Cross Country Trip

One of several questions posed to answer in a special project sent by daughter Victoria:  
What is your most memorable trip?

I choose this trip as my most memorable.  The primary reason this one is so unusual is because of the length.   It was a 28 day trip, the longest time I have ever been away from home!

It was a cross country trip of 6348  miles.  

Planning the trip was a primary occupation of my winter months, as Gerry went skiing.

As the notebook will attest. the planning was very detailed.   We started with two basic ideas.  We would make it as far as Seattle, Washington, because I had never been to either Washington or Oregon before. Gerry had been for a professional meeting, but that probably did not involve many touristy activities.  

We did not want to spend all day every day in the car, so our goal was no more than 4 or 5 hours of actual driving per day, so that we could do spontaneous sightseeing adventures along the way.  Of course, there were places which required several days to see.  We spent a couple of days in Chicago,  in St. Paul, Minnesota, in Seattle.   Because driving in cities and navigating our way around them was so stressful, in every case, we opted to leave our car in the hotel parking garage and do our sightseeing on foot!   We could see as much as we desired to see by that means.

I had gotten maps, travelers guides, and trip tiks from Triple AAA.   I had made reservations at every stop along the way, there and back.  I had to figure out how many miles we could drive from place to place, and then the easiest place to stay, relative to the highways we were traveling.  Most of our evenings were booked at the Holiday Inn Express, wherever we could find one.  We made some minor changes in our plans along the way,  but never had any difficulties with our reservations. They were either expecting us, or happy to accommodate us.  Our least favorite place was the place we stayed in Seattle.  

Memorable things---it took three days to drive across Montana!  When we drove Route 2, the northern route just south of Canada, from east to west,  we rarely ever saw another vehicle!

We saw many interesting things and had many interesting experiences, which included a visit with Gerry's professor from Iowa State, who was well into his 90's.

Here is a brief list of some of the things we saw/did:    rolling hills, agriculture, covered wagon, buffalo, lava cone, rivers, waterfalls, wild sunflowers, museums, tennis, old friends,  botanical gardens, deserts, sculptures, hotel rooms, cities, small towns, Native American memorabilia, bridges, dams, machinery, highways, roads, roads, more roads, blue sky.