Alyson and I are about to embark on our really big road trip. Estimated at 6,800 miles, to be covered in 16 days, we’ve planned a tour of the Pacific Coast, the South West, and some of the Deep South. Below is a map that shows an overview of our planned route and it shows some of our major stops.

This Friday, May 28th, we will begin the first leg of our trip; Our destination: Seattle, Washington. Starting in Winona, Minnesota, we’ll drive non-stop for 17 hours to Bozeman, Montana and arrive at about Noon on Saturday. If we are feeling energetic, we’ll venture into Yellowstone National Park for the afternoon. Sunday morning we’ll get back on the road towards Seattle, arriving there in the early evening. Alyson’s sister, Averi, and several of our good friends live in Seattle. We will spend all of Memorial day visiting them and sightseeing in downtown Seattle.

Tuesday, June 1st, we will start the second leg of the trip by heading to the Pacific Coast Highway which begins in California. We will drive through Portland, Oregon; camp in Redwood National Park, just inside the California border; and drive across the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco, California. From San Francisco, we will drive East to the Sierra Nevada, stopping in Yosemite National Park. We’ll then go South along the Sierras to Sequoia National Park. We’ll end this leg of the trip by driving through Los Angeles, visiting with some of our family, to Carlsbad where our friend, Paul Rohde, lives. That Saturday, June 5th, we will venture to Joshua Tree National Park, with Paul, for exploration and photography. We’ll will most likely spend the evening on a beach near Carlsbad resting up for our next jaunt.

Sunday, after we attend church with Paul, the third leg will commence with a drive along the California/Mexico border to Yuma, Arizona and then Tucson, Arizona. We’ll then drive though the southernmost part of New Mexico and El Paso, Texas to get to Big Bend National Park where we plan to camp. From Big Bend, we’ll travel on to Austin, Texas were we will spend a day, or two, exploring the city and surrounding areas. We’ll also spend some time in Corpus Christi, probably enjoying Padre Island National Seashore. Finally we will drive through the bayous to New Orleans, Louisiana.

Our final leg will begin with our departure from New Orleans towards Memphis, Tennessee. From Memphis, we will drive through St Louis, Missouri, and finally reach our home, back in Winona, Minnesota.

This trip will be very long, but Alyson and I are excited to drive through countless places we’ve never been, and see what we can see. We plan to take copious amounts photographs, and document the trip here on our blog, every day or so. Stats from the trip will be collected at Daytum.com/JordanOgren.

We invite you to follow us here at TheOgrens.com, at our Twitter feeds (@JordanOgren & @AlysonOgren), or at Facebook.

-Jordan and Alyson