And finally…at last…the end is near…
We would like to dedicate our final post to Will’s mother Ruth for coming up with the idea and encouraging us to take this amazing journey!
Some quick stats and our favorites:
- Total mileage: 10,621 miles
- Time spent in the car: 8.47 days (203 hours and 7 minutes)
- Most spent per gallon: $3.09 in Winthrop, WA on 11/06/09
- Least spent per gallon: $2.41 in Richmond Hill, GA on 12/15/09
- Total spent on gas: $1,093.47
- Favorite city: Livingston, MT … though we enjoyed every stop
- The runners-up (in no particular order): San Francisco (CA), Sedona (AZ), Colorado Springs (CO), San Antonio (TX), New Orleans (LA), St. Louis (MO), Louisville (KY), San Luis Obispo (CA) – it was hard not to list every city!
- Favorite restaurant: The Space Needle Restaurant in Seattle, WA
- Favorite breakfast(Aside from all of the wonderful home-cooked meals): Pine State Biscuits in Portland, OR
- Favorite dinner(Again aside from all of the wonderful home-cooked meals) : K – Couldn’t think of her favorite
– too many good choices; W – Macadamia nut encrusted Mahi Mahi at The Chart House in La Jolla, CA
- Favorite pizza: Zachary’s in Oakland, CA
- Favorite view: Highway 1
- The runners-up (again, in no order): Cascades National Park (WA), atop the Gateway Arch (MO), the Red Rocks in Sedona (AZ), the Golden Gate Bridge (CA), Highway 90 through Montana
- Favorite National Park: Too close to call, here’s our top 3 (no order): Yellowstone (WY), Arches (UT), and Redwood (CA)
- Favorite bridge: The one we took along Highway 1
- Best argument: The Grand Canyon – based on the sole fact that Will did not want his elbow’s space on the center console infringed upon by Kathleen…getting up early that day didn’t help…and neither did being within arm’s reach of each other for 40 (or so) days at that point!
- Favorite unplanned stop: Colorado Springs (CO) and The Garden of the Gods (with Cascades a close (K) / distant (W) 2nd)
- Biggest disappointment: Carlsbad Caverns National Park (NM)
- Most shocking: Only traffic jam we hit was in San Diego on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving
- Favorite state: California (a little bit of everything)
- Least favorite state: You guessed it…Kansas (a lot a bit of nothing)
- Favorite souvenir purchase: an 8″ statue of Kokopelli
- What we collected: laser-etched 3-D glass paperweights, beer glasses, and postcards
- The absolutely greatest quote of the trip: the idiot behind us at breakfast in Austin (TX)
- If distance from wasn’t a factor, where would we want to live: W – couldn’t pick just one: Livingston (MT), San Francisco (CA), San Luis Obispo (CA), Colorado Springs (CO); K – same as W plus San Antonio (TX)
- Favorite brewpub: its more of a brewery with an attached restaurant – Stone Brewery in San Diego, CA
- Favorite hotel: K – Homewood Suites in Seattle, WA; W – Comfort Suites in Fort Stockton, TX
- Total states driven through: 24 (includes NC); we slept in 17 (excludes NC)
- Funniest moment in the car: Seeing the mini-Tonka truck alone on the bed of a tractor trailer
- What we learned from this trip:
- We have lots of return trips to make
- Always drive AROUND Kansas
- The Pacific Ocean may be prettier, but less fun than the Atlantic (its always cold even in the summer)
- With all we’ve seen, there is still so much of our great country to tour!
- We are absolutely, totally, completely still in LOVE!!!
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