Today we ironically got up earlier than the last several
days to leave. It was difficult to wake up early on our trip while we were
sightseeing but easy when it was time to go home! We figured, at this point we
just wanted to get home. We didn’t want to waste any time. There was a month’s
worth of packing to unpack, laundry to wash, a camper to clean, etc. West
Virginia was beautiful The mountains made us feel like we were home. They
looked fluffy and green, plentiful with trees-unlike the far west. It felt
really good to be getting close to home.
We
stopped in Cumberland, Maryland at our first Sheetz! As you all know, Wawa is
my choice convenience store, but this was the first time seeing one in a month
so I was happy. We kept driving and I got really excited around Waynesboro, PA…familiar
sights at last! We got back to the Waybrights’ to unhook the camper. We plan to
unpack the camper tomorrow. The tahoe was packed to the gills with gifts and
suitcases so we only planned on unpacking the tahoe the first night.
Our
first night home was supposed to be about unpacking and organizing and eating
our favorite pizza since we were going through withdrawal. However, the mice
visiting our home had a different plan for us. I won’t describe in too much
detail, but we had caught a mouse that had then been sitting in the trap for
over week. The house smelled and there were little mouse presents all over
everything in our kitchen. This night turned into bleaching and scrubbing our
entire kitchen, every square inch, and ordering in. Oh well, it was wonderful
being home, even if we did have to clean the kitchen from top to bottom.
Looking
back on our trip….
As we start to fill people in on all the details, we
remember more and more of what we actually did. We accomplished a lot over the
course of a month. Most people visit some of the destinations we visited
spending a week or more there. Places like Disneyland, LA and Las Vegas we only
spent a night. There was something we liked about each location, but there were
things we didn’t like about some locations, too. The good outweighed the bad by
far, so I’ll touch on a few of the “must see” places. I started listing these
places in order and remembered others along the way and suddenly they got out
of order, so I apologize!
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Lake Erie(The Great Lakes): We only spent about
two hours here and we didn’t mention a whole lot about it in our blog, but it
was very pretty. We were lucky enough to eat right next to Erie and enjoyed the
view in Sandusky, Ohio. The town was cute and there was a good amount of things
to see throughout the area.
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Yellowstone National Park – Everything about
Yellowstone was amazing. The animals wandering in the middle of the main road,
the cool, crisp night air and lack of humidity, as well as the little towns at
each entrance into the park. Not to mention, the two million acres within the
confines of the park could keep anyone busy for a couple weeks. We spent three
nights here and couldn’t get enough. The crystal clear blue springs and
spurting geysers(esp. Old Faithful) are sights to see.
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Oregon Trail wagon wheel ruts. We saw one of the
longer paths in Oregon. Since the ground is so dry, the tracks have been
preserved. It was quite humbling being able to walk the path the pioneers
walked as they traveled out west unsure of what life would be like. Would they
find gold or be able to make money when they arrived? How would the Indians
treat them? Who would not make it the whole trip? How many animals would die? Would
they lose anyone along the way? Do they cross a river or take a longer, dryer
route through rough terrain? These people had no idea what to expect and often
times animal and people perished. Life was hard and the road was long but they
all hoped to find a better life and more land out west. The museum was part of
the National Parks deal we got after purchasing our N.P. pass and it was an
awesome museum.
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Keystone, South Dakota/Black Hills area- Mount
Rushmore was neat, but not as absolutely amazing as Crazy Horse. We spent hours
at Crazy Horse when we only intended to stay about 20 minutes. I read you could
only look at the memorial and there wasn’t a whole lot else to do. Whoever
wrote that review, lied! There was a huge museum and we had a tour guide who is
part of the Lakota tribe and she is going to college at the American Indian
University which will someday be housed at Crazy Horse. The original family who
started the memorial still lives on the property. The wife of the mastermind of
Crazy Horse lives on the other side of the memorial. They have never accepted
any government funding and continue to work on money donated and collected
through ticket sales, food sales and gift shop sales. Most of the merchandise
in the gift shop has been donated. All of Mount Rushmore would fit in Crazy
Horse’s head; it is a MUST SEE!!!!!
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Columbia River Gorge, Oregon. You can take US 30
here to get the best view. The gorge is massive and the view from the Vista
House is beautiful.
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Pacific Coast Highway(1)- Beautiful, but do not
travel in anything other than a sports car. There are hundreds of twisty turny
sections of the road and hills. It follows the Pacific Ocean the whole way and
the view is spectacular.
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Yosemite National Park – The sequoias were worth
seeing. We took a trip to Glacier Point, the best view in the park, and it was
a breathtaking moment. We were a few thousand feet off the ground, the sheets
of granite around us were pretty and the cars looked like dots on the pavement.
We even biked several miles in the valley area of the park. This biking area is
manageable and just about anyone would be capable of riding a bike in this
area.
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San Francisco/Sonoma County – The wine is
reasonably priced, the weather is superb and the city is fun. The Golden Gate
Bridge is a famous, must-see. We had a lot of fun in Healdsburg visiting wine
shops and a brewery(Bear Republic).
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Disneyland (Anaheim, Ca)- Who wouldn’t want to
see the ORIGINAL Disney park? It is much smaller than Disney World, but well
worth the visit. We only went to Adventureland, mainly for Cars Land, and it
was the perfect amount of park to tackle in one day.
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Las Vegas, Nevada – this is a must see just
because! We want to go back and spend a few days. But I can’t put it in my top
five. This may be because we didn’t see enough in the few short hours we were
there, but it was awesome staying a night in the city that truly never sleeps.
Each sidewalk seemed to lead us right into another casino and restaurants and
stores were open 24/7. I agree with what my dad once told me. You really need
to see AC first. Because once you see Las Vegas, AC will look tiny!
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Amarillo, Texas – We wanted to see more of
Texas, but the panhandle was pretty beside the fact it was so flat. There is a
lot to do around Amarillo and the KOA we stayed at had the most genial hosts
and the restrooms were clean and newly redone.
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Hoover Dam – Definitely take the power plant
tour. It cost about 14.00/person but we got to take an elevator 500+ feet below
the ground to see the pipes pumping thousands of gallons of water/second and
the generators providing electricity to Las Vegas and parts of Az.
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The Grand Canyon – Call it cliché but it really
does look like a picture. It looks like it can’t possibly be real. The Canyon
is so vast and wide. The colors of the Canyon are beautiful and it is even more
beautiful from the bottom! Our whitewater rafting trip out of Peach Springs and
the Hualapai Lodge was one of the best parts of the trip.
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Gatlinburg, Tennessee – This is a touristy town
but worth the visit. Pigeon Forge is where the Titanic Museum is located and
that town is cool, too. Gatlinburg has a really neat mountain/country feel. We
stayed about an hour outside Gatlinburg in a town known for the rafting around.
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Nashville, Tennessee- We didn’t know what to
expect from Nashville. It may have been so awesome because we didn’t have any
expectations. The town is small and manageable if you have a single day to
explore. However, you could spend a week here and have plenty to keep you busy.
We saw some unique art deco style cars from the 20s and 30s, the original Grand
Ole Opry, listened to country music coming out of speakers at every street
corner and listened to some great live music at lunch in a three-story
restaurant. Nashville is based around Broadway, the main street, which is what
makes it manageable for a day trip. There is an exorbitant amount of history here
as well as more recent country superstars’ stories. We’ll definitely be going
back!
There is a lot we missed, but also a lot we saw. We hope to
visit more states in the future and revisit our favorite places!
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