It's gotta be a record - 3,692 mile road trip in a Smart Car!

When we started our trip in early May in big ole’ Rose, we had no idea we would finish our trip in little Rosebud! It’s one of those times in life when it is probably better you just don’t know.... We’re guessing it’s the first (and probably only) cross country trip for a Smart Car – a total of 3,692 miles! Most certainly our first and last cross country trip in Rosebud and we think she’s as glad as we are! She needs a long rest and so do we!

Safely back home! What a wonderful ending to our last big road trip!

All of our stuff we shipped is back home too!

 
On the road in 

Rosebud……

We set our expectations so low that we were pleasantly surprised at how “roomy” Rosebud was – we actually had a couple of inches of space to spare so that’s where we stuffed the dirty clothes every day and put some of the heavy tools that were in Rose. What a tough little car Rosebud has proven to be -  7 -8 hours of driving each day at 70 miles an hour in heat as high as 110 degrees plus she kept the three of us cool and comfortable!

A secret compartment in the tailgate was stuffed with tools!

Rosebud had a boo boo. The "S" in smart car was about to fall off so Gary taped it until we get home!

Getting ready for our last of 12 days on the road !

Questions/comments we got from fellow travelers.....

“Did you drive all the way from Tennessee in that little car?”  

"Do you have to stay in a hotel at night?"

"You must have to pack very carefully."

"What kind of gas mileage do you get?"

"How did you fit all of your stuff in that little thing?" 

We hadn't stayed in a hotel in 4 years and suddenly we had to find pet friendly hotels for the trip home.......

A big challenge was finding pet friendly hotels that were clean and reasonably priced! Molly had a great time as a "pet freindly tester". She gives La Quinta Inns a 2 paws up - they were her favorites!

  
We must have stopped at a least 25 McDonalds along the way. They had a special on their large drinks - just $1! So we loaded up the cup with ice and a drink each time we stopped for a break.

At one of our MANY stops at McDonalds

Highlights of the national parks we visited on the way home.....

Lassen Volcanic National Park 

Lassen Peak - the southern most volcano in the Cascade mountain range

Lassen has a very active hydrothermal area

Hot springs

Hot springs and steam vents

Sequoia and King’s Canyon National Parks

General Sherman  Sequoia - largest living thing in the world - 41 feet in diameter, 275 feet tall and 2,700 years old! 

Rosebud driving through the Sequoia tree tunnel

Indian pictographs

The indians ground their corn here in the "community kitchen"

Petrified Forest and Painted Desert National Parks

Huge petrified tree trunks!

Check out this lizard's toes!

Petrified Forest has the largest concentration of petrified wood in the world

Petroglyphs from 900 AD

Pueblo ruins from 1250 AD

Painted Desert - beautiful colors!

Amazing array of colors in the petrified wood

Four years of memories…priceless

It was a long time dream of ours to someday travel throughout the North American continent to visit the national parks that preserve the very special natural and historical national treasures in the US and Canada. Over the last four years we did just that! It’s hard to believe it’s already over!  We traveled over 80,000 miles throughout the US and Canada, visited 172 national parks and 100’s of state parks and national forests.  Each park preserves something unique – beautiful landscapes, incredible wildlife, fascinating human history and special geological features. We took the time to really explore each park and gained a true understanding of what makes each park so special. How wonderful that these special places have been preserved for all of us to enjoy and for future generations to come!

What’s next…..

Now what? – well, there are no more planned cross country road trips in our future. The longest trip we plan to take any time soon is to see our little granddaughters in Atlanta – we have missed them so much!

Lyla and Emmy