Chapter 23: The Final Countdown
As I mentioned at the end of the previous chapter, we ended 2016 with the big kids at 42 states and Drew at 32. Sarah just finished her freshman year of high school, so we have four more summers to try and finish off the 50-state quest before she leaves for college, which is the completely arbitrary deadline we’ve set for ourselves. As it is, we’ll probably start having to deal with summer jobs and trying to schedule our trips around those pretty soon—because working around the school schedule just wasn’t challenging enough. Anyway, here is the tentative plan to get to all 50 states:
2017: Road trip through the deep south. This will get us five more states we need: Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. I’ll go into more detail in the Poor Man’s PTR below.
2018: The 50-State Tour goes on hiatus for Drew’s first Walt Disney World Extravaganza. Our reasoning for doing this in 2018 is as follows:
1. It’s Disney. Isn’t that reason enough?
2. Our kids were last in Walt Disney World in 2012. They’re going through withdrawal.
3. Drew is now over 40 inches tall (yes, he’s big for a 3-year-old), so he hits the magic number for most of the rides.
4. My brother and sister-in-law want to take their kids for the first time, and asked for us to go with them to provide expert assistance.
5. I saw that Star Wars Land is opening in 2019. While I love Star Wars, I hate crowds. And I think this announcement means 2019 is going to be insane at WDW. I have learned the value of patience as I’ve aged, and do not feel the need to be the first to get the latest gadgets, see the new movies, or ride the new rides. I’m happy to wait out the crowds and head back for my taste of Star Wars land in a couple of years.
2019: Pacific Northwest. This will get us to Oregon and Washington (and hopefully we’ll get to see
@Steppesister !). My struggle in looking ahead at this trip is trying to figure out if I should go for Glacier National Park or Yosemite. I think it’s probably biting off more than we can chew to do both in the same trip.
2020: Just after Sarah graduates high school, we’ll be ready to take on Alaska. As long as I have the funding figured out by then.
Before I get to the plan for our Deep South trip, here’s a final look back at my personal rankings of the experiences we had on our tour of the Midwest (but Mostly Wisconsin). As always, I will do this in list format, because it’s easy and I’m lazy. And then it will devolve into random lists that have nothing to do with anything, other than it’s fun to put things in lists and then debate them.
Best Attractions We Visited
6. Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota
5. Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota
4. Museum of Science & Industry, Chicago, Illinois
3. Lambeau Field, Green Bay, Wisconsin
2. Gateway Arch, St. Louis, Missouri
1. Minuteman Missile National Historic Site, South Dakota
Top 5 Meals
4. Fritz’s, Kansas City, Missouri
3. (tie) The Machine Shed, Pewaukee, Wisconsin
3. (tie) The 5-8 Club, Minneapolis, Minnesota
3. (tie) Millstone Family Restaurant, Rapid City, South Dakota
2. Wurst Bier Hall, Fargo, North Dakota
1. Kansas City BBQ Extravaganza, Kansas City, Kansas
Worst Drives
(Tie) I-94 through North Dakota
(Tie) I-80 through Nebraska
(Tie) I-70 through Missouri
Basically, just don’t drive in the Midwest.
Best Drive
Needles/Iron Mountain Highways, Black Hills, South Dakota
Best DISMeets
Hanging out with Barry (
@FreezinRafiki ), Bambi and Family
Hanging out with Karin (
@MNtwinsplus1mom ) and Family
Gorging on BBQ with Aaron and Family
Things I Never Need To Experience Again
5. I-94 through North Dakota
4. I-80 through Nebraska
3. The line to get into the Gateway Arch, St. Louis
2. Carrying Drew on a mile-long walk through a rainstorm
1. 9 hours of flight delays, followed by a cancellation, followed by our bags disappearing for 2 days, followed by getting up at 1:30 a.m. for the new flight, followed by discovering all of our clothes are soaked in our luggage.
