Thanks for the comments. Also thanks for making this a sticky thread. Many more updates to come.
Printable View
Thanks for the comments. Also thanks for making this a sticky thread. Many more updates to come.
Day 64
We spent the night in Bakersfield, CA at a couch surfers house. She recommended we drive up and visit Sequoia National Park, so we did. I feel like this is redundant but, this is another place like no where else.
You drive up a very steep narrow road to get to the top of the mountain where all the trees are. When you first start seeing the giant trees it is unreal, almost hard to take it all in. We visited a few groves and saw the biggest tree in the world(don't quote me on that) General Sherman. The photos do not do these trees justice, they are un-believably big.
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Map of the last few days:
http://www.spotadventures.com/trip/view?trip_id=268403
Day 65
We drove west to San Francisco. We arrived in the evening and met our new couch surfing host. No photos for today.
Next update: our first view of the Pacific and our time in San Francisco.
Day 66
We both really were excited about San Fran and we were not disappointed. We started the day as any 2 traveling hippies would, at Haight Ashbury. We had a few beers and went into a bunch of head shops.
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the Grateful Dead house
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one of the biggest goals of our trip, touch the Pacific Ocean
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Day 67
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"The Rock" in the background
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riding the trolley
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Jack Kerouac Alley
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we spent a few hours in the Beat Museum
Not pictured: Delicious Vegan Food, lots of alcohol, twisty/hilly roads, and the most fog we've ever seen.
We also spent some time in Berkeley, where our couch surfer host lives.
Day 68, 69, 70
We left San Francisco and drove up to Arcata, CA to meet our new couch surfing hosts. They were a couple who were a month away from their own 3 month road trip around Europe. They were awesome and showed us a terrific time over these 3 days. We drank great local beer, ate German vegan food, watched some Harry Potter movies, and toured an amazing part of norther California.
When people ask us what our favorite stop of the trip was, Arcata is always near the top.
Our cs host, Ross, led us on a hike that went through a redwood forest to the beach, and back up to an island that gave a top down view of the whole fishing village. We also toured the actual town of Arcata where no franchises are allowed to set up shop, so it's mostly food trucks, mom and pop shops, co-op groceries, and weed dispensaries. It is a town full of travelers, hitchhikers, and vagrants so we felt at home.
These photos were taken on our hike day, I may have went a little camera happy, I took 400 or so pictures. Here are a few of them:
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Being from the east coast you don't realize until you see it for yourself, how different the trees, beaches, insects, birds, mountains, and everything else really is.
Day 71
My favorite thing about posting our travels to this site is reliving these memories. Day 71 is a day I haven't thought about until right now, and it was a great day. We left Arcata and headed north through Red Wood National Park. On the way we stopped at a very touristy "Mystery Spot" We did not go into the park, we just saw a giant Paul Bunyan and Babe. We also saw a whale that turned the wrong way and is stuck under a bridge in the river.(I hope she got back home)
We could not find a couch surfing host on the way to Crater Lake so we found a Walmart parking lot in Medford, OR and spent our first night in the back of my Xterra. Actually quite comfortable and its a unique experience to walk into a Walmart at 4am just to pee. Also since we could find nothing to do in Medford we went to a local movie theater and saw "Cowboys v Aliens" (it was ok)
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There wasn't much touristy stuff going on today but it was the kind of day where it was just nice to be somewhere new.
Our GPS map of these couple days:
http://www.spotadventures.com/trip/view?trip_id=270549
Next post: Crater lake
Thanks for reading
Not only that, but you will relive them, everytime you come back here, and quickly skip through them again. Can't tell you how often I have done that with my trip... the experience is still fresh in my mind... two years later. As well as that, you might like to set the photo file as your screen saver. It is just wonderful, each time you look at the computer and go... yeah! I remember that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Megan and Tony
Of course your experiences are invaluable to future roadtrippers who will no doubt hang on every word you write. I for one am enjoying all of it... and you have given me a couple of good ideas for next year. Thanks.
Lifey
We do have our photos as screen savers and it is great.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lifemagician
Thanks everyone for reading, we have been busy the last few days. We took a one tank road trip this weekend.
About 20 days left to go on our trip report. (next post, Crater Lake)
Day 72 Crater Lake NP
We woke up early from our the back of our car in the Walmart parking lot and headed north. Not far into Crater Lake NP we saw our first snow of the summer. A little farther into the park we saw the bluest water we've ever seen.(and a lot more snow)
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After the park we drove to Portland and hung out with our couch surfing hosts for the night.
Day 73 Portland
We made a decision not to spend much time in Portland today because visiting cities quickly eats our money up and we were quickly running out of it. So we stopped at Voodoo donuts for breakfast and then took a tour of a very hilly park. Portland seems like our kind of city and one day we want to go and really visit it.
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We also saw the biggest waterfall in America (don't quote me on that) It was big.
