We are so excited for you all! Traveling cross country is an amazing experience!! My first quick thoughts below. Everything is amazing but my answers are based on three months in the car, so I was more excited about getting out of the car and moving hiking walking and on seeing things that were really unique. There are a million random things that we saw that we just happened upon (like the weird weiner mobile in New Mexico) or the Dinosaur Zoo I think also in New Mexico. My suggestion is make a plan but be prepared to ditch it if something looks really interesting or fun!
First and foremost my hands down favorite National Parks in America:
1. Zion National Park in Utah: Angel´s Landing is perhaps the best hiking trail in America.
2. Bad Lands South Dakota. So strange, so surreal, so poetic.
3. Yellowstone: you jsut cant beat it for variety wildlife and majesty. It makes you understand why the American West is still the stuff of dreams
4. Glacier National Park, MT
Random things that you can´t miss because they are so unique:
1. Corn Palace, South Dakota. Weird. Sort of amazing in the ingenuity of corn. Not much else to see but then again you will have jsut driven across th ewhole state of South Dakota so it´s worth it.
2. Also in South Dakota Wall Drugs. Old time pioneer drug store. Also in the middle of South Dakota, so you will be happy to stop.
3. Roadside Giants in North Dakota ... it´s flat it gets cold they get creative. Of note Worlds largest Cow (near New Salem) and Turtle (near Dunseith)
4. Salt flats in Nevada
5. Bryce National Park in Utah: The towers of rock make you wonder what the native Americans and first pioneers must have thought when they found them
6. This could alternately go under the not as cool as you might think heading depending on your interest, but, the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City. Take the tour. Fascintating (my review), Weird and creepy (Rafaels review).
7. Garden of Eden Kansas: Folk Art. Very cool. American Gothic.
8. Roswell NM UFO Museumç
9. San Dunes National Monument, CO. Dunes in the middle of the forest.
10. Natural Bridge, VA
11. Grand Canyon: Hike down to the CO river. Amazing.
12. Bear Tooth Highway MT if it is open it is a MUST. Amazing views.
13.Goblin Valley State Park, UT (in keeping with the MadMardigan theme)
14. Tinkertown Museum, NM ... maybe under classic American ... tinker toys!
Classic American:
1. Highway 1 in California. Amazing views. You can camp out.
2. August 9th to 15th Sturgis SD: Bike Rally. I think the largest in the world. There are no words. Google it...
3. The Field of Dreams Dyersville Iowa also has a museum of farm toys
4. Sedalia, MO: Home? of ragtime music. They have a lot of it anyway.
5. Las Vegas. A see it one time kind of thing.
6. Sequoia National Park
Cities:
1. Savannah
2. Charleston, SC
3. St Agustine, FL
4. Canon city, CO (home to many prisons but amazing amazing scenery especially their Skyline Drive)
5. New Orleans
6. Bar Harbor Maine
7. Chicago
Not as impressive as you might think:
1. Mt Rushmore. You walk up see the carvings. Thats pretty much it.
2. Niagra Falls: Very pretty but again you see it and that´s pretyt much it
3. Hoover Dam
4. Capital Reef National Park, UT
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Suggestions
Sorry to have taken so long! I hope you're enjoying your trip thus far. Here are a few suggestions. If you decide you want to come through Oklahoma, I can suggest other things too. This was just what immediately came to mind-
Oklahoma:
Roman Nose State Park - you can rent a teepee for only 27.50 a night! The park is beautiful, as well. Just outside of Watonga, Oklahoma.
If you're around Roman Nose you can then head over to the Glass Mountains and Gloss Mountains State Park - a bunch of orange mesas good for hiking. You could camp, or there is a nice winery and inn nearby, Indian Creek Village Winery and Inn. Between Cleo Springs and Ringwood.
Oklahoma City - you are welcome to crash on my pullout couch for a night. There's plenty to do, great bars and food, festivals, art, music, etc. I work during the days but can whip up a map of things for you to do.
The longest portion of Route 66 goes straight through Oklahoma. I've heard it's a really neat road trip to take. Plus, you can stop at POPS 66 in Arcadia which has, bar none, the best ice cream floats and chicken strips you will ever have. http://www.pops66.com/
Tulsa is lovely. Andrew is there. He and his wife had coffee w/ me when I came through town about amonth ago. They have a nice aquarium, great art museum, lovely shopping, OK food (I love OKC more than Tulsa, and there has always been a rivalry between the two).
Also neat, near OKC - the Toy and Action Figure Museum in Pauls Valley. http://www.actionfiguremuseum.com/
Missouri:
Hermann - just off of I-70, a really cute little town with an excellent winery (Hermanhoff Vineyards). I visited Germany my junior year of college and went to vineyards on the Mosel river - this winery in Hermann is also on a river, is German in origin, and was the first winery I'd been to in the midwest that seemed authentic. There is a nice bed and breakfast in the town and a fun bar, but it is small. You can also camp in the town - which I did when I went.
