Earlier this year we decided to go see the Rose Parade, made available to us by participating with an Airstream (WBCCI) rally. Because of the long drive and limited time, we needed to depart on Christmas day. We celebrated Christmas with the kids Christmas eve, had a great meal, opened presents, and enjoyed the kids’ company. Loved it.

On Christmas day, we had a quick breakfast and then departed for the long trip to Pasadena. The first night we made it to a Walmart parking lot in Shreveport, LA. Turns out even Walmart closes for Christmas, so we had a quiet night in their parking lot. It didn’t much matter, because when you have driven all day a quick dinner and sleep was all that was needed.

The next day we left Shreveport, which if you don’t know is VERY close to the eastern Texas border. We drove all day – as in from 8 am until about 7 pm. to Van Horn, TX. And with all that driving we never even left the state of Texas! In fact, the following day we still had about 150 miles to go to get out of Texas. Big ass state; just saying.

From Van Horn, TX (we actually stayed in a legit campground) we headed out for another long day of driving. Within 30 minutes of driving we went through blizzard conditions with almost a snow whiteout. We persevered and after descending some elevation we could only see snow in our rearview mirror. We drove all day and made it to Quartzite, AZ, which is a pretty quirky town. We will come back here when we have more time, but it provided us a good rest stop for the night in a campground where we could empty our tanks, charge our batteries and fill up with fresh water.

The last leg took us from Quartzite into Pasadena. From Palm Springs into Pasadena, even though it was a Sunday, there were a ton of frenetic drivers (and some interesting sights along the way!). And we drove what seemed like hours in this kind of traffic! It is just amazing how big the general LA area is in terms of population and congestion. We made it to our “campground”, which is actually the parking lot for a public high school, where we will be camped through New Years Day and the Rose Parade! We are located only a few short blocks from the parade route and have assigned seating in bleachers. More later on that!