The Best of List

While traveling across the US, we came across some really fantastic views, adventures, people, bargains, etc. I thought I would share some of the "Best of..." on the blog.

Best Investments for Travelers
Join AAA!!! We saved a lot of money on hotels (20% on most Best Westerns and 10% on other rooms) and attractions. In addition, the travel books were very good and free. We also got maps of all the states we traveled through which was a good thing since we didn't travel a lot of highways so we didn't hit that many welcome centers.

(runner-up) Buy a National Park Pass!!! The pass cost $80 but allows you to get into all parks for free. It also offers discounts at some parks, like taking the elevator up in the Gateway Arch.

Best Travel Book for the US
"Eyewitness Travel Guide USA" is the book I found most useful to select things to do in each state. I purchased 4 US travel/roadtrip books a few years ago to start my wishlists for this trip. After looking through them all in detail, I picked two to take on the trip. I used this book even more than the AAA books. The great thing about this book is it is organized by region and has the best things to do in each state, each major city, each major park area (national and state), and scenic routes. The book also includes pictures. If you are traveling across the US, I would highly recommend this book. We found places that were amazing based on this book that we would have never gone to based on AAA or any other travel book I have.

Best electronic device
Kevin's Sony Ericsson W760i with unlimited data. Although we only made one or two phone calls each week, we used this phone a lot. We used it to check our home email a couple of times a day. I used it frequently to find hotels on hotels.com while Kevin was driving to our new destination. We used it as a modem when the hotel had poor wi-fi or wanted to charge for Internet connectivity. Kevin listened to music when we were in remote locations with no TV. It also has a great camera.

Best Adventure
Taking a dune buggy ride in Oregon. This was better than any roller coaster you have ever been on.

Best Nights Sleep
The Hot Springs Inn in Ouray, Colorado. Not only did they have the best bed (king cloud 9 pillow top) and the best pillow, but there was a river outside the window offering soothing sound effects.

Best Deal
After booking 10 nights of $50-$80 rooms on hotels.com, we stayed in a $275 room at the Sheraton overlooking Niagara Falls for free.

Best Travel Websites

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ - if you have a destination in mind. This website will help you find a good place to stay, a good place to eat, and the best things to do. We found the Hot Springs Inn in Ouray and the photography tour of Antelope Canyon on Tripadvisor.

http://www.aaa.com/ - Internet Trip Ticket if you do not have a destination in mind but you are driving. This site will let you create a trip ticket with multiple destinations. It will give you driving directions and driving times. My favorite feature is that it will show all AAA approved lodging on the map and allow you to make reservations from the map. This is great if you have a long distance between destinations and are looking for a stop over in between.

There is No Place Like Home...North Carolina

After over 12,300 miles on the road and 71 nights away from home, it was a great feeling to pull in the driveway, except for the dread of looking through 10 weeks of mail. If it weren't for the three piles of mail neatly stacked on my kitchen counter, I wouldn't believe we had been gone for so long.

Here are some stats from our trip:

Miles in the Jeep: 12,300
Number of states visited: 28
Number of Canadian Provinces visited: 2 (British Columbia and Ontario)
Number of National Parks visited: 25
Number of new tires for the Jeep: 2
Cost of the trip: Priceless!!! we could do a MasterCard commercial
Number of phones calls to MasterCard: 5 (after Kathy's card was cancelled due to fraud)

Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

Harpers Ferry is a small town which played a significant role in American History. The United States Armory and Arsenal was established in Harpers Ferry in the 1790's. It produced over 600,000 rifles, pistols, and muskets for the US Military. It was the storming of this Armory by the abolitionist, John Brown, that triggered the start of the Civil War. These are only two of the many interesting things you will find out if you visit Harpers Ferry.

In addition to the history in this small town, there is significant natural beauty. The town is on the confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers so it offers fishing and boating opportunities. Also, the Appalachian trail goes through the town, offering a chance to hike the AT by even the most inexperienced hikers.

Getttysburg National Park, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

It is sad to believe that Kevin grew up in Pennsylvania and I lived their for twelve years but neither one of us had ever visited Gettysburg. We decided we should visit the park on our way home from visiting his family but we did not give ourselves enough time. I expected the park to be similar to Valley Forge so we expected to spend around 3 hours. Unfortunately, that is barely enough time for the visitor center. The visitor center had an excellent film and a cyclorama.

Cycloramas were a very popular form of entertainment in the late 1800's, both in America and Europe. These massive oil-on-canvas paintings were displayed in special auditoriums and enhanced with landscaped foregrounds and life-size figures.The cyclorama was a large oil-on-canvas 360 degree painting that the audience stands inside. The painting is enhanced with landscaping and life-size figures between the painting and the audience.