Fulton - The Winston Churchill Memorial Museum. If you are a history buff, this museum is awesome. I went to undergrad here, at Westminster College, which is where ol' Winston gave his Iron Curtain Speech. But, many people really aren't into that sort of thing.
St. Louis - TOUR BUDWEISER! Go to a Cards game! Two things I've never done and would be oh-so-jealous if you did. There is also a lot more to do in STL which I can readily suggest, just let me know if you're considering going.
Oklahoma:
Roman Nose State Park - you can rent a teepee for only 27.50 a night! The park is beautiful, as well. Just outside of Watonga, Oklahoma.
If you're around Roman Nose you can then head over to the Glass Mountains and Gloss Mountains State Park - a bunch of orange mesas good for hiking. You could camp, or there is a nice winery and inn nearby, Indian Creek Village Winery and Inn. Between Cleo Springs and Ringwood.
Oklahoma City - you are welcome to crash on my pullout couch for a night. There's plenty to do, great bars and food, festivals, art, music, etc. I work during the days but can whip up a map of things for you to do.
The longest portion of Route 66 goes straight through Oklahoma. I've heard it's a really neat road trip to take. Plus, you can stop at POPS 66 in Arcadia which has, bar none, the best ice cream floats and chicken strips you will ever have. http://www.pops66.com/
Tulsa is lovely. Andrew is there. He and his wife had coffee w/ me when I came through town about amonth ago. They have a nice aquarium, great art museum, lovely shopping, OK food (I love OKC more than Tulsa, and there has always been a rivalry between the two).
Also neat, near OKC - the Toy and Action Figure Museum in Pauls Valley. http://www.actionfiguremuseum.com/
Missouri:
Hermann - just off of I-70, a really cute little town with an excellent winery (Hermanhoff Vineyards). I visited Germany my junior year of college and went to vineyards on the Mosel river - this winery in Hermann is also on a river, is German in origin, and was the first winery I'd been to in the midwest that seemed authentic. There is a nice bed and breakfast in the town and a fun bar, but it is small. You can also camp in the town - which I did when I went.
Fulton - The Winston Churchill Memorial Museum. If you are a history buff, this museum is awesome. I went to undergrad here, at Westminster College, which is where ol' Winston gave his Iron Curtain Speech. But, many people really aren't into that sort of thing.
St. Louis - TOUR BUDWEISER! Go to a Cards game! Two things I've never done and would be oh-so-jealous if you did. There is also a lot more to do in STL which I can readily suggest, just let me know if you're considering going.
There is still somewhere to go in America
First, the idea behind this is simple. My wife and I have now been married almost a year. Given some summer activities, two weddings--one in Boston, one in Phoenix--and the fact that I will actually be leaving on our anniversary to go to school in Vermont, for the month of July we have decided to make a road trip from Boston to Phoenix and back to our home town of Richmond, Va. The dates that we are required to be somewhere are July 9-10 in Boston, and July 15-18 in Phoenix, the in between and the exact date to return to Richmond is up to us, money and gas willing. We wish to try and go to those remote, hardly known, worthwhile, must-see, but seldom seen, little places scattered across the country.
The title and idea is that in a world where we are constantly in connection, facebooked, google ready, footprinted, picasa'ed, tweeted and twits, the Road Trip across country has lost it's quiche, it's je ne sais quoi. We can google places to go in Boston, New York, D.C., Miami, Dallas, Phoenix, L.A. ad nasueum. Hell, we can even take virtual tours of these places. We can even tour parts of our fair city Richmond, Va, but as always the real tried and true places are seldom found on the web. You have to live there, you have to be there, you have to experience it for yourself. So, in the weeks to come we wish to open this up to the rest of you. Our travel plan is simple, the car will be packed with a tent, some camping gear, the computer, and a gps, we have some ideas, but where is that somewhere that you would go, or have been? Is there a diner in Tennessee that makes the perfect eggs and grits? What's the most breath taking spot to camp on the Colorado river? Is the biggest ball of twine worth seeing? What about the largest skillet? What Indian, er, Native American Casino just can't be passed up? What would you do? Where would you go?
The title and idea is that in a world where we are constantly in connection, facebooked, google ready, footprinted, picasa'ed, tweeted and twits, the Road Trip across country has lost it's quiche, it's je ne sais quoi. We can google places to go in Boston, New York, D.C., Miami, Dallas, Phoenix, L.A. ad nasueum. Hell, we can even take virtual tours of these places. We can even tour parts of our fair city Richmond, Va, but as always the real tried and true places are seldom found on the web. You have to live there, you have to be there, you have to experience it for yourself. So, in the weeks to come we wish to open this up to the rest of you. Our travel plan is simple, the car will be packed with a tent, some camping gear, the computer, and a gps, we have some ideas, but where is that somewhere that you would go, or have been? Is there a diner in Tennessee that makes the perfect eggs and grits? What's the most breath taking spot to camp on the Colorado river? Is the biggest ball of twine worth seeing? What about the largest skillet? What Indian, er, Native American Casino just can't be passed up? What would you do? Where would you go?
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