John's Top 10 - Road Trip Stops

So here are my top 10 stops from our road trip across the country, excluding our stops to see family of course.

10.) Jolly Green Giant Statue - Blue Earth Minnesota
You can't travel across the country and not stop at a road side gimmick or two. We stopped at a few along the way but this one was the best in my opinion. Not only does it have a picture platform, for the perfect keepsake, it is beautifully constructed and is actually a nice statue.

9.) SPAM Museum - Austin, Minnesota
Still can't believe there is a museum for SPAM. It was fun, very interesting and educational. I never knew SPAM had the worldwide impact that it did and how it helped in the war effort during WWII.

Day 21 - Home at Last

 "One small cat changes coming home to an empty house to coming home."

-- Pam Brown

One small cat changes coming home to an empty house to coming home.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/coming_home.html

One small cat changes coming home to an empty house to coming home.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/coming_home.html

Trip Totals:

Walmart Trips Made:8

McDonald's Diet Cokes Drank:17

Horse Trailers Seen: 108 + 1 Horse Show

Itinerary Changes Made: 7

Times John Made Fun of Lauren's Navigation Abilities: 5
 
Today's Itinerary: Hotel to Home

Today's the day, we finally, after 20 days on the road, get to walk in the front door of our finished new house. The last time we were here it was slab foundation and wall studs, now it is a beautiful home.

Even still today was still an adventure. With all the document issues we had yesterday we were unsure if we would get our keys or not. So we maximized our hotel time and the ability to get things done without the animals in the morning.  We went to the store and purchased our new refrigerator, washing machine and dryer for our home, making it back to the hotel just before checkout.

To checkout or not to checkout, we debated that a bit because if for some reason we'd get delayed again we might not be able to get that room back and pet friendly hotel rooms are tricky to find, especially at the last minute.

With time to kill until we heard word about if the documents were processed in time or not, we decided to go car shopping. I had sold my truck prior to moving to CA so we had the money for that so this was fairly easy, but you still want to find the right car.

After some googling I came across a couple of cars over near Sacramento and since it's not far we headed that way. I drove a couple, hem hawed a bit if we wanted to get a small loan to keep the cash for other things. We ultimately decided just to spend the cash we had, I'm glad we did.

While at the dealership we got the great news! Paper work is done, keys are ready for pickup!

And just like that our cross country road trip adventure was over, but it's only the beginning of our California adventure.

Home

John's new car

Even Dino got a set of keys

Day 20 - Not Home Yet

You may delay, but time will not.

~ ~ Benjamin Franklin

Trip Totals: 

Walmart Trips Made:8

McDonald's Diet Cokes Drank:16

Horse Trailers Seen: 108 + 1 Horse Show

Itinerary Changes Made: 7

Times John Made Fun of Lauren's Navigation Abilities: 5
 
Today's Itinerary: Bakersfield, CA to our new home in Woodland, CA

A "short" drive today only about 4 1/2 hours in the car. Unfortunately what was suppose to be our grand finale, turned out to be another night in the local hotel. Our mortgage documents were not quite ready, causing a delay in getting them to title, which meant they wouldn't get to the county recorder in time to be recorded, leaving us homeless for one more day.

No fun house pictures. Tired at this point ready to move in.

We did have a nice dinner at The Burger Saloon in Woodland, definitely will be a place we take people when they visit us. 

Day 19 - Hi Ho, Hi Ho, Off to Nevada We Go

"If you never did you should.  These things are fun and fun is good."

-- Dr. Seuss 

Trip Totals: 

Walmart Trips Made:8

McDonald's Diet Cokes Drank:15

Horse Trailers Seen: 106 + 1 Horse Show

Itinerary Changes Made: 7

Times John Made Fun of Lauren's Navigation Abilities: 5

Today's Itinerary: Kanab, UT to Bakersfield, CA with Zion National Park, Las Vegas, and Hoover Dam.

Conversation of the Day:
John: I gots this under control!
Lauren: That's highly debatable...

Lessons Learned:
1.) Mojave, CA - What do you do out here there's nothing here? Answer: Airplane graveyard, Construct 100's of windmills, and test car handling at Hyundai's proving grounds.
2.) I-15 between Zion and Las Vegas, some of the coolest highway driving. Especially when it cuts it way through the mountains.

Kanab, UT

I took Allie for a walk before we hit the road today and discovered 2 things.  First Kanab, UT was a common Hollywood shooting location for many old western movies and TV shows.  Second that if you're gonna buy a souvenir from the Grand Canyon that was made locally, check how local because it was next door to our hotel. We picked up 2 more pieces for fifty cents each, lot better than $10.

