Day 1: Panama City to San Antonio, TX
First day of the trip, first day of non-stop driving. We drove straight through, and hit 5 states. The most interesting things that occurred during this 13 hour drive: we ran into a biker gang (The Bandidos) in Louisiana, and rain and traffic in Austin. We set up camp in Boerne, TX at Cascade Caverns. The place was super deserted, and Matt kept saying it felt like a murder movie.
Day 2: San Antonio to Carlsbad, NM
When we woke up the next day, we packed up everything but our tent and drove into San Antonio and viewed The Alamo. We didn't take a tour or anything, we just looked at the outside, just so we could say we had been there. We then drove back to the caverns just in time to pack up our tent and go on the tour of the cave. The cave was very wet and cold, giving us the first day in our trip with wet feet. An interesting story about the cave. There is a ledge in the original entrance where a man lived out his life. He and a friend got in an argument, and he shot the friend. Thinking he had killed the friend, he ran and hid on this ledge for the rest of his life. When they "discovered" the cave, they found his remains and a journal he kept while living there. They turned that journal into a book, and moved his remains into a museum. However, it turns out he didn't have to hide there after all: his friend didn't die, and he didn't press charges.
After touring the caves, we drove 6 hours up to Carlsbad, NM. We set up camp at Brantley Lake State Park and then drove to the Carlsbad Caverns where we watched the bats fly out at dusk.
Day 3: Carlsbad to Riverside, CA
We woke up the next day, packed up camp, and then descended into Carlsbad Caverns. The walk down was difficult, it was very steep and long. But the end result was worth it. The cave was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! The cave structures were VERY beautiful. The massive stalagmites and stalactites, that took millions of years to form were just beautiful to look at.
After the caverns, we drove out of the way to drive through Roswell, just so Matt could say we were there.
Then we embarked on the 900 mile drive to Riverside. We left Roswell at Noon and arrived at my parents at 2 am. Nothing really exciting happened, but we got really excited that we got to eat supper at In N Out in Tucson, and we got to see saguaro cacti in the Arizona desert. Oh and dust devils, we got really excited about dust devils.
Days 4-10: Riverside, CA
We spent the next week hanging out with my family in Riverside. We saw my grandma, had a family barbeque for 4th of July, visited the Cleopatra exhibit in the California Science Center in LA, saw the USS Iowa, celebrated my grandma and sister's birthdays, and went to a midnight showing of Rocky Horror Picture Show. It was a fun visit that went by too fast.
Day 11: Riverside to Zion, UT
Leaving Riverside early, we made a pit stop in Las Vegas to have brunch/lunch with my cousin. It was totally awesome and a lot of fun seeing my cousin who I see way too infrequently.
After lunch, we drove to the Hoover Dam. We didn't go on the tour, but we drove across it, twice, and then walked half way across the bridge to take some really wicked pictures.
After the dam, we drove to Zion, UT, where we set up camp and then took the tram tour of the canyon. Matt took a lot of great pictures. It was very beautiful, and we especially loved seeing it at sunset. It was also the hottest place we camped. And then of course it was the one place that didn't have a shower so we could shower in the morning.
Day 12: Zion to Yellowstone
Probably one of our most stressful days. We woke up early, just so we could drive through the mile long tunnel through one of the mountains. It was a cool morning, so we were driving with the windows down. We drove up the switchbacks and then drove through the tunnel, turned around and drove through the tunnel again. As we were driving slowly back down the switchbacks, Matt started to panic: he was pushing all the way down on the brake pedal, but he wasn't stopping. The steering wasn't working as well. We came around a bend and there was a "slow vehicle" pull off, and we pulled off there and brought the car to a stop to discover the engine wasn't running. The car had died. Matt turned the car off and on and it started back up. And then proceeded to die twice more before we reached the bottom of the mountain. After leaving the park, I immediately got on the phone with Hertz and after several different calls, we were told to drive to the Salt Lake City airport and exchange cars. So we get there, I convince the lady at the counter, that yes, the people on the phone said to exchange our car, and we're given a new car. A Fiat. Yes, you read that right, we got a FIAT. We had to move THREE WEEKS of camping gear and luggage from our kinda roomy Chevy Aveo into a FIAT. I will admit, I cried a little, but Matt, that wonderful man, got everything to fit into the car.
After fitting everything in the Fiat, we were able to continue on our journey. We drove up to Wyoming. We drove into the Grand Tetons, where we got some beautiful pictures of the mountains and we saw hundreds of buffalo just chilling in an open area, including two males fighting by the road. We didn't stick around to see how that turned out, they were larger than our Fiat. We got into Yellowstone, and it was dark and rainy. But after we checked in and got to our site, the rain had stopped for us to pitch our tent and make supper. All in the dark.
