End of the Road

December 12th, 2013

That's it ladies and gents. After leaving Chicago I made my way back home.

So, Where Did I Go?

I plotted all the points and the map looks like this:


Google limits you to how many destinations you can have in a single trip, so I had to break it up between multiple trips.

I covered a fair bit of the US, but this place is freaking huge! Looks like I am going to need to make a few more trips in the future to cover all the places I wanted to go.

Favorite Spots

Really, I didn't stop anywhere that I didn't have some level of fun at. So any of the destinations I stopped at are worthwhile. However, a few places really stood out.

• Crater Lake
• The view up top is spectacular. I am disappointed I wasn't able to drive around the whole thing, but I plan on doing it on the next visit!
• Redwoods National Park
• Nothing makes you feel smaller than being in the land of the giants. I would love to spend a few weeks out in the woods here.
• Zion National Park
• This place made me stop for a few days more than I was planning on. There is so much to do, and Angels landing is a must see (so long as you can stomach the heights).
• Mesa Verde
• It is a very humbling look at the survivability and  adaptability of the human race. The buildings they designed and live in are remarkable. 
• Carlsbad Caverns
• Ever wonder what it would be like walking on another planet? You get a glimpse of that here.

Some Trip Stats

Distance: A rough estimate (using the driving directions on the map) and I went over 11361 miles.
States Visited: 18
Duration: 102 days
Pictures taken: ~1700
Friends allowing me to mooch off them for at least a night: 8 (you guys rock!)
Cans of Chili eaten: Too many to count

Lessons Learned

After going on this trip, I would do a few things differently. Some of these can also apply to life in general.

• Don't pack so much crap!
• The Boy Scout Motto is "Be Prepared", not "Bring everything that you might need, ever". There are some things that I never used once, which I will promptly leave behind next time.
• Don't bring anything you aren't prepared to lose
• My car was broken into in San Francisco and they made off with my backpack. While it really sucked having that stuff taken, it wasn't anything that I couldn't live without.
• Talk to random people more often!
• People are interesting. Find out why they are traveling. You never know who you will meet, be it someone from Michigan, or the mother of the CEO of a company you applied for just out of school.
• Don't feel so rushed!
• Towards the end of the trip, I was rushing from destination to destination. I did have somewhere I had to be on New Years Eve, but I rushed through a lot of otherwise cool locations. I had a few days I could have spared before my deadline.
• Don't stay someplace forever!
• Sorry about sticking around Seattle so long Max and Cait. You guys were great to be around after traveling alone for so long. I got comfortable, and didn't want to go back out on my own again. Had I stayed, however, I would have missed 3 of my top 5 stops!
• Your diet should be flexible!
• You will be visiting different places, so you will want to sample what makes them unique. Also, if you are planning to hike a lot like I did, you will need energy. Make sure you are getting enough protein and carbs to compensate for all your activity.
• Enjoy yourself!
• Who knows when you will get a chance like this again in your life? Enjoy every second of it.

Pictures

I have divided all the pictures up between each of the destinations. Don't have time to flip through all the blogs? I have made MEGA ALBUM with all of the pictures. You can click here to see them!

Here are also a few of my favorites:

What's Next?

Well, I still have a few more things to write about. I mean, I haven't touched any of the places I visited in 2014! Plus, I have a few other topics that I wanted to cover that relate to traveling and personal goal setting. Let me know if there is anything I didn't cover over the course of this trip that you are interested in. I can add it to the list!

Thank you all for reading! If you want to be informed when a new post is available, you can sign up on the right to receive an email.

Chicago

Not my picture. Google image search. Although, very pretty!

December 11th, 2013

After grabbing lunch in St. Louis, I made my way north to Chicago. In my original plan, I wanted to stop at Starved Rock State Park. However, since it was getting colder the further north I went, I decided I would just make my way towards home. I wasn't sure if they would even still be open, and I wasn't too keen about sleeping on a snow pile.

My friend Kenny was nice enough to let me stay the night, although I could tell he was a little tense. Apparently, somehow, word that wherever I go, a broken car is imminent. Thanks John...

