Roads Less Travelled

So it's been 25 days...

What have we been up to?

We started our trip in the great state of WA.

18 states, 4,991 miles, dozens of LBs & geocaches and 25 days later we finally arrived on the other side of the US. Did I mention that we only needed to drive some 2,800 miles to get to the other side? Definitely chose the roads less travelled along the way. Unfortunately with gas above $3 a gallon (& many places it was hovering near $3.50 a gallon) we had to forego Nevada, Utah & Iowa along the way this trip.

Insanity took over and we decided to camp most of the time along the way.

Lots of interesting experiences from wolf serenades, white water rafting, gem collecting, being chased by a buffalo, stumbling on Cody during a Hells Angels rally to driving up to Sturgis amid the millions (yes, millions) of bikers descending upon the Black Hills for THE rally of the year, discovering twin bear cubs at the Grand Tetons, a couple of moose, elk everywhere, bison scattered about, the largest landslide to ever occur on Earth, dessicated prairie rattler a few feet from our campsite in North Dakota, a buffalo jump, you name it, we seemed to stumble on it.

Some of our state welcome signs were a bit creative--like Idaho's. We crossed the border about 1am on the interstate so we had to find a replica sign in the welcome center.

Spent lots of extra days in Wyoming--mostly exploring Grand Tetons & Yellowstone. Did I mention that I've been to those parks at least 4 previous times--and we've still barely scratched the surface of those areas. I think you could spend years there and not see everything--the land is THAT amazing!

Camped in Grizzly Country--Montana & Wyoming. Many of the highways in the region are under major reconstruction efforts so our 'road less travelled' route was quite a bit out of necessity. Awesome, though, as it gave us a great peek into places we'd otherwise never have visited!

rnrB fell in love with South Dakota! Who knew? She knows everything about the state now--down to the state bird, flower, song, you name it. She was devastated when we arrived in the Badlands at around 8pm and we really didn't get to explore them that much. We'll be back, though. ;)

What an incredible experience it was to visit North Dakota! We deviated a couple hundred miles from our route to sneak up into North Dakota and were blown away by its beauty (& solitude). ;) Loved the area. North Dakota had the most incredible skies ever!!! Lots of gorgeous cloud formations framed by great vistas of rolling plains and rugged mountains/rock formations. Simply breathtaking!

We just visited the southern stretch of the interstate of MN. Mostly rolling prairie and farm lands. Amazing here were the rest areas--some of them were incredible. A couple in particular offered great hiking/biking trails with peeks into local river valleys. We'd never have known had we not been hunting out geocaches. Unfortunately, there aren't any LBs in this part of the state but there certainly is much potential for future LBs. Hopefully, a local will catch on to this need. ;)

Ok, so it was fairly late when we made it to Wisconsin. We rolled into a state park to camp--probably won't do that again as it cost some $35 just to camp at a site with no running water! Beautiful spot but just not designed for out-of-staters. Future note for campers--find a KOA or an RV park that allows campers and save a bunch of money when you're going to rough it.

At this point in our trip we'd run out of time and had to smoke it to get to our destination. Our plans to visit the King Tut exhibit at Chicago's Field Museum were squashed fairly soon after we crossed the state line--it just wasn't going to happen. So we smoked through Illinois just to avoid getting stuck in royal city traffic. Didn't even stop for any of the dozens of LBs in the area. Perhaps next time through?

Stopped for a letterbox and were really impressed with it! So glad that we took the time because it was a beautiful location with a rich history of railroad lore.

Drove about 5 miles out of our way (actually searching for breakfast) and decided to add Michigan to our list for this trip. Didn't have any LB clues for Michigan so it was just a quick drive through.

Only found a couple of LBs in Ohio. We did happen to find lightning bugs, though and the kids were thoroughly impressed. Think it's the first time they've seen fireflies and actually acknowledged it! Total awe!!!

Ok, so it was really late when we found these state line signs. Avoiding the turnpikes around these parts is just about impossible (if you want to get anywhere relatively quickly) so it was a challenge to actually find acknowledged borders between these states along the way. Glad we eventually found them, though--otherwise we wouldn't have noticed the fireflies.

Spent some time in Cumberland exploring the Western terminus of the C&O Canal system. Great fun! Too bad we can't commute from Cumberland to DC because that's a nice area.

Another beautiful area--West Virginia. We definitely stumbled upon the vacation parts of the state, though. Gorgeous!

Our destination for the time being. It's beautiful here on the banks of the Potomac but the shock on the system from the blazing heat and humidity (huh?)!!! We'd been so blessed to live in the Pacific Northwest where humidity only came in the form of rain or snow--this stuff you can cut with a knife hearkens back to our time in Southeast Asia. We've lived in hot before (can you say southern Arizona, New Mexico and West Texas--but humidity is a new, quite foreign thing for us (definitely is a new experience for the kids). Once we get settled in the area, we'll post some photos from our different experiences along the way. In summary, this is an amazing country!!! Get out and explore it!!!