Pictorial Map Painting Of Our Road Trip

This is a pictorial diary of a road trip we took last summer. It was fun to do a retro style painting of some of the highlights; the tricky part is having items spaced throughout since activities tend to be clustered.

We started from Minnesota

Took our photos on a giant Jackalope

Had our first blowout; the car was a year old with Goodyear tires. We found a tire repair at 4:30 on the 4th of July in the middle of the Badlands. The repairman was excited since the used replacement tire was still a virgin (no previous patches). The tire repair shop was a one car garage next to a trailer house (it was a beautiful sight).

Wall Drug and Mount Rushmore

Reptile gardens where we watched alligator wrestling and a chicken that does magic tricks.

Another flat tire in the middle of nowhere; thank goodness I bought a can of fix a flat at the last gas station (my husband thought it was a dumb purchase since who gets more than one flat on a relatively new car). Gas was $4.65.
We stayed near an amazing mini golf course in Colorado Springs. It sprinkled while we played and there were multiple rainbows.

We started to get a flat tire 3 miles from another town in the middle of nowhere and stayed the night. The owner came in on Sunday and we replaced all the Goodyear tires, including the virgin, with Toyo tires (we had never heard of them but were happy to get them). We were outrageously lucky when it came to tires.

Pikes Peak—Scariest freaking drive ever—It makes the road to Hana in Hawaii seem like interstate. The rangers check brake temperatures before letting people go back down the mountain; I have never seen so many overheated cars. At the top, the road became extremely narrow and was so fogged in we could barely make out the front of the car. My oldest daughter slept through it; along with most of the trip in the car. She did have the uncanny ability to wake up every time we drove near a rock shop.

Grand Canyon. I got a kick out of the signs telling people to stop and buy trinkets from the nice Indians.

Route 66 and Arizona desert.

Bryce Canyon is so much prettier than the Grand Canyon; I would happily go back there. My husband's name is Bryce so we purchased a bunch of stuff at the park gift shop. It might have been worse, but thanks to my daughter, we had a trunk full of rocks that had to be moved during our frequent flat tires.

Salt Lake City. I had no idea a lake could smell that bad and there were fires in California which effected the air quality in Salt Lake.

Marilyn and Scout greeting us on our return. Scout, our peekapoo, refused to get out of my suitcase for days since she thought that would ensure her coming along if we left again. Marilyn sits on her bottom, but not in the usual dog way.