The trip was simple, albeit out of the way. Drive 1,000 miles from Front Royal, Virginia to St. Joseph, pick up our trip vehicle, a Dodge 2500 turbo diesel, and drive back to Front Royal.
Lightning blitzed the sky creating near daylight with every strike as rain pelted the Subaru in torrents that force wide-eyed drivers to devote all of their energy and attention to the lines on the roads and the fast moving wipers. We arrived at Darius' house bleary and exhausted. Excitement ensued as his siblings answered the door with the energy that only 10, 12 and 14 years old have.
We both slept like the dead and awoke to a clear day and the promise of continuing our trip back to Virginia. The truck had been taken into the shop to fix the turn indicator and was supposed to be ready in the morning. It wasn't ready. As any good shop does, they find new things to fix and tinker with. We sat, and waited. We called the shop. We sat and waited some more. 36-hours later our car was 'ready'. Trevor crawled under the car (photo attached) to find that the shop hadn't properly tightened all of the necessary pieces. We had them fix that as well.
Finally! We were ready to roll. We took a 30 minute nap and departed at midnight. Back to Virginia! We found ourselves at the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. It seemed so fitting, the Gateway to the West...only we were going the wrong direction. We returned to Virginia, made some improvements to the bed of the truck and departed for the second time, this time we were headed toward Minnesota and more National Park fun.
Here are some photos from the journey, enjoy!