Best Spur-of-the-Moment Idea
Visiting Bay Beach park in Green Bay, Wisconsin (credit to Bambi, wife of
@FreezinRafiki i)
Biggest Regrets
4. Missing out on Voyageurs National Park and the Lake Superior coast/scenic drive, Minnesota
3. Missing out on lunch in Fargo with
@pkondz
2. Being unable to figure out how to fit Winnipeg into the itinerary
1. Missing out on the Twins/Phillies game the first night and having to break the news to my son
Most Likely Return Visits
- Black Hills region, South Dakota
- Kansas City, just for the barbecue
- Chicago Museum of Science & Industry
- Lambeau Field, if Barry ever comes through on those tickets
- Do-over for northern Minnesota
Least Likely Return Visits*
- Ekalaka, Montana
- Most of North Dakota
- Most of Nebraska
*--I would have included Iowa, but as it so happens I am being sent to a conference for work in Des Moines in July!
Best Books I’ve Read in the 21st Century
(Hey, this is travel-related. I read a lot of books on airplanes)
9. Dark Matter, Blake Crouch
8. The Boys In The Boat, Daniel James Brown
7. Ready Player One, Ernest Cline
6. A Higher Call, Adam Makos
4. Bull Mountain, Brian Panowich
4. The Martian, Andy Weir
3. The Given Day, Dennis Lehane
2. Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand
1. 11/22/63, Stephen King
Favorite Movies of the 21st Century (in no particular order)
Gladiator
Creed
Finding Nemo
Inception
3:10 To Yuma
Gravity
Casino Royale
Argo
Black Hawk Down
Hell or High Water
And I'm really impressed with how they've pulled off the whole Marvel shared cinematic universe.
Favorite TV Series
Justified
Breaking Bad
Better Call Saul
Fargo
Cheers
Band of Brothers
A Poor Man’s Pre-Trip Report for the Deep South, 2017
Have I lost you yet? You’re still here? Fine, here’s the plan for our summer trip this year.
Day 1: Driving all day to my uncle’s place in Virginia. Crash there.
Day 2: Hiking/shooting stuff, as my uncle likes to do. Then drive to Cherokee, North Carolina.
Day 3: Great Smoky Mountains National Park, followed by Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Day 4: Georgia Aquarium, Atlanta, Georgia. Still undecided on doing World of Coca-Cola or CNN Studios tours.
Day 5: MLK National Historic Site in the morning. Then driving west to Arkansas, with a stop for BBQ in Memphis.
Day 6: Hot Springs National Park, followed by Crater of Diamonds State Park and a quick hop across the border to cross off Oklahoma. Sorry, Oklahoma. Spending the night in Shreveport, Louisiana.
Day 7: Vicksburg battlefield (Mississippi), then New Orleans (hopefully visit N.O. Jazz National Historic Site).
Day 8: Thought about more New Orleans here (WWII Museum), but instead we’re managing long drives over the next two days. Stopping near Pensacola, Florida for Gulf Islands National Seashore, finishing the night in Tallahassee, Florida.
Day 9: Driving all day to W. Palm Beach, Florida.
Day 10: Everglades National Park and Biscayne Bay National Park, returning to W. Palm Beach.
Day 11: Kennedy Space Center, followed by [REDACTED – TOP SECRET]
Day 12: [REDACTED – TOP SECRET]
Day 13: Driving all day to Fort Mill, SC. Possible DIS meet(s) happening.
Day 14: Heading home.
Day 15: Crash.
So there you have it! I think this may actually set a new road trip record for mileage for us. Unfortunately, that mileage will be piled onto our own van this time.
But, hey—that’s what we have it for.
Let me know what you think! Are we nuts? Any suggestions? Things we should do differently? Places to eat? Things we shouldn’t miss?
Coming Up Next: I’ll do a quick TR of our Texas vacation over spring break, if I ever get the photos uploaded.