Manning Family Tree: Summer Vacation Flashback 2001-Days 1 & 2

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Summer Vacation Flashback 2001-Days 1 & 2

We continue on our blast from the past trip down memory lane with our next vacation. And you guessed it, another road trip!

This is our summer vacation for the year 2001! We again put together a website for everyone to look at & follow along with (which is no longer up). Just as with the year 2000 version, we included pictures, and short descriptions of what we did each day.

Contestants on this vacation will be Mike, Kim, Brandon, and Jesse, along with Mike's niece Jamee & her husband Mike. This year Mike's son Brandan was living with him mom in Oklahoma so he didn't go. Mike's son Jesse was able to go with us this time. And Mike's niece Jamee's son Mikey didn't go. We took two cars once again, and brought along the good old FRS (family) radios to keep in touch (remember when family radios were all the rage?).

Our goal was to visit Mike's niece & Jamee's sister Sue and her family in Texas. Then to visit with Mike's brother Val & his wife Judy in Oklahoma. None of us had ever been to Texas or Oklahoma before.

Our vacation route started out in El Cajon. We headed east, passing through Tucson, AZ, Carlsbad Caverns in NM, Fort Stockton and San Antonio in TX. From there we headed north stopping in Dallas, and finally heading up to Vian, a small town in eastern Oklahoma. On the return trip we headed westward and passed through Albuquerque in NM, Sedona & Phoenix in AZ, and finally reached home back in southern California.

Today's post will be days 1 & 2 of our vacation from 2001.

Saturday, July 7, 2001:

Objectives: Today we begin our 2 week vacation. It will be one awesome adventure! We've got a long drive to Tucson, Arizona. Hopefully we'll be out of town sometime in the morning so we can make good timing to Tucson before the afternoon rains hit the desert. Once in Tucson, who knows what there is to do. I suppose we'll look around the city and find something cool, just as we did last year when we had visited Flagstaff.

Our Experience: We had a long but nice drive from El Cajon to Tucson. We left around 7:00 AM, and arrived in Tucson around 3:30. Sorry about the lack of pictures today, as we really did not do much except eat at Denny's twice (once in Yuma, and in Tucson) and go swimming at the hotel. We did stop at Sue's (Mike's niece & Jamee's sister) rental house just outside of Tuscon. They still own the house but the tenants moved out. We were checking on the house for Sue. We are going to bed early so we can get up early here, and head out to Whites City, New Mexico. Catch ya tomorrow folks!

Photos:

This is a picture of Sue's rental house near Tucson, Arizona

Mike and Jamee standing outside Sue's old house.

Eating dinner at Denny's in Tucson, Arizona. Mike Y., Jamee, Brandon, Jesse, Mike & Kim

Sunday, July 8, 2001:

Objectives: Leave Tucson today, and will be heading out through southern New Mexico. Tonight we will be staying in Whites City, New Mexico, which is located approx 20 miles away from Carlsbad Caverns.

Our Experience: After leaving Tucson, we drove east and stopped at the Tombstone historical site. We looked around in the old courthouse, and walked around and visited some shops. After that, it was on to Whites City, NM. While driving to our final destination, we had to pass through the western panhandle of Texas, which included the city of El Paso. To the very right of the road was the Rio Grande River, and Mexico right on the other site. After a few hours in Texas, we finally headed northeast and ended up back in New Mexico. This evening we went and watched the bat flight at the main cave opening of Carlsbad caverns.

Photos: (click on the photos to enlarge)

Kim, Brandon, and Jesse at Tombstone Courthouse