Mary Ann & Bill's Excellent Adventure
Travel in Retirement
21, 396 miles (I drove about 50 and Bill drove the rest)
319 days
39 states
81 campgrounds
3320.68 gallons of gasoline ($7,921.00 – yikes)
Gas price: $2.724 average, $3.799 max, $1.839 min
Gas milage: 6.45 average, 8.85 max, 3.19 min
Best National Park: Bryce Canyon
Loneliest Road: I-10 in Texas
Scariest Road: Routes 140 & 49 into Yosemite
Our final stop was in Freedom, NH. We stayed at the Bluffs Campground to pick a seasonal site for next summer (2016). It is a beautiful campground in the White Mountains with access to Lake Ossipee.
In early September we visited Great Smokey Mountain National Park. The park spans the border of Tennessee and North Carolina. We stayed at Smokemont campground in the North Carolina section.
The smokey mountains have a soft peaceful beauty and the park includes some historic sites as well as nature.
The Grand Ole Opry was on my wish-list for this trip. We made it to Nashville at the end of August.
We took a bus tour of Nashville.
And attended a Grand Ole Opry Perfomance.
Last week we were near Cleveland Ohio. We visited two great locations. The Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.
From Indiana Dunes we took a day trip up to Kalamazoo, MI. Aside from the cute name this city also had some interesting attractions.
The Gilmore Car Museum is a short distance from Kalamazoo. This is a beautiful old farm that belonged to Donald and Genevieve Gilmore. It all started when Genevieve gave Donald a Pierce Arrow for his birthday. He restored the Pierce Arrow and after that he started acquiring and restoring many classic cars. Eventually he purchased 90 acres of farmland in Hickory Corners, MI to house his collection. In addition to the cars he also acquired several old barns and had them moved and reconstructed on the site. Today, auto clubs and other museums also have exhibits on the grounds. There are hundreds of cars as well as an old diner and gas station. It was a pleasure to stroll and view this impressive collection. You must visit here if you are ever in South Western Michigan.
Kalamazoo also has a great museum, Kalamazoo Valley Museum. Did you know that Gibson Guitars, Tinker Toys, and Checker Cabs all originated in Kalamazoo?
While we were in Indiana we stayed in Indiana Dunes State Park. A small piece of Lake Michigan coast is in Indiana and it contains Indiana Dunes. There have been struggles over the years between big industry and ecologists regarding the use and preservation of this natural area. Today the beaches in Indiana Dunes state park and Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore are, for the most part, undeveloped but as you look in either direction up and down the beach you can see big industrial plants in both directions.
Last week we were in North Dakota and visited Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Before he was a Rough Rider and before he became President Teddy Roosevelt was a rancher. In the late 1800s he owned two ranches in North Dakota, Elkhorn Ranch and Maltese Cross Ranch. He was not a very good rancher and both ranches failed within a few years. We may never have known anything about him had he succeeded. Decades later in 1947 the land around these ranches was set aside as Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
The park was beautiful and not crowded. Lots to see.
We are now staying in Wall, SD (home of Wall Drug).
Mount Rushmore, and the Crazy Horse Memorial are nearby and we visited both Sunday.