Day 13: Yellowstone to Ankeny, IA (technically to Sioux City, IA)
So, we woke up and had this grand plan: drive all 1100 miles to Ankeny in one day! Then we decided we didn't want to rush Yellowstone. We leisurely drove through the park, ate right next to the lake for breakfast, visited a visitor's center and just generally enjoyed the park. Then we drove through the Big Horn Mountains, and enjoyed the BEAUTIFUL pastures and meadows at that top. About halfway through the Big Horn Mountains, when the GPS was telling us our ETA was 6 am, we decided to kick it in a rest area and sleep. So we made it to 2 am and a rest area just south of Sioux City. We curled up in the Fiat and slept...for 5 hours. :)
Day 14-18: Iowa
We spent the next 5 days hanging out in Iowa. We hung out with family and friends. And we got to eat at a lot of the places that we miss eating at and hanging out at.
Day 19: Ankeny to Fort Wayne, IN
We left Iowa and drove to Wisconsin to visit The House on the Rock. The only way to describe this place is weird and creepy. The house is HUGE, and full of what can only be described as "crap." There are hundreds of creepy dolls, figurines, an "ocean" room and the world's largest carousel. There is no air conditioning, so we moved through REALLY quickly.
We left there, and then ended up sitting 2 hours in traffic in Chicago. Got to our campsite in Ft. Wayne at nearly dark, set up camp, made supper and then went to sleep.
Day 20: Fort Wayne to Philadelphia
We woke up early and beat the thunderstorm packing up our camping stuff quickly. We didn't know that the day before would be the last time we saw the sun for a while. We ended up saying "screw it" and decided to drive on Toll Roads to Philadelphia. Biggest. Mistake. Ever. $40 is what we paid in tolls from Fort Wayne to our exit to go to Gettysburg. Also, we got rained on, no, POURED on through the entire state of Ohio. It was raining so bad, that the road was turning into a river, I was really nervous driving the Fiat.
We toured Gettysburg, which was as awesome as I remembered it. We didn't get to explore that much, because we were trying to get to our campsite before it got dark. But we toured the whole battle field, we just couldn't get out of the car and read all the signs we would have liked.
In the end, we got to the site after dark. Our mission had failed.
Day 21: Philadelphia to The Eastern Shore, VA
After our excursion in Independence Square we drove toward Edgar Allen Poe's house. Which when listening to our GPS, we drove first back over the Toll Bridge we crossed that morning from Jersey BACK into Jersey, so we had to pat another $5 to cross back into Philadelphia. *sigh* And then we ended up at Poe's house only to find out 1) he only lived there for like a year and 2) they had none of his stuff, so it was an empty house. *double sigh*
After that, we drove to the Eastern Shore of Virginia and met up with my friends who I met through writing fan fiction. The three of us have been friends for years over the internet, so it was really cool to get to meet them in person. That night we went to a local production of Rocky Horror Picture show whose casting was interesting to say the least. It was still fun to hang out and get to know each other in person.
Day 22: Eastern Shore of Virginia
Day 2 of hanging out with my friends from Twitter! We started the day off with breakfast and seeing wild ponies and continued onto a nine hour mini-golf marathon! The day was AMAZING! The 5 of us (counting husbands) got on REALLY well, and you couldn't tell that we had met in person for the first time. We've already begun planning our next get togethers and Matt is seriously thinking about applying to teach on the Eastern Shore, since their school system seems to be doing better than a lot of other places. I love these girls to bits, and I can't wait to hang out with them again. Until we get together again in person, there's always Twitter. :)
Day 23: Eastern Shore to Savannah, GA
Sadly we left the Eastern Shore and began our journey home. We drove across a HUGE bridge over Chesapeake Bay, that included TUNNELS under the Bay. It was both awesome and terrifying. Drove through the Carolinas and ended up at Ft. McAllister outside of Savannah. We got to our campsite and it was full of mosquitos, so we drove to Publix and got bugspray. Nothing too exciting, happened: we had our only campfire, we roasted marshmallows, we played cards.
Day 24: Savannah to HOME
We woke up and toured Ft. McAllister, and let me tell you, this fort is awesome! They built the fort out of earthworks, by just re-manipulating the geography of the area to make defenses. Just on some guys land. Then, a Union Ironclad came and attacked the fort, and it ended in a STALEMATE! The fort finally fell when Sherman ended his march to the sea there. Talk about the most awesome place in history! And when we talked to the ranger, he said they only get thousands of visitors a YEAR! If you are ever in the Savannah area, you should check it out, it was awesome and totally worth a visit.
After we toured the fort, we drove HOME. It was so nice to finally be home. We really enjoyed our vacation, but nothing is better than being at home.
This is going to be a vacation that we will remember for a very long time.