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We left Portland and drove to Megan's dad's home in Anacortes Washington to spend a week there.
Day 74-80 Northwest Washington (a week with Megan's dad)
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On a hike around Anacortes Island a tree that grows horizontally
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Megan finally got to fly her kite
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my favorite picture of me on the trip
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We saw the sun set a lot
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beer pictures
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We spent a day on the top of Mt Baker; snow ball fighting and sledding
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we finished the day sampling some beer at a fishermans bar(i think)
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We took a fairy ride to an island you can only reach by boat
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the island
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before we left the west we spent some time picking golden rasberries which you cannot get where we are from
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I'm sorry this travel story is taking so long(almost as long as the actual trip) I have about 10 days left and I'll try to get those up soon. Thanks for reading.
Here is our spot map for the last week or so
http://www.spotadventures.com/trip/view?trip_id=271757
Please don't apologize for the length of your report ... I know I speak for many of us that really love to read this! I'm enjoying this immensely, and your photos are gorgeous!
Donna
Tony, I echo Donna's sentiments. It is such a joy to have someone come back and share their experiences, which were built around advice given on this site.
Take you time, we're hanging on every jpg and every txt.
Lifey
Thanks for all the kind words.
Day 81
We left Anacortes and drove south to where Jimi Hendrix is buried. We checked that out and then went to Tri-cities Washington.(I can't remember which of the 3 we went to) We met our couch surfing host and hit it off right away.
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Day 82
We were pretty much out of money at this point (except for gas) so we did a lot less of the things that cost money. Lot's of driving, and you can tell by the photos, how much the landscape changes from 1 mile to the next where we were.
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the damn "entering Montana" sign was in the middle of the highway so we could not stand in front of it.
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we noticed very quickly that Montana loves putting giant letters on there mountains. This M is for Missoula where we stayed.
Day 83
We had a lot of fun with our couch surfing hosts for the night. We left them and headed for Livingston, Montana. Here are a few driving pictures:
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I wanted to get this post out of the way so I can start working on Day 84, in which we visited the most beautiful, in my opinion, place I've ever been.
Day 84 Yellowstone National Park
I spent more time researching our trip then we actually did on the trip. Before we entered Yellowstone I thought I had a pretty good understanding of what we were going to see. I read everybody's trip report on this site and saw so many photos. I think it was 10 minutes into the park when we realized that photos cannot do this place justice. We spent our whole day here, from 8am to 8pm and we barely scratched the surface. It's just another place that we will have to visit again. Here are our photos, I hope that they encourage you to go and see this beautiful part of our world for yourself.
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Old Faithful
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Echoing previous comments -- great photos and report
Sure is working for me !! Great stuff.Quote:
Here are our photos, I hope that they encourage you to go and see this beautiful part of our world for yourself.
Day 85
We drove from Montana to Devils Tower National Monument. We walked around the whole tower and took lots of pictures. We left and drove to our host in Rapid City South Dakota.
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Day 86
Busy day. We spend the morning getting our picture taken with a statue of every US president on the street corners of Rapid City. Then we went to Ellsworth Airforce Base where Megan was born. After the base we spent 30 minutes or so in Wall Drug and then we spent the majority of the day in the Badlands NP.
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Day 87
Mount Rushmore was beautiful. We then drove Needles Highway, a road I've always wanted to drive. We drove past Crazy Horse and ended the day hiking in Rapid City. This was our last real day of the trip, because we ran out of money.
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buffalo butt
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Day 88, 89, 90
Our last 3 days of the trip were spent driving home. Here are all the photos we took in those days:
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taken after we pulled into our driveway (final miles: 14275)
The map of Rapid City to home:
http://www.spotadventures.com/trip/view?trip_id=273760
I'm working on 1 final post about the trip with some last thoughts, but for now that's it, thanks for reading and thanks for all the nice words.
What can I say, but Thanks for sharing.
Lifey
Thanks so muchQuote:
Originally Posted by Lifemagician
Here is our final map of the whole trip:
http://www.spotadventures.com/trip/view?trip_id=278199
This map was the reason I started this thread, but I figured out how to combine my whole trip into one map.
Yep, I have become a big fan of your trip report and I am sorry to see it come to an end, what an amazing adventure and start to your life's journey together !
Looking forward to your summary and seeing you around the forums from time to time, thanks again. !
Dave.
I haven't posted here for a long time, but I couldn't go without saying how much I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your trip report. Thank you so much for sharing it here.
Best wishes for the rest of your married lives and if you ever need a couch in Kent, UK...give a shout!
thanks so much, we'll be there this Sunday.Quote:
Originally Posted by viv1969
In case anybody is a couch surfer, here is our profile:
http://www.couchsurfing.org/people/tony041982/
Send me a message and say you are from roadtripamerica, I'll friend you.