After being home for 2 days now, I finally have a second to wrap
up the blog of our epic summer road trip 2019.
It was amazing! I feel like we saw
so much more this time as compared to the last sabbatical trip. Maybe no break-downs or being stuck for days
contributed to that feeling? We had such
an amazing, relatively care free vacation that I can hardly believe it! No break-downs, no accidents, no injuries, no
major illness, no flat tires, no horrible fights, no stolen wallets, no
nothing! Kind of boring I guess! I’ll take it though. At times it was pretty incredible how well we
were watched over. There were at least 4 times I can think of
when people were leaving parking lots at just the right time for us to slide
into their spot, or else we wouldn’t have had a place to park and would have
had to miss whatever it was we were stopping to see. And as hard as other drivers tried to cut us
off and cause a major accident, it never happened! I am so grateful for the safety and ease of
this trip. I can say ease, I wasn’t
driving 😊.
The morning of the 4th we woke up early and headed
to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.
A lesser known, smaller national park, but awesome just the same! It is a very deep canyon carved by the
Gunnison River in western Colorado. The
views from the rim were pretty incredible.
It’s very steep and at one point is only 40 feet wide. That’s a hard-working river through billions
of years old bedrock! We drove down to
the bottom of the canyon and followed the river for the small piece they let
you see. The views from the bottom were
just as impressive as from the rim. We
were surprised at how green the whole country seemed to be this summer and the
bottom of the canyon also had amazing shades of green. Even the river was green. Bree spotted a river otter playing in the
river and we watched him play for awhile and then had to beat tracks back up
the canyon to get to our trailer and out of our spot by noon. We made it with 30 minutes to spare! I told Paul if we needed to miss that park it
would be OK, but I’m sure glad we didn’t.
Not only did it raise us up to 40 total national parks visited, but it really
isn’t a park to miss. Once again,
Colorado delivered some majestic scenery.
About an hour north of BCotG is Colorado National
Monument. Since it was right off the freeway
we of course stopped. But we would have
had it been even farther. Paul knows me well
enough to know if there is a national anything in the area we are going! This place was incredible too! The road winds its way up a canyon to the top
of the mesa I guess, and then winds around with spectacular views of the red rock
canyons and valleys. That was the
hairiest drive of the entire trip!
Narrow, windy roads along sheer drop-offs, three tunnels we could only
fit by driving through the direct middle, pulling the trailer. It was crazy.
But there were no restrictions so I guess the people who made the road
thought they did a stellar job of it. I probably
would have agreed if we didn’t have the trailer on us! But once again, Paul was amazing! I have never seen anyone drive as well as he
does. Its crazy how stressful I know it
is to drive that caravan but he does it seemingly effortlessly. What a total stud. Glad he’s mine. 😊 Colorado National Monument is so cool that even
the kids were wondering why it isn’t a full blown national park. I heard a ranger telling another visitor that
there is an initiative in congress right now to upgrade it to a NP. I hope they do, if only for the reason that more
visitors will visit if it has a national park tag, and it is definitely not a
place to miss if you like nature and rocks, which I’m kind of in love with
both! So it was yet another incredible
offering from the state of Colorado.
Well done, Colorado. You are
officially my favorite state to visit!
Sorry South Dakota!
From the monument we drove to Provo, UT. I was afraid I would break out in hives and
start hyperventilating but I made it just fine!
We never approached the city I knew so that always helps. And I never had that unsettling feeling that
we should be living in Utah which I usually get when we’re in the state, so it was an OK
stop. But I’m always happy to see the
state in my rear view mirror after we’ve seen what we needed to in the area. The next day we made a huge haul and camped
in Baker City, OR for the last night of our vacation. It was fine too, but sad as we did things for
the last time on the trip. Not that I
don’t love my home, its just that I had no desire to go home. I could have spent another month on the road
till school started, but the kids have too many responsibilities and activities
and of course, Paul has work, but I really enjoy being gone, exploring. I do feel like we have seen the lion’s share
of sites in the USA though. I’m sure we
could find plenty of awesomeness to see if we did another huge trip, but as
snotty as it sounds I feel like we’ve seen pretty much most of the big things
to see. I hope I can prove myself wrong
some day! We got home around 2pm on Tuesday,
August 5th. Everything looked
the same, except my yard was a bit overgrown.
First thing I did was get the weed wacker out and trim some bushes! And Paul got the shovel to get the collected
dog poop out of the yard. Welcome home
Ericksons! The kids were thrilled to be
home but I was very cranky and stressed out at the thought of all that now has to be done to get life back to normal.
UGH. I’m not there yet, but at
least I can sit and type this.
So final stats of the trip:
54 days (1 fewer than the last one!
Argh! We were a bit disappointed
that we didn’t beat our old record), 13,287.5 miles traveled over 37 states and
3 Canadian Provinces, 12 national parks (plus many more national monuments and
historic sites), 4 universities, an estimated 600+ water bottles, at least 5
bloody noses, 1 bee sting, 1 tooth ache, and no break downs! Not even a flat tire! Not even a rock chip in the window! We were so blessed at how “easy” this trip
was! I’m hoping in the next few days to
get a moment to go over the memories and process it all again. I can’t believe how lucky I am to live in this
amazing country and also have the opportunity to explore it as extensively as
we have. And how blessed I am to have
such an amazing husband in Paul, and such patient kids who put up with their
world being flipped upside down on them and not complain too awfully badly
about it. I’m still amazed at how well
it all turned out. And then to top it
all off, the morning after we got home the dentist called and they had an opening
at 10 so I raced to Hillsboro and got my tooth fixed! So I’m able to chew again! So grateful for it all.
