All tagged Camping
"That's a lot of money, John." Susan was telling me something I already knew. "It is. But I don't want to walk up to the South Rim, look over, and say 'I've been there.' I want to go down into it. And when will we ever get the chance to do this again?" I replied.
We’ve been home for a while from our nearly three-month-long journey. This post shares some random thoughts, a quick summation, and some of my favorite images from the trip. Random thoughts first. With apologies to the more-is-better crowd, as a society, we need to use less electricity.
The next morning found us in the van, leaving Massachusetts, heading to East Hampton, Connecticut. Bill and Heather Embacher, old friends from Alaska, live there. The last time I saw them, they were childless. Now they have a beautiful nine-year old daughter. It had certainly been too long.
New Hampshire Highway 112, more commonly called the Kancamagus Highway, offers motorists one of the most scenic roads in New England. In the fall, when the leaves are changing color, it's particularly breath-taking.
We settled in, then began checking our surroundings. The cabin was a 60-second walk from Kezar Lake, one of Maine's premier fisheries. Numerous other ponds were nearby. We had access to kayaks, and canoes, and a johnboat. The surrounding area had farm stands, and hikes, and restaurants, and best of all, we had an entire month here.
Early in the morning we left Leith Run and took the Ohio River Scenic Byway, OH-7, up the river to near the Pennsylvania border. There is a power plant every 30 minutes or so all along that stretch, belching huge amounts of coal exhaust.
On our trip around the USA, which lasted 153 days (give or take one or two), Susan and I traveled a total of 15,783 miles in our Sienna van. The van used 702.5 gallons of gasoline to do that, which cost me $2,271.91. The fuel economy for the entire trip came out to 22.5 miles per gallon.
After thanking them as best we could, we took our leave of Dave and Beth, and wonderful, cheesy Wisconsin, on a Sunday morning. The best route to Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, our next stop, was on the interstate. We had to get through Chicago!
One of the places I wanted to visit during our trip was the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. Here the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes combined forces in a last-ditch effort to protect their homes and way of life. Pitted against them was the US Army's Seventh Cavalry, led by General George Custer.
The westernmost portion of Gulf Islands National Seashore lies in the city limits of Ocean Springs, Mississippi. The National Park Service runs a campground at this location, and Susan and I found ourselves surrounded by RVs after we pulled the Sienna into our site.