Once the audience is in place, a description of the war is read and lights are shown on the painting to show which section is being discussed. Now in the 21st century, the story is narrated along with sound effects through a hi-fi stereo system.

This particular cyclorama was first exhibited in 1884. It is one of the few remaining cycloramas in the US. We are fortunate that it has been restored for future generations (http://www.nps.gov/archive/gett/gettcyclo.htm).

In addition to the film and the cyclorama, the visitor center has an impressive collection of artifacts displayed. One could spend hours looking thought the artifacts and reading the descriptions. Unfortunately, we did not have hours so we hurried through the museum and onto the auto tour.

We ended up spending almost 4 hours in Gettysburg. If you have the chance to go, give yourself at least a full day.

Niagara Falls, Ontario

View from our room

Kevin being a good sport on Maid of the Mist

Another boat heading into the Horseshoe Falls

View from the top of Horseshoe Falls

Our hotel to the left and the American Falls to the right

I have always wanted to see Niagara Falls so we decided to make it the last stop before heading south back to North Carolina. Because we wanted to visit Kevin's aunt and uncle in Toledo and we wanted spend he fourth of July with his family in Pennsylvania, the timing worked out the visit the falls. We took three days, including the stop in Toledo, and two time changes to get to the falls from the Corn Palace. Our internal clocks were messed up but it was well worth the detour.

From using www.hotels.com to book many of our nights, we had earned a free night and decided to use it at Niagara Falls. We were able to book a King Suite with a Falls View on the 16th floor of the Sheraton in Niagara Falls, Ontario (not a bad deal trading 10 nights of $70 rooms for one night in a $275 room). The room and the view were so fantastic that we did want to spend that much time elsewhere. Other than walking along the park to view the falls and taking the Maid of the Mist, we got most of our views from the couch in our room. From our room, we ate dinner with a view of the falls and watched the fireworks over the falls.

Niagara Falls is a good weekend destination. There are dozens of viewpoints both from above and at the bottom of the falls. Just be aware that all the views from the bottom are very, very wet. The views from the Canadian side are much better than the views from the American side. There are also plenty of tourist traps...you can see the falls from a ferris wheel, a tower drop, etc. You can also visit water parks and Ripley's Believe It or Not.

Corn Palace, Mitchell, South Dakota

Our last stop in South Dakota was a visit to the Corn Palace in Mitchell. Each year, a new mural made completely of corn (cobs, stocks, silks) is created on this building for the Corn Festival in August. When we stopped, the workers were applying various colors of corn cobs cut in half lengthwise to create this years mural. Parts of the mural were complete including a "corn-likeness" of Mount Rushmore, the Statue of Liberty, the Space Needle in Seattle, and a Shuttle Launch.

Badlands National Park, South Dakota

We drove through the Badlands on the way east from Mount Rushmore. The scenery was amazing. It was a cross between the Painted Desert in Arizona and the Burr Trail in Utah with added green grass and yellow flowers for color. As you can see, the sky was an amazing blue. We wished we had more time but we had made the decision to make it to Pennsylvania for the Fourth of July.

South Dakota Air and Space Museum, Rapid City, South Dakota

B-52 Stratofortress

B-25 Mitchell

F-111 "Aardvark"

B-1B Lancer

On the way from the Black Hills to the Badlands, we saw a sign for the South Dakota Air and Space at Ellsworth Air Force Base in Rapid City, South Dakota. The sign showed a B-1B Lancer at the museum so of course we had to stop.

We had planned to visit the Badlands and the national park facility featuring a minuteman missile silo that day so we opted out on the tour of the air force base which also featured a visit to a missile silo. In hindsight, we should have taken a tour since the missile silo national park is closed on Sunday.

It was a nice museum, especially for the price....FREE!

Custer State Park, South Dakota

One of the "Begging Burros" of Custer
A small group of Bison
Pronghorn

While visiting the Black Hills, we took the opportunity to drive through Custer State Park. The main attraction for us was that the state park is home to the largest herd of free roaming Bison in the US. There are about 1500 bison in the the state's herd. The bison are counted and tagged annually.

As we drove through the park we found other attractions like the "begging burros". These donkeys approach passing cars begging for food. These burros aren't indigenous to the area, but were introduced in the 1920's by an entrepreneur who used them to carry tourists up Mt. Harney. When his venture failed in the 1930's, he let the burros loose. Now the burros come up to cars and people trying to get cookies, bread, or whatever.

The park is also home to pronghorns which are often confused with antelope. These animals can run at speeds of 40 mph for prolonged periods of time. The parks also has elk and bear...unfortunately, we did not see either.