We just drove through Zion National Park, it was nice from the road, but it would have been a lot better if we would have had time to hike the trails.

Zion National Park

Zion National Park

Another thing we wish we could have done, but having the animals made it to difficult visit was Vegas. So we did what we could and drove down the Vegas strip and snapped a few photos from the car window. We are just a short plane flight from Sacramento to Vegas, something we will be doing for sure.

Las Vegas

Can't go to Vegas without seeing the Hoover Dam. We checked that off the list of things to do and will never need to do it again. Lake Mead... that has some potential.

Hoover Dam & Lake Mead

Getting close to the finish, in California driving through some nice sandy countryside. Had to stop at the World's Largest Thermometer... A nice cool 112 degrees.

World's Largest Thermometer in Baker, CA

Day 18 - A touch of Wyoming, a scotsch of Arizona and a whole lot of Utah

"It's better to see something once than to hear about it a hundred times."

-- Russian Proverb

Trip Totals: 

Walmart Trips Made:8

McDonald's Diet Cokes Drank:13

Horse Trailers Seen: 102 + 1 Horse Show

Itinerary Changes Made: 7

Times John Made Fun of Lauren's Navigation Abilities: 5

Today's Itinerary: Evanston, WY to Kanab, UT and the Grand Canyon

Lessons Learned: 

1.) Car Alarms work, Lauren learned this while trying to get into the car while I was still walking back from the Great Salt Lake.
2.) Lauren is afraid of ferris wheels, not cliffs of Grand Canyon. "The baskets swing, the cliffs are not going anywhere"
3.) The great Salt Lake stinks when you get close to it.

Lauren's American Roadtrip of Donuts Continues

Salt Lake City has a sense of humor

I had gone back and forth on if we would stop at the Great Salt Lake, but since we were within 10 miles after getting Lauren's donuts we made the small itinerary change.

Great Salt Lake

 We made it to Kanab, UT, our overnight stop, and dropped off the animals at the hotel. After they were settled in, we headed off for a snack and the Grand Canon.

Ice Cream before Grand Can

We made it to the Grand Canyon, it was absolutely amazing. It took awhile to get to distance wise because we had to drive through a Grand Canyon National Game Preserve with very twisty roads at slow speed. These would be more fun later. We got our passport stamped and picked up a small sandstone sculpture from the gift shop. We walked the trails and I had to try to keep Lauren from going too far out; she was making me nervous. And since the winding road to the park took as long as it did we decided to stay until sunset to capture that moment. 

Bison in the Grand Canyon National Game Preserve

Angel Point - Grand Canyon

The drive home was an adventure. I would estimate the number of deer near or on the road at 20+, including 4 bucks, oh and that heard of bison we took a photo of earlier... they were on the road too. Good thing their eyes glowed in the high beams.  We made it back to the hotel eventually. Now ready for tomorrow and its jam packed schedule.

Day 17 - Wyoming, lots and lots of Wyoming

"Travel. As much as you can. As far as you can. As long as you can. Life's not meant to be lived in one place."
--Anonymous

Trip Totals: 

Walmart Trips Made:7

McDonald's Diet Cokes Drank:13

Horse Trailers Seen: 86 + 1 Horse Show

Itinerary Changes Made: 6 

Times John Made Fun of Lauren's Navigation Abilities: 5

Today's Itinerary: Devils Tower National Park, then across the state of Wyoming to the southwest corner of the state..

Lessons Learned: 

1.) 2 lane roads exist with 70 mph speed limit. 

2.) Wyoming, where to go to survive the zombie apocalypse. No people, No zombies. 
3.) Wyoming, we've got mountains, cows and deer. Others unknown.

Day started of with a stop to Jerry's Cakes and Donuts for a couple tasty treats. An official review of all our doughnut stops will be done at the conclusion of our trip. Then we headed off to Devils Tower.

Devil's Tower doesn't look like much from a distance but as you get closer you start to get a sense of the scale and why it's preserved and protected by the National Park Service. It's even more impressive when you can spot a mountain climber or two climbing up the face. This is also a good vision test and confirmed that Lauren will be making an eye doctor appointment in the not to distant future. 

Devil's Tower

Did you find the mountain climber in the photo?

After Devil's Tower the long journey across Wyoming began. Below are a random sampling of the scenic views from Wyoming's highways.  They are a general representation of what ALL of Wyoming looks like.