I took a survey on our way home to find out various
favorites from the trip:
Favorite state or province:
P - Nova Scotia
T - Colorado/Nova Scotia
D - Wisconsin
M - Oregon
D - Colorado
B - Colorado
Favorite National Park:
P - Colorado Monument
T - Congaree
D - Niagara Falls
M - Black Canyon of the Gunnison
D - Great Sand Dunes/Mesa Verde
B - Mesa Verde/Congaree/Acadia
Favorite City:
P - New York
T - New York
D – New York
M - Washington DC
D - New York
B - Washington DC
Favorite Food:
P - NY pizza/Yoders (Amish deli
sandwich)
T – Poutine/NY street food
D - Beaver Tails
M - Michigan pizza
D - Yoders/Beaver Tails
B – McDonalds/NY pizza
Favorite wild/zoo animal:
P – moose/naked mole rats
T – black bears/pandas
D – moose/pandas
M – black bears/Komodo dragon
D – coyote/fennec fox
B – turtle/sloth
Favorite church site:
P – Nauvoo
T – Sacred Grove
D – Nauvoo
M – church in Wisconsin
D – Nauvoo
B – Nauvoo
Favorite adventure:
P – NY subway
T – Peggy’s Cove/White House tour
D – Central Park
M – Purdue/Witches Gulch jet boat
ride
D – Myrtle Beach swim in the Atlantic/Michigan family farm
B – Nauvoo
There we have it! Another amazing trip in the books, with a
life time of memories stuffed in our already full heads! Now we need to start planning the next trip so
I have something to look forward to!
Things I learned on this trip:
1. I gained a greater appreciation for Peter, Paul, and Mary? Maybe? Their music is pretty OK, but the lyrics are kind of crazy. For example, Leaving on a Jet Plane is about a woman who admittedly fools around on her partner, and is leaving to fool around again, but wants her partner to wait around for her and then she'll be ready to settle down and get married. Huh!? Maybe just don't listen to the lyrics on that one. And Lemon Tree is about a guy who was warned off of women by his dad. "Lemon tree, very pretty, and the lemon flower is sweet. But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat." And Bree likes to sing this song. Hilarious.
2. As much as the media likes to scare us into thinking otherwise, the United States really is filled with good people and I felt safe pretty much everywhere. With a couple of exceptions. The unsafe, selfish drivers in Chicago still bother me. Then the campground we stayed at in Iowa seemed to not appreciate our being there. There was a big car race coming to town with all the places reserved 5 DAYS LATER than we were there, but a couple people came to check on our site and made sure we were only staying 1 night. Crimony! We get it! We'll only intrude 1 night and then get the heck out of your way! I felt totally persona non grata there. Jeesh. And then there was the extremely rude older lady at Harpers Ferry who stood in line with me at the bathroom and let me know how red my face was from the heat and was I OK and maybe I should dump water on my head like her awesome golfer of a daughter did but she would never do such a thing because of her hair but I should try it. Oh? My hairdo isn't good enough to save? She was a trip and I was even hotter after listening to her drivel. I'm sure no one has ever put her in her place in her life. Too bad I wasn't the first. I wasn't exactly kind back, but I should have told her off. But I'm one of those nice Americans I guess ;) And then there was the rest area off the expressway in North Carolina. I totally didn't feel safe there. Everyone had a scowl on their face, heads down, and moving at breakneck speed both in cars and walking around, without caring who else was around. I didn't like that place. But that's really all I can come up with, the rest was all good people!
3. As much as I love being on the road, I'm not sure I could full-time it. We move pretty fast through places, seeing the sites and moving on. If we were full-timing it we would have to slow down and stay more than one night in a camping spot. Not sure Paul and I have it in us to slow down like that!
4. It was definitely a different experience this time compared to having younger kids. Or was it the electronics involved more this time? Not sure. But I felt like the kids didn't pay much attention out the windows unless Paul and I were loudly pointing things out to them. Totally different than road trips I would take when I was young, but then I didn't have the electronics people have nowadays. I still have memories of certain spots along the way to Utah and that's because I looked out the windows the whole time, taking in my surroundings. I still do. I read a bit here and there but mostly I'm looking out the window, taking in the beauty and different terrain and crops and weather formations and animals and rivers and different tree types and making amazing memories. I fear they may just have memories of certain spots instead of the trip as a whole. I'm not sure if I showed them a picture of a random road they could place where it was. Electronics are a blessing and a curse I guess. Our rule is electronics off for the duration of a national park or city or other place Paul and I feel is important. On the pass in Rocky Mt NP we witnessed a dad begging his 2 daughters to get out of the car and "experience the nature!" They wouldn't even look at him as they had their faces buried in a phone. He gave up and walked off with his camera. They never looked up and never got out of the car. I wanted to rip the phone out of their hands and give em a big ol' shove after their dad but I didn't. So disappointing. Makes me sad for this world.
4. I love the USA! But I already knew that :)
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