Plans for an ambitious road trip around the American West late this summer are coming together.  The impetus for this trip is that my cousin is getting married in Albuquerque at the end of August.  Given that there doesn’t seem to be a direct flight from Seattle and tickets are relatively expensive (especially compared to some smokin’ deals my friends seem to be getting… ~$250 round trip to NYC, ~$400 round trip to Tokyo!) and also given that my Honda Civic gets pretty great gas mileage on the freeway, we have decided to drive.  Since we’re also trying to bank up as much vacation as possible for next year’s trip to Mongolia, we are making this 3,600 mile round trip journey in less than a week.  We’ll drive straight from Seattle to Yellowstone in about 12 hours and take a break to see the park for a day and catch a good night’s sleep. Then we power down to Albuquerque and grab some more zzzz’s the night before the wedding.  Then there’s a whole weekend of family events planned. After the bride & groom are seen off to their honeymoon, and the last aunt hs been kissed and last uncle debated, we will drive a few short hours to Meteor Crater and the Grand Canyon, hopefully for a good sunset or sunrise view.  Another good night’s sleep and we’ll power on home again before returning to work in less time than my boss can say “paid leave report”.

Sounds like fun, sounds like an adventure, kind of sounds like a National Lampoon movie starring Chevy Chase.