We were gone for 62 days (a day less than 9 weeks),
We drove just over 11,500 miles (at just under 11 miles per gallon......),
We visited 27 states in the U.S. and British Columbia, in Cananda. The states were Maryland, Virginia, North & South Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, and West Virginia.
We have a black vinyl outline map on one of the storage doors on the side of our trailer. After every new state we 
visit, we place the colored-vinyl state inside the outline. Adding this trip to our previous trips, our trailer has now been in 31 states. These pictures respresent the before and after of our trip map. We left two days after our boys got out of school and got back with only four days remaining before they have to be back in school again.
Here are the high points of our journey this summer:
In Charleston, South Carolina we saw Fort Sumter and Patriot Point; in Georgia we visited Stone Mountain; in Louisiana we toured New Orleans; in Texas we saw the Alamo, the Riverwalk and the Tower of the Americas in San Antonio, in Austin we saw the evening flight of the Congress Avenue Bridge bats; in New Mexico we spent a day and a half at Carlsbad Caverns then visited the White Sands National Monument with a side trip to the White Sands Missile Base Museum and then drove up to the Gila Cliff Dwellings; in Arizona we toured the Pima Air and Space Museum, the museum at the last remaining Titan ICBM Missile Base, and then did a tour of Taliesin West (Frank Lloyd Wright's home and school), and then drove up to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon; in Nevada we drove across the top of the Hoover Dam, toured the dam, survived engine trouble, and toured Red Rock Canyon and Las Vegas; in San Francisco we drove over the Golden Gate Bridge, saw Lombard Street, toured Muir Woods NP (redwood trees), and visited Fisherman's Wharf and the San Francisco Maritime Historic Park, then we toured the Sonoma and Napa valleys (and bought a little wine); in Oregon we visitied with family, drove some of the coastline and went to the Evergreen Air and Space Museum (the Spruce Goose); in Washington we did the whole Mt. St. Helens experience, visited with family and went into Seattle for the Space Needle, Pike Place Market, and also toured the Boeing Factory; we crossed in British Columbia, Canada to visit Vancouver and watch the final night of a fireworks competition; in Montana we toured Glacier NP; in Wyoming we toured Yellowstone NP and Grand Teton NP; in South Dakota went to Mount Rushmore (spending time with about a half million motorcyclists from Sturgis), drove through Badlands NP, toured Wind Cave NP, and visited the amazing Wall Drug; in Missouri we visited Kansas City, went up in the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, and toured the Anheiser-Busch factory; in Tennessee we stopped in Memphis at Elvis Presley's Graceland, the Mud Island Museum and scale model of the Mississippi River, took a ride on a stern-wheeler riverboat, watched the parade of the Peabody Ducks, and spent some time down on Beale Street; also in Tennessee we visited Nashville to take in a show at the Grand Ole Opry, see the Parthenon, and check out the honky-tonks on Broadway; in Kentucky we toured Mammoth Cave NP, visited with relatives in Lexington, and toured the Kentucky Horse Park; we visitied more relatives in West Virginia and finally made our way back to Maryland.
I left a lot of detail out, but you can always go back and read the blogs if you want. It was a whirlwind tour, but now Kim and I know where we want to go back to and spend more time. We also know a few places we don't need to see again..........for example, we're pretty much done with the Nevada desert.........five days in that heat was enough for one lifetime.
If you followed our blog, we all hope you enjoyed riding along with us!
John, Kim, Jake and Tyler
Welcome home, and thanks for the vicarious vacation. :)
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