting and helpful tips. We'll also include amusing stories about our own travel experiences and photos (LOTS of photos!) of some of the neat places we've visited. And as chronic list-makers, we thought our readers might find some of our "Checklists" for trip preparation helpful, as well as our "Links" to useful web sites we and our friends have discovered. Linda's "Notes to Self" section will hopefully help others NOT to make the same mistakes we have. Maybe you'll even get a chuckle or two from some of the dumb things we've tried, not to mention saving you time, money, and/or frustration (do as we say, not as we do). So come on in....make yourself comfortable and please share your ideas and suggestions in our comments section. And don't forget to sign our guest book...
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