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An early start this morning was necessary as we had some miles to do, and some scenic but possibly tricky roads to navigate. There is a lot written about the Million Dollar Highway, especially how many deaths occur on it, but by dinner time, we will have driven it safely. Hopefully!

Leaving Basalt and nipping to the 7-11 for some supplies (read that as donuts), we toddled along the CO-133 toward Hotchkiss, following the North Fork Gunnison River for most of the way. 

Scenery was again spectacular. Passing through small towns like Redstone and seeing the Coke Ovens, rising to 8750 ft as we drove over McClure Pass, and then down into smaller towns such as Somerset crossing under the West Elk Mine of the Mountain Coal Co. 

Then into Hotchkiss to turn onto the CO-92 heading to the Blue Mesa Dam.

An early start today which was trick after yesterday's total fulfilment, but we had another mammoth adventure to tick off. Today we are going to drive over the famous (and infamous) Independence Pass, and also do lunch in Aspen.

We needed little breakfast after last nights gluttony, so we were soon "on the road again"... the coined phrase that is synonymous with this trip. Out of Manitou Springs (which ranks up near the top of towns we have visited so far) onto US-24 and toddled along the most beautiful of journeys and embraced the scenery.

Small towns en-route provided some alternative to the majestic scenery but we simply kicked back and enjoyed the peaceful drive.

Ever since we started looking into this trip across the USA, I have had driving up Pikes Peak at the top of the "to do" list. Every thing we see online about Pikes Peak is spectacular, even if some is quite scary - and I am talking about the hill climb crashes of which there are plenty of videos!

We had booked a rather sociable entry time of between 10:00 and 12:00, but because we now had also booked Ella and Lynn to go horse riding later in the day, we had also booked an earlier slot.

We arrived at the entry gate bang on time, and were quickly waved through. Again, as the suction mount had now been thrown in the bin, Ella was tasked to hold the selfie stick with the Insta360 camera out of the window! 

For me, the holiday now gets serious, and we encounter some of the most wanted highlights of the trip. I have always wanted to go to Colorado, and today, I can scratch that off the list.

Remember I said about the show Longmire? Well the office of Sheriff Walt Longmire is in the fictional town of Durant, Absaroka County. It is actually filmed in Las Vegas, New Mexico... and as that is an hour from Santa Fe, we pooped along for a photo and a coffee!

A short run today as we leave Route 66 and head north to get into the Colorado Loop, which for me is the first of the main highlights of the whole trip.

If you have never watched the show Longmire, I urge you to do so. It appears on all the main streaming services (Netflix, Prime, Paramount) and while it is set in Wyoming, it is actually filmed very near to here. Madrid NM is the location of the Red Pony bar in the show (all good shows have a bar, right?), and that was today's first stop - for a spot of lunch. 

Madrid NM is a small town between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, but oozes character and style. Oh, and it was hot, so perfect for a cold beer and a burger. 

I cannot begin to describe how full we all were on leaving The Big Texan Ranch in Amarillo, after last night's steak orgy! However we had one of the most famous, and prestigious Route 66 icons to visit, The Cadillac Ranch.

There are about ten cars half buried nose first into the ground - it is free to enter and a guy at the entrance who sells knick-knacks made from Cadillac paint, and tins of spray-paint. Simple idea here - visitors have free rein to graffiti the buried cars. So we did!

However there is a sign outside the perimeter saying it is forbidden to graffiti anything beyond!!

Unsure if any of you have knowledge of the 72oz Steak Challenge at The Big Texan Ranch in Amarillo. Famous for a number of You-Tubers having attempted it, but most famously Man v Food did it and succeeded. Trust me - it is obscene - but we headed there today!

Now today was a significant day. We both were looking forward to Oklahoma City - Lynn because of the links with An Officer & A Gentleman, and me because I have always had a yearning to visit the Oklahoma Memorial. We woke early, had a pretty crappy breakfast, and were "on the road again".

Well I can become quite used to Valet Parking - a quick text as we were in the lift down to check out and by the time we appeared at the main door, the car rocked up, and the "valeter" opened the boot and helped us load up! 