Wyoming

Oregon Trail landmark Independence Rock, looks a lot more impressive in person than in that old computer game from school.

We made it to Evanston, WY somewhat early for us, and we get to bed before 10 for the first time in several days. Busy day tomorrow heading South to the Grand Canyon.

Day 16 - Green Beans and Corn, Missiles and Mountains

You're off to great places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting, So... get on your way!

~~ Dr. Seuss

Trip Totals:

Walmart Trips Made:7

McDonald's Diet Cokes Drank:12

Horse Trailers Seen: 59 + 1 Horse Show

Itinerary Changes Made: 6

Times John Made Fun of Lauren's Navigation Abilities:5

Today's Itinerary: Austin, MN to Rapid City with Badlands National Park and Mt. Rushmore

Lessons Learned:
1.) Horse trailers everywhere, saw more today than all days previous combined.
2.) Wall Drug > Corn Palace
3.) Wall Drug's Marketing Department is a big fan of billboards
4.) Check for parades before visiting downtown on weekends

Today begins the marathon portion of the trip, with long mileage in the car. South Dakota I-90 will make your eyes cross, it is long straight and pretty much the same scenery the whole way. Thankfully we had a couple scheduled stops that broke up the distance.

Our first of those stops was Blue Earth, MN to see their Statue of the Jolly Green Giant.  So we took a couple quick photos and swung through McDonald's and it was back on the road. Next up was Mitchell, SD and the Corn Palace. Make note when visiting a downtown for the first time it is best apparently to check the parade schedule as downtown Mitchell was crazy. We happened to arrive while the Corn Palace Stampede Rodeo Parade was going on. So we had to navigate what we guesstimated was about 4 counties worth of people downtown to see the Corn Palace. After seeing it we both wished we could have spent that time elsewhere on the road trip.

Day 15 - To Grandpa's House We Go

Rejoice with your family in the beautiful land of life.

~~Albert Einstein

Trip Totals:

Walmart Trips Made:7

McDonald's Diet Cokes Drank:10

Horse Trailers Seen: 25 + 1 Horse Show

Itinerary Changes Made: 5

Times John Made Fun of Lauren's Navigation Abilities: 5
Lessons Learned:
1.) Iowa isn't much different than Ohio or Indiana or Illinois. Flat.

Today's Itinerary: Iowa to Austin, MN

One of our shortest drives of the trip was today. Today we will head up to Minnesota to visit with my Grandpa.

Along the way we made a couple quick stops. The first, being an itinerary change, was the Herbert Hoover National Memorial.  2 real reasons for stopping here. 1st being that despite all of our travels inside the Great Lakes area this was our last chance to get a National Parks stamp from the region. The 2nd being, since we will be visiting Hoover Dam, it seemed fitting we should visit his birthplace as well.

Herbert Hoover National Memorial

Our 2nd stop, was Iowa's Largest Frying Pan in Brandon, Iowa.  I don't know where it stacks up in the world rankings, but it is rather large.

Day 14 - Covering New Ground

Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.

~~ Star Trek

Trip Totals:

Walmart Trips Made:7

McDonald's Diet Cokes Drank:9

Horse Trailers Seen: 16 + 1 Horse Show

Itinerary Changes Made: 4

Times John Made Fun of Lauren's Navigation Abilities: 5

Lessons Learned:
1.) John gets very cranky when he is sick.
2.) Our animals are more chill about this whole road trip than John is.

Today's Itinerary: Pack 2nd POD in Findlay and hit the road for Davenport, Iowa

Day started off early, up and at it to get the last of our few items into our 2nd POD. We got some help from Lauren's friend Kirsten, which help us greatly. We got everything pack up and ready in no time, in fact for the first time on this road trip we were actually ahead of schedule. So far ahead we got to eat at one of our other Findlay favorites, Main Street Deli.  No food picture, and I've discover a trend when it comes to when we do or don't take this photo. If we know the food is great and we are hungry there is absolutely no chance we can hold off from devouring whats before us.  So enjoy a lovely photo of their sign...

 

Day 13 - Random and Relaxing

"I'm not weird, I'm just limited edition."

-- Anonymous 

Trip Totals:

Walmart Trips Made:7

McDonald's Diet Cokes Drank: 7

Horse Trailers Seen: 14 + 1 Horse Show

Itinerary Changes Made: 4

Times John Made Fun of Lauren's Navigation Abilities: 5

Lessons Learned:
1.) Fish like cat and dog food more than cats and dogs do.
2.) Talking about ponies can go on indefinitely --> plan accordingly.
3.) Dining tables with interesting items lacquered to the table surface will entertain an infant for hours.

