2023 Road Trip Wrap-up

Rowland 2023 Summer Road Trip Wrap-Up

The picture below shows a route overview of our trip. If you look at the proposed route (from my first post), you will see a few changes. But overall we stuck pretty closely to the original plan. 

We drove 10,804.5 miles and were on the road for 48 days. We also stayed in 32 different locations (hotels, VRBO, with friends or family). We drove through 26 different states (listed below). The farthest west we went was Malibu, California (2,500 miles from Blackshear) and the farthest north was Glendive, Montana (2,000 miles from Blackshear). The hottest temperate we encountered was 110 degrees (Death Valley) and the lowest was in the 30s (Near Rocky Mountain National Park). 

We visited 38 National Parks, Historic Sites, and Presidential Libraries (listed below). This is a layout of all the park maps for the national sites we made it to (in the order we visited them). 

Here is a picture of all of Hannah's Junior Ranger badges and patches she got on this trip. Isaiah did 9 of them as well. Hannah earned 34 Junior Rangers badges while visiting those locations. 

A geocaching friend sent the kids some money and both Grandmas gave money for them to spend. We found a couple mini builds at Rocky Mountain National Park they wanted so we got them. They are off-brand Lego type builds. Apparently, they are available at a lot of the parks and we started collecting them as we travelled. We may have gotten a little carried away, but these should keep the kids occupied for awhile! I promise we did not buy all of them that we saw!

A few other interesting facts/takeaways from the trip: We did laundry 3 times (about every week and a half to 2 weeks). Both kids learned how to cut their own meat during the trip and Isaiah is officially booster seat free! I also thought I knew what rural meant, but my concept of rural has completely changed. There are places out west where you drive for HOURS without seeing more than a couple houses. Rural Georgia suddenly doesn't seem so rural!

I realized how much I love trees and rain (after not seeing either for about 3 weeks in the desert). In fact, it rained more on us the last day of the trip (from Savannah to home) than it did the whole rest of the trip. I also now understand what people mean by "dry heat". 110 degrees in Death Valley actually felt better than 90 degrees in Blackshear. That being said, I'm not a fan of the desert. Did I mention I missed trees and rain? The dry weather caused dry skin, chapped lips, and even a few nosebleeds. I also learned that I am a low elevation girl. Next time I travel to a high elevation, I will schedule time to acclimate (and always travel with an O2 monitor).

 I have said this a couple times, but I feel truly blessed to have seen so much of this country. I encourage everyone to travel as much as possible to see what's out there. Each area has its own unique things (like how the Midwest offers cottage cheese as a side with your meal). There were some things (like boiled peanuts and hush puppies) that I never realized were a southern thing. 

A couple people have asked if we had it to do again would we still do the trip. Absolutely. It took so much planning and we were so tired at times, but it was totally worth it. That being said, I doubt we will do another trip that's quite this long (at least not until we retire). On another note, everything is so much more expensive out west! 

Below is a list of interesting locations we visited, the states we drove through, and the National Sites we visited. There are now only 4 states David hasn't visited (Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, and Oklahoma) and 6 states I haven't visited (Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, Oklahoma, Texas, and Louisiana). 

Noteworthy Locations

Mingo (Oldest active geocache)

Oz Museum

Lowell Observatory

Field of Dreams Movie Site

Hoover Dam

Natural History Museum in L.A.

Great Salt Lake

Lake Michigan

Pacific Ocean

Atlantic Ocean 

Vegas Strip

Malibu

Rodeo Drive

Hollywood Sign

Palm Springs

Metropolis

Twin Falls

Garden of the Gods

Goblin Valley

Monument Valley

Mighty Eighth Museum of the Air Force

King's Island

National Parks & Historic Sites

Gateway Arch NP

Rocky Mountain NP

Florissant Fossil Beds NM

Great Sand Dunes NP

Curecanti NRA

Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP

Mesa Verde NP

Glen Canyon NRA

Grand Canyon NP

Joshua Tree NP

Ronald Reagan Presidential Library

Death Valley NP

Lake Mead NRA

Zion NP

Bryce Canyon NP

Capitol Reef NP

Canyonlands NP

Arches NP

Golden Spike NHP

Minidoka NHS

Hagerman Fossil Beds NM

Oregon Trail NHT

Craters of the Moon NM

Grand Teton NP

Yellowstone NP

Theodore Roosevelt NP

Wind Cave NP

Jewel Cave NM

Mount Rushmore NM

Badlands NP

Effigy Mounds NM

Herbert Hoover Presidential Library

Pullman NHP

Indiana Dunes NP

Dayton Aviation Heritage NHP

Great Smoky Mountains NP

Blue Ridge Parkway

Congaree NP

States 

Georgia

Tennessee

Kentucky

Illinois

Missouri

Kansas

Nebraska

Colorado

New Mexico

Arizona

California

Nevada

Utah

Idaho

Wyoming

North Dakota

South Dakota

Minnesota

Wisconsin

Iowa

Illinois

Indiana

Michigan

Ohio

North Carolina

South Carolina