[guyfrmblr]

We concluded our road trips after our visit to Providence. We clocked close to 10000 miles. Let me quote myself from the second post of this travelogue:

Originally Posted by guyfrmblr

My aim was not to just take them to famous tourist places but I wanted them to experience the great American outdoors.

The best way to experience America is through road trips. I think my parents were able to experience few parts of the USA during this road trip. I did not want to take them to just famous landmarks and tourist traps. I wanted to them to experience all the places in great detail. I did not want to just shove them into bus tours and make them visit all the places for namesake. I wanted them to experience the way places are visited in the USA i.e, through roads. I always took them to local, family owned restaurants wherever possible. We are vegetarians. There is a myth that it is not easy to get vegetarian food in the USA. It is a thing of the past. We had at least 2-3 vegetarian options in all of the restaurants we visited, even in the most remote places.

Since I had been on many road trips in India with my parents, I was confident that they would be having no issues accompanying me for these long road trips in the USA. They love traveling. I ensured that they don't feel tired at any point of time. As I have mentioned in one of the previous post, we always used to start early and reach home/hotel before sunset. We used to at least sleep for 9 hours and never skipped any meals and always took them on time. I ensured that their fluid intake was regular so that they don't get dehydrated in the arid Southwestern weather conditions.

I could not show them all parts of the USA this time. We have not explored the Northwestern parts of the USA which has some wonderful landscapes and National Parks. My wife and I will explore that part of the USA sometime in near future and then take our parents during their next visits.

All this while, I had never asked them if they felt tired at any point of time. When they were departing to India, I asked them in the Boston airport if they felt tired with the road trips. The answer was - "We are ready for another 10000 miles road trip"

Thanks for reading the travelogue.

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[GTO]

Man, what a mega travelogue! I think you have broken all previous records on Team-BHP with your 4-page detailed travelogue . This is going to our homepage today.

to road-tripping with your parents / family. Some of my best memories with my late father are of driving holidays.

Thank you again for an epic thread of an epic trip!

[GutsyGibbon]

Awesome travelogue. You are a lucky chap, and your parents are equally lucky to have a child like you!

[Miyata]

What a fantastic travelogue of a very sportive family. I also loved how you started off with your childhood memories of travels with your dad. Neither my folks nor my in-laws are sportive enough for such long road trips!

With my parents, after a couple road trips, they would prefer Amtrak. With my in-laws, the preference became flying in to the nearest airport and rent a car there!

At times I'm on look out for ideas to make the childhood of my kids memorable...feed them with experiences they 'might' cherish in times to comes! And so, have a particular fascination with descriptions that touch up on their favorite childhood memories as well.

Thanks for sharing.

[balenoed_]

Oh Man, Nice write up and your parents must be proud of you to have a lovely son like you. And I liked the introduction with a flash back to the past.

[vb-saan]

What an epic travelogue! Thank you for sharing.

Road trips are indeed the best possible way to explore America and this is just awesome. This will be one of my go-to thread for future US road-trips!

[akshay_ritz]

This is one of the finest threads on Team-BHP and that is saying, something buddy. The detailed writing, the pictures, and the sheer love you have for your parents make this a must-read. My family in the US has been insisting we visit them for some time and will all this on the offer, we will have to plan that trip sometime in the future. Thanks again for sharing your trip. God bless your parents. There is something wonderful about seeing parents enjoying themselves post sixty. It just fills up my heart because they worked so hard to give us all the joy and happiness in the world.

[Amrik Singh]

What a great tribute to great Parents. What a huge mental power to plan such a long Trip. Of course !!! Any thing done for the parents is never enough and there is no fatigue either.
Great coverage by Pictures. Could not leave the thread once the pictures started rolling in.
Though your intentions were not to visit the regular landmarks, but still I have a feeling that instead of starting from Vegas, if you had started from LA, you may have had more in your pocket.
Your visit to Niagara - I have seen it from Canada side before driving down to USA and have been told that it is more scenic from there rather than from USA side.
Many memories refreshed, specially from Vegas(My T/L on it is here). Many curiosities aroused that I hope and wish to fulfill - Insha'allah !!

[HKP]

Truly beautiful. I appreciate your approach of taking the time to stop and click the pics. I have traveled to 11 states in the US so far, these pics make me miss the states so much. In fact, we were planning to do the B2 visa for my family in March when the corona hit. Itching to travel again...

I am sure a lot of people will find your choice of places and pics helpful in planning their trips.

\\hkp

[mankuthimma]

waoow! what a mega trip and a mega travelogue!! every driver's dream to go on such a road trip! Kudos to your parents for equally enjoying the journey ! I am sure this will be a goto page for any future road trips in US henceforth, atleast for me.

I am yet to finish reading through all the pages.. just browsed briefly, but I could relate to so many things that you are talking about.. we had done a similar road trip in Scotland with our extended family.. preferred to see, eat and do things what locals do than tourists.. its a totally different experience than just doing touristy stuff!

Your introductory post was so nostalgic.. !! the red/silver BTS buses and that too double decker buses are fascination of any 80's kid from Bangalore. We used to fondly call it as "Beppu-Takkadi-Service" ( BTS ) during our bus-conductor games at home. I still remember ticket price was 70 paise to Majestic in route no. 273, the picture of 50ps coin+20ps coin painted inside the bus is still etched in my memory for some reason.
A ride in route no. 131 passing through M G Road was nothing less than fantasy at that time. The first row of window seats in double decker were the best ones.. to be able to touch the trees and also see how the head of the bus turns first whenever the bus has to take a turn. I used to still take that double decker bus even when I started working since my first office was in Domlur adjacent to Doopanahalli. Even today I take BMTC buses whenever I travel alone. Thanks for bringing back those memories !

[srishiva]

Thats one great travelogue. I guess you missed Colorado and New Mexico on your south west trip.
Having lived in Phoenix and Denver and travelled across the 4 states, its really so much different and something unique to US. The drives, the stay at motels is lovely. Yellowstone is one other thing thats very specific. Hope you can visit there.

[sameer sultan]

Thank you for sharing your amazing travelling experience @guyfrmblr.

The joy you had while travelling in the Bangalore local buses in your childhood with your Dad is still the same while traversing the amazing the Great American outdoors!

Every parent would love to have a child like you.

Beautiful pictures. Some of the pictures you have clicked in the fall season are straight out of a post card.

The roads and highways of the southwest are just fabulous.

[R2D2]

Thanks for sharing your memories and photos of this road trip. Wonderful travelogue!

[Arbind Ray]

Well done...you framed both the backdrop of your conquest as well as photos in good measure. Putting pen to paper so to speak also no mean feat...at least your wife will have shared the experience through your lens as we have though I suspect in unequal measure

In November 2018 my wife and I took to the road on a 10,000k trip in a limited edition Crysler Pacifica hired from Hertz... zigzagging US terrain from Vegas to Miami. At the time I was unable to find any vlog depicting an American cross country road trip (routemap image below). After attending the SEMA convention in Las Vegas we embarked on the two-week roadtrip, making stopovers at hotels in towns my former classmates from India now reside whom I hadn't seen for over 35yrs!

Not sure I'd have the patience, inclination or memory recall to summarize the trip in writing however I took tons of footage and had started to edit few vlogs although despite the current Lockdown have yet to find time to edit and post highlights I did manage to post a 30 second trailer which can be seen here;

https://youtu.be/evTJk0S5UPQ

If some video clips of your travels are available I'm sure readers would love to see these if your stills are anything to go by...