Traveling from DC to SF in December 2010

It was not our best planning. 

We thought we could take the shortest route, DC to SF, which was listed on Google Maps as 1 day 21 hours.  The shortest route is, unfortunately, the NORTHERN route and we were getting further and further into December.  Checking the weather maps it appeared we 'might' be able to sneak through between two cold fronts.  Another problem was that the route was already snow-covered (though with cleared roads) through the area we couldn't alter once we committed, across the upper Rockies from Nebraska to Wyoming and Utah.  We couldn't just drop south to get out of it if we missed our windows.

We started off taking the most northern of two northern routes and got almost to Cleveland the first night.  It was obvious as we slid on black ice in WV that we might have chosen poorly.  When we also were slipping on ice in the parking lot of the motel, we realized we needed to rethink.  Because of the original route we had taken ourselves way up north and had essentially just wasted the first day's drive as we made a beeline diagonally from Ohio to St Louis, to Jopin, MO, and then Oklahoma City.  Day three took us to Albuquerque; day four was to Albuquerque and our last night was near 29 Palms.  Hopefully we can do the northern route in March when we return to DC.  We haven't been that route in a long time and are anxious to see that part of the country again.

We didn't get to do a lot on the trip...mostly driving.  We were able to visit my cousin Norma Jo Goodwin and her daughter Jane and her husband Chris for pizza in Alburquerque.  We also went a little out of the way to visit the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert for just a few hours.  Other than that, we were just driving.  Unfortunatel we were driving on interstates the whole time.  Oh, we did divert on Oklahoma City to hit a bit of the old Route 66 and have lunch at a real old diner.