LONG STORY SHORT By Kristine McGowan  Whatever happens this year, it can’t be as scary as Sonora Pass was, right? Right? Our “winter break” at home has come to an end. After three months of stuffing ourselves with Thanksgiving turkey, Christmas tamales, and Super Bowl BBQ, we’re finally back on the road. We’re so ready—and a bit nervous, too. Last week, we embarked on Part II of The Big Trip. We won’t head back to Southern California until June, making this our longest continuous stretch on the road. And unlike last year, when we romped all over the western U.S., we’re heading into parts of the country we’ve never visited before. The west is familiar to us. It’s home. But for the first time ever, we’re crossing the Rockies and heading east, and we’re not quite sure what to expect. Sounds like all the ingredients for an adventure, doesn’t it? We’ll share stories and photos from our adventure as we go. For now, here’s a look at what we’ve been up to lately and what we have planned for the weeks ahead. Where have we been?We may have spent the holidays at home, but that doesn’t mean we never got out. Here are a few spots we visited right in our home state. Sequoia National Forest, Calif.—aka, where we got our Christmas tree  After Thanksgiving, we got together with Jason’s brother and our soon-to-be sister-in-law to kick off an annual tradition: chopping down our Christmas trees in Sequoia National Forest. We got our permits, drove up to Sequoia, hiked around for a bit, and picked and chopped down our trees. That may sound like a lot of work—because, well, it is—but it’s also one of our favorite days of the year. Santa Barbara and Channel Islands National Park, Calif.  In January, we visited our first national park of the year, Channel Islands National Park, and our visit quickly turned into a wildlife safari. We saw dolphins, seals, the endemic island foxes—and, for some reason, an osprey beating up a bald eagle. (A true Planet Earth experience. I could practically hear David Attenborough narrating it all.) The eagle lost, but don’t worry, it was fine. Joshua Tree National Park, Calif.  Thanks to a last-minute doctor’s appointment, we hit the road for Part II a few days later than planned, forcing us to alter our route so we’d get into Arizona as soon as possible. Still, we managed to squeeze in one night at Joshua Tree National Park, where we gazed at the stars and roasted marshmallows over our first campfire of The Big Trip. (Yes, our first. Our allergies aren’t very tolerant of campfires.) Where are we going next?Our first two weeks will take us out of California, across Arizona and New Mexico, and into Texas. Hello, Central Time Zone.  47. Tucson and Saguaro National Park, Ariz.
48. Chiricahua National Monument, Ariz. 49. White Sands National Park, N.M. 50. Carlsbad Caverns National Park, N.M. 51. Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Texas 52. Big Bend National Park, Texas
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