Since 13 has a reputation for being unlucky, we made day 13 pretty low key, with limited opportunities for things to go terribly wrong.  The end result: it wasn't terribly exciting.

We started off by sleeping in a little and then going to the spillway.  Now for those of you not familiar with the Greenville, PA area, you may not catch on to the excitement of the Linesville Spillway.  However, this is a great attraction for getting gross pictures and disposing of dog and cat food.  The spillway is just an area of water with a ridiculous amount of carp.  We went because we had some expired cat food to dispose of and thought it would be fun to feed it to the fish.  We knew very little about the reason it was designed, but luckily met a PhD candidate who had studied the fish there.  We learned that these carp were not originally in the US but were brought over from Asia.  They reproduce extremely quickly and can starve out most other fish.  Therefore, the spillway was designed to attract the fish to the dock area so the rest of the lake could be a place for other species of fish to thrive.  Either way it's fun to throw handfuls of food to the fish and watch them pile up to get it (see picture).

Dinner time, these fish love their pet food

Giant goldfish

Kitty Condo Open House

Since today we started our stretch of traveling daily with the cats, I thought it was appropriate to provide a tour of the exclusive kitty condo design provided by John.  So for any inquiring minds that were wondering how our most demanding travelers are going across the country, here you go.

1 story + loft, 1 bath, traveling tiny house

This condo is a new-build, open concept featuring 2 large, screened in windows and a large screened in front door.

Appalachian Mountains Check... Rocky Mountains up Next

Mountains are the beginning and the end of all natural scenery. John Ruskin
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/j/johnruskin397181.html?src=t_scenery

 "Mountains are the beginning and the end of all natural scenery."

-- John Ruskin

Mountains are the beginning and the end of all natural scenery. John Ruskin
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/j/johnruskin397181.html?src=t_scenery

Today we started our trek West, over the past 12 days we've gone from the flat Mid-West states of Indiana and Ohio to the ups and downs of the rolling hills of the Appalachian Mountains in Pennsylvania and New York. Capturing some of these amazing views in photos for comparison too their western counterparts is something we are looking forward too. 

Rocky Mountains... Up Next

Day 12 Western Trek Begins

"Don't stop when you are tired. Stop when you are done."

--Unknown

 

Trip Totals:

Walmart Trips Made:7

McDonald's Diet Cokes Drank: 7

Horse Trailers Seen: 14 + 1 Horse Show

Itinerary Changes Made: 4

Times John Made Fun of Lauren's Navigation Abilities: 5

Today's Itinerary: Ithaca to Greenville, PA the start of the western trek

Leasons Learned:  
1.) Lauren really can arrive and depart from a horse show in 1 hour.
2.) Full service gas stations still exist, I'd never been.

Leaving Ithaca headed back to pick up our animals from Lauren's parents vet clinic. Before leaving Ithaca we had to spot at Pita's on the Street with my Mom. We love the gyro there so much we tore in to them before we took or normal "meal photo". They set a high standard that we have yet to find an equal too. 

Made a slight detour to visit Lauren's Mom and Aunt who are running a horse show in Centre Hall, PA. This allowed us to stop at the Penn State Creamery for some ice cream.  This is definitely a contender for some of the best ice cream we have had on this trip.

Going to be an early night with a bit of sleeping in which is much needed after yesterday. We are now on the back half of our trip day wise but still haven't reached the halfway point in mileage. 

View of Centre Hall Grange Fairgrounds from the top of Nittany Moutain

Penn State Berkley Creamery

Penn State Football Stadium

Day 11 - NYC

"There is no question that there is an unseen world.  The problem is, how far is it from midtown and how late is it open."

-- Woody Allen

Trip Totals:

Walmart Trips Made:7

McDonald's Diet Cokes Drank:7

Horse Trailers Seen: 12

Itinerary Changes Made: 4

Times John Made Fun of Lauren's Navigation Abilities: 4

Today's Itinerary: NYC!!!