We headed off - looking for some donuts at the famous Donut Drive In, or some frozen custard from Ted Dewey. Sadly, both were closed. We stopped instead at a gas station (the lingo is second nature now) for some coffee only to be told we were in a rather unsavoury part of town! It is safe to say we legged it pretty sharply!! 

After about an hour or so, we arrived at Mermen Caverns - a sort of Wooky Hole attraction that offered me another military discount for the tour. If you are ever in the area they are quite cool and probably worth a visit. It is very patriotic as you would expect - but again military allies in the audience (i.e. me) were mentioned alongside the serving US members - which was a nice touch. On leaving, a quick purchase of the obligatory fridge magnet, and we left - to be met by another horrendous downpour!

Based on the fact we have over planned, I forced the family team to be up early for a 0830 launch to hit Target and get supplies. Ella decided now was a good opportunity to start clothes shopping so as you would expect relations were slightly fractious! We eventually got on the road and headed to the Abraham Lincoln historic sites in town - you may have seen Clarkson and his trio venture into the Lincoln home - we didn't but we did but the America The Beautiful Pass and a fridge magnet! 

The excitement waiting for the day to collect the car was immense - the whole reason for this trip was to cruise across the USA in a huge American SUV. Booked through Expedia with Hertz I was pretty sure there would be no issues, and have to say the Hertz customer service chat line is pretty good. My first question to the guy at the counter was "what car do we have?" His response of "Ford Expedition" made me happy - although I was hoping for a Tahoe or a Yukon - but the Expedition is perfect.

The spec is good too - obviously a seven seater, we immediately folded the back row down to give us huge luggage space (and it has acres), the second row has two captains chairs that are perfect for keeping passengers comfy. Plenty of AC options, USB connectivity, cup holders and stowage compartments - it is so much bigger than my Formentor... but we were all set! 

Well, Chicago is amazing... we realised very quickly we needed tasty here longer - or maybe an excuse to come back. Just has a really cool feel about the place. Now I know every city has its sketchy areas and we only stayed in the Chicago Loop, but there is so much to do that we didn't do! 

After a very knowledgeable taxi driver taking us to The Congress Plaza Hotel, first port of call was the Route 66 Start Sign (see left) for the obligatory photo.

A nervous walk up E Adams to the Willis Tower (remember the issue Lynn had on landing earlier)... we wanted (well I wanted) to check out the Sky View Deck - also, we are trying to assist with Lynn's fear of heights during this trip - and a wander up to the 103rd floor was part of that therapy! She did ok here - considering earlier, she was able to get within 2 feet of the glass windows. 

Now for those that have been up will know how spectacular the views are - I came away with a better understanding of Lynn's fear, and some pride in how she tackled it. She never made it onto the SkyView deck - and I never expected her to. However she was able to take the view in and I think felt pretty good overall! 

Air Travel can be fairly mundane - and ours was no exception... well almost!

A short word on AirPortr. I have never used this before but considering we have over packed, it was a godsend. £57 got our hold luggage collected from the hotel entrance and the next time we saw it was at Chicago O'Hare airport - we were first onto the carousel too. We were able to track it from the moment it left the hotel until we received a text to say it had been loaded onto the plane. Security was a doddle - although Ella did fall foul of a more ardent search when some hair oil was found in her hand luggage!

#1 Lounge was ok - reasonably quiet first thing in the morning - with a full array of breakfast food that should satisfy even the most difficult of people. WiFi was good too. £18 for the three of us with out Priority Pass card courtesy of Lloyds Bank Credit Card. A close eye on the monitors with just under an hour to go told us we should head to Gate 23. When we got there, the queue had almost finished, we walked through and noted our group was boarding... so on we went to our seats - 9D, 9E and 9H - Premium Economy! Comfy enough and shared the loos with those in Business!

We might have over-packed! All bags strictly below 23Kgs which will save any grief at check in - which incidentally we have booked an Airportr - so will report back later on how that goes. Onward to the Heathrow Hotel.

Just want to add a big thank you to all those who have offered advice and guidance over the last year or so - and apologies for some inane questions. 

Good resource here:

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/ and https://www.drivingroute66.com/forum/

Wondering what car we will get!