9 States in 9 Days - Summer's Only Hurrah

Since all of our summer plans had to be cancelled, we convinced our oldest son to move to Chicago (for graduate school) a month early so that we could make a vacation out of it.  Since he's not super attached to living in our basement in semi-quarantine, he was happy to oblige.
We took the scenic route so we could see some new sights along the way.  We camped in a new state every night for the first week, then zipped through 2 more (new ones) in one day on the way home.  
Everyone was crammed in their own personal cubby.  The nice part of this was that no one could touch or annoy another person -- mostly.  We had to call out to each other periodically to make sure we were all still alive and well.
We took lots of pictures, ate lots of picnics, swatted lots of bugs, sweat buckets, set up and took down tents, criticized navigation skills, listened to books (or ignored books with podcasts), and had a grand adventure together.  3500 miles and we still like each other.


TRIP HIGHLIGHTS...
Gorgeous scenery along the road:
Wyoming windmills
Black Hills of South Dakota
Mount Rushmore
Field of Sunflowers in North Dakota
Farms and fields in Minnesota and Wisconsin
Lake Winnebago in Wisconsin
Baha'i House of Worship (one of only 9 in the world) in Wilmette, IL
Fun (& funny) things to see & do:
Someone had built an odd roadside attraction out of broken bikes
Mountain goat in the Black Hills
One lane roads cut through the Black Hills
The pigtail bridges north of Custer State Park
Climbing the Thimble in Custer State Park
Turtles!
Walking across a dam in Custer State Park
Playing games on a cliff in Theodore Roosevelt National Park
World's largest buffalo - Jamestown, ND
Frogs by the lake in Wisconsin
Playing games, eating licorice, & wearing wet clothes (with feet immersed in water) just to keep cool
Watching the squirrel acrobatics as he tried (successfully) to eat a bird feeder pine cone
Buying cheese from a factory in Wisconsin
Skipping rocks on every lake or river we stopped at
Falling in the lake when you just meant to dip your toes in
Catching fireflies
Visiting the site of Barack & Michelle Obama's first kiss
Trying to keep the wind from blowing our tablecloth away
Beautiful socially distanced campsites:
Sunset from the middle of nowhere, WY
Our camp on BLM land in WY
Our walk-in site at the Sylvan Lake campground, Custer State Park, SD
On a cliff in the "backcountry" of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, ND
Wisconsin
On the floor in Chicago
Vedauwoo, WY:  I really need to do something about my morning camping hair
Humid hikes:
Mount Rushmore (far right) as seen from a viewpoint
Cathedral Spires in Custer State Park
Hiking around a lake while the boys read in the car
Hiking into the "backcountry" at sunset to set up camp on a cliff
We had to cross the Little Missouri River to get to and from our camp
Walking through a prairie dog town
High above Theodore Roosevelt National Park
Above the Mississippi River in Minneapolis
Exploring the park where we camped in Wisconsin
Hiking in Wisconsin - avoiding getting snagged by the wild raspberry bushes
Hiking the "Ice Age National Scenic Trail" in Wisconsin
Lots of picnic meals:
Devil's Gate, WY: breakfast in a parking lot
Lunch in a SD park
Dinner in a parking lot before hiking to our campsite in ND
Lunch in an empty picnic area in Custer State Park
Breakfast on the sidewalk at an overlook at Theodore Roosevelt National Park
Ordering Ukranian take-out for a picnic next to the Mississippi River in Minneapolis
Genuine (ha ha) "Wisconsin Mac n Cheese" at our campsite in Wisconsin
McDonald's on our way in to Chicago
Deep dish Chicago style
Arby's in a Nebraska cemetery

Comments

  1. nanaAugust 2, 2020 at 9:59 PM

    Always adventurous you Jensens are. Thanks for sharing!!

    ReplyDelete

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