Iowa
Nebraska
Wyoming
Idaho
Utah
Oregon (Crater Lake)
California (redwood forest)
Oregon again (coastline along Highway 101)
Washington state (coastline along Highway 101, Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens)
Montana* (Glacier National Park, from which we headed back home)
* Did you know it takes about 12 hours to drive from Glacier just to the border of Montana? That's some of the most desolate landscape you'll find in this country? Excrutiating. If you run out of gas between towns it would be a real problem.
North Dakota
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Did I leave any out? Blame post-vacation blurriness, plus my woozy head after driving all that way in a van that now smells like something I can't even describe (not quite rotting corpse, but an interesting blend of stenches all wound up in one neat package), packed in with my family for sixteen entire days.
More than 5,000 miles driven. Too much fast food and snack food to mention.
Sights included:
Redwoods
The beatiful coasts of Oregon and Washington
Crater Lake
Preston, Utah, to visit various sites from the film Napoleon Dynamite, our family's current obsession.
Sea lion cave in the biggest ocean cave in the world - so they claim
Mt. St. Helens
Mt. Rainier
Highway to the Sun, Glacier National Park
Plus, various and sundry, too numerous to mention.
Disaster list:
Dead battery in the van (before we even left home, thankfully)
One blown tire (on the camper, in Idaho)
Various slips and falls, 75 % being my own.
Injuries include:
Bruise to right hip
Various bruises from knocking around a camper way too small for five people, and also landing on a rocky beach involving various body parts
Various falls on posterior, causing no visible injury - save to dignity
One scraped knee, when it hit the asphalt outside some lighthouse somewhere
One major argument with spouse, several small
And, finally, one child vomiting in the middle of the night, involving camper mattress and the tent side of his bed. No more detail on that, I promise. Let's just say a thorough cleansing will take place shortly.
We went through bear country, tsunami evacuation evacuation routes and volcano eruption evacuation routes. Luckily, we didn't need to make emergency use of any.
Animals we saw: sea lions (mostly alive, but one dead on the beach), seal (baby), deer and more deer, elk, and mountain goats. No moose, unfortunately.
I'll be doing laundry measurable by the ton today, sorting through two weeks of mail, and clearing out the van and camper.
Joy!
And the full story will be told in the photos.
Lisa - this trip sounds awesome - looking forward to hearing all about it in your usual inimitable style!
Posted by: Elaine Simpson-Long | July 17, 2009 at 02:59 AM
Carole, no worries on the vomit! I'll refrain ...
Posted by: Bluestalking | July 16, 2009 at 11:27 AM
S.S., I like that idea! Kneeling to pull weeds in the garden last night I realized how bruised my scraped knee is. It's still very sore. And the others? I have some a lovely shade of yellow.
Posted by: Bluestalking | July 16, 2009 at 11:16 AM
Michelle, it hurts my tailbone just thinking back on it! Such long, long days spent driving... Ugh. But with a son who refuses to fly there's really no other way. Plus, plane tickets turned out to be just as expensive, and then we couldn't camp at all to reduce hotel costs. Mmmm... hotels... !!
Posted by: Bluestalking | July 16, 2009 at 11:13 AM
Good to have you back, hoping for a good (vomit and argument free) virtual tour!
Posted by: carole | July 16, 2009 at 07:37 AM
Sounds brilliant. Perhaps you could do one posting by bruise - this one was from x, this one from y and so on... especially if they have gone those great colours we used to admire upon each other as kids. "Wow, look how yellow that one is..." We'll let you off showing the seat (ho, ho) of the undignified ones.
Seriously, looking forward to when you get your photos sorted.
Posted by: Scriptor Senex | July 15, 2009 at 03:52 AM
Wow, you guys covered alot of area. Glad to hear you're safely back.
Posted by: Michelle | July 14, 2009 at 07:46 PM