Top Conversation of the Day:
Lauren: Do you know where we are going next? (said while standing in line for Top of the Rock in reference to how to get to Grand Central)
John: If we just follow the line I'm sure it will lead us to the top
Lauren: 'face palm'

Lessons Learned:  
1.) John doesn't like his plans deviated from. Proceed with caution!
2.) Lauren really wanted her Chinese Tea, and what Lauren wants she gets.
3.) Observation towers at night are not as cool as you would think.
4.) For some reason trains are in service with broken AC.
5.) Check the departure times of your commuter train.
6.) PATH and the subway are not the same thing.
7.) One World Observatory > The Top of the Rock

It started early and went long into the night. Over 24 hours awake to cram as much New York City experience into our road trip as we could. 

The day started with a 3 hour drive to the Hudson Valley North Line. Taking the train into the city and Grand Central Terminal was a huge plus. Drive there was a bit long in the AM at 6, would be a bit more of a challenge 24 hours later. But more on that later. 

We made our train with about 20 to spare or we would have had to wait an hour for the next train.  The was some heated debate about which train to take, but we picked a good one as it ran right along the Hudson river. The great views started early with some amazing shots from the train. 

West Point

Bannermans' Castle

New York City!

Day 10 - BBQ and the Calm before the Storm

"Sometimes I pretend to be normal but it gets boring so, I go back to being me"

-- Unknown

Trip Totals:

Walmart Trips Made: 7

McDonald's Diet Cokes Drank:7

Horse Trailers Seen: 10

Itinerary Changes Made: 4

Times John Made Fun of Lauren's Navigation Abilities: 4

Today's Itinerary: Sleep in, eat BBQ, and go to bed early.

Lessons Learned:  
1.) Budget more than 3 hours for nails and visit to the store for Lauren and John's mom.


By far the most boring day of our road trip but it was a day we really needed. My Aunt Linda came up to visit my Mom for a BBQ outside in NY. With no major plans Lauren and my Mom went to get their nails done and pick up a few things from the store. We ate a huge lunch with burgers and hot dogs all the normal stuff. With knowing NYC was calling tomorrow, Lauren and I went to bed early, major adventures await.

Day? 24 hour NYC adventure completed

Up at 5am on 7/11 to drive to train station for NYC, heads hitting pillows at 5am on 7/12. 

More to come on happenings the last couple days but this will do for now. 

Layout by Instagram

I don't really use Instagram all that much mostly to follow others or to for news and sports stories. So I have the app on my phone I also apparently download the Layout app by Instagram during the process and its be hanging out on my phone.

Happy I found it because it's a nice little app that helps you create really nice colleague photos really easily. You will be seeing more of these in the future. 

At Watkins Glen

At Hershey's Chocolate World

Waterfalls and Wine on Day 9

"Great is the fortune of he who possesses a good bottle, a good book, a good friend."

  ~Moliere

Trip Totals:

Walmart Trips Made: 6

McDonald's Diet Cokes Drank: 6

Horse Trailers Seen: 10

Itinerary Changes Made: 4

Times John Made Fun of Lauren's Navigation Abilities: 4

Today's Itinerary: Waterfalls and Wine along the Finger Lakes in New York

Leasons Learned:
1.) Wear proper foot attire if you plan on hiking up 100's of stairs to look at waterfalls

2.) Lauren's limit is 6 wineries in a day

3.) Backseats of cars are good for napping

 

The Finger Lakes in New York are famous for 2 things, waterfalls and wineries and we visited both today. We have in the past checked out several of the other major waterfalls in the area on our other visits, but we had yet to check out Watkins Glen. Watkins Glen is famous for something other than its NASCAR racing, it has an amazing state park with some fun trails and great waterfalls. Perhaps we should have planned better because Lauren and I both wore sandals, oops. We managed though and hiked a decent way in, far enough to add it to our things to do the next time we come back to visit my Mom. Although next time we'll make it to the top of the 5 mile hike. 

 

Next we hit the wineries, Pleasant Valley Wine Company, Bully Hill Vineyards, Heron Hill Winery, Stever Hill Vineyards, Vineyard View Winery and capped off with 3 Brothers Wineries (which is 3 wineries in 1 spot). Along the way we refilled our wine fridge with 11 new bottles and we will likely hit the wine store to grab a few of our favorites from the area we didn't visit on our tour. 

After our waterfalls and wine we had a great stake dinner with asparagus on the grill and some corn on the cob. Heading to bed earlier than normal and finally get a day to sleep in on this road trip.

 

 

 

View from Bully Hill Winery

Lauren's coloring from Lunch at Bully Hill

View from Scenic Overlook from the Road between Wineries 

View from Vineyard View Winery

View from Heron Hill Winery

Dino is quite the wino, 11 bottles not a bad collection for 1 day