Since I was only going to be there for a night, we didn't have a lot of time to go explore. Kenny, Kelsi and I went to dinner at Piece Pizzeria & Brewery for dinner. We sat and talked for a while before heading back to Kenny's place. Kelsi had to work the next day, but Kenny and I stayed up and talked a while longer. He also introduced me to Adventure Time!

It was really great to see Kenny again. Since we all went off to college, we really only got to hang out at the major holidays. I am really lucky that the friends I made in high school are still good friends now. I am glad that everyone is doing well.

Some of you may know that my sister lives in Chicago and are wondering why I didn't visit her while I was in town. Well, she was busy in Hawaii working on an audit. Poor Julie, escaping the Chicago winter! I have another post lined up in the future where I go visit her out there!

No pictures for this stop. I was getting a little pictured out by this point and just wanted to make it home.

My next post will be the last post in what I consider "The Trip" blog. I will be doing a wrap up post showing everywhere I went on the trip.

Meramec Caverns/St. Louis

View from the Gateway Arch

December 10th, 2013

After visiting John in Kansas City, I didn't have many more places on my list before making my way home. If you remember way back when I started the blog I was asking for suggestions on where to stop along the way. My coworker Mark suggested I stop at Meramec Caverns and the City Museum in St. Louis. Since I absolutely loved Carlsbad, I made sure that Meramec was on my list.

Having been to both sets of caves I can't help but compare the two. Meramec does not have as many big rooms as Carlsbad. It has a lot of low ceilings, but it feels like it could go on forever. It has a lot of the same formations as Carlsbad, but you can see them a little closer because of the size of the rooms.

It is also privately owned, vs Carlsbad which is a National Park. As such there is a little more, slightly cheesy, touristy things there. However, my tour guide was fantastic and even though I was the only person in the group he still gave me the full tour (plus some extra places he normally doesn't take groups). He is a caver and had been working for the caves for a long time, so I was really privileged to pick his brain for a few hours.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get most of my pictures to turn out for the caves. They have some very beautiful areas, just like Carlsbad. If you had to pick between the two, I think I would say there is more to see in Carlsbad, but Meramec is a solid 2nd choice. There are also a lot of activities outside of the caves at Meramec if it wasn't freezing when I was there. It is like a theme park, with the caves being one of the attractions.

I made my way into the city, stopping at Schlafly Bottleworks. When I was in Kansas City I had one of their coffee beers. I was so impressed, I made a note to stop there while I was in St. Louis. Sadly, there were no tours while I was going to be in town.So I ate dinner there, which was great, and grabbed a bottle of the coffee beer for my room that night.

That night didn't go so well. I was starting to come to the realization that my trip was nearing it's end and I was really starting to feel sorry for myself. I left my job with such grandiose plans, and I had made it only a few months. Sure I had some fun along the way, but what the hell was I going to do with myself after I got back home? So, I did the only logical thing: I went to the bar and got drunk. I made it back to my room that night, but still probably one of the stupider things I did on the trip.

This internal conflict started here, but it wouldn't be resolved until a few months down the road.

The next morning I woke up a little groggy from the beer, but still made my way downtown to get to City Museum. I am not sure if they have these everywhere, but where I grew up in St. Joseph they had something called Curious Kids Museum. It was basically a "learn by doing" Museum. City Museum was a similar concept, but in an old industrial building. This big kid had a blast!

You walked all the way up to the roof. Then you got to slide down!

TURTLES!

It felt like climbing through the ducts

Didn't see any bikes or skateboards while I was there, so I am not sure what this is used for

They were working on an outdoor exhibit. It was a little to cold to be outside anyway.

 After playing around and checking out all the exhibits, I made my way to my other destination: The Arch!

It is a pretty weird place, not really fitting in with it's surroundings. To get up to the top, they have a sort of train/elevator thing. It is a really cool idea on how to move people both vertically and horizontally. You can't have a normal elevator, or you would be on your side when you hit the top! Once you got to the top, however, there wasn't a whole lot to do besides take some pictures. The views were great, but it is very much like the Space Needle. See the view once, and you are probably good.

With my deadline looming, that was really all I had time for in St. Louis. After making my way back to the car, I hit the road.

Click here for pictures of Meramec (most didn't turn out)
Click here for pictures of St. Louis