Southwest, Midwest, Northwest and West; USA
07/03/2003 - 09/08/2003
All our bags are packed and we are traveling light. Ha! In one of the bags is our life raft. You never know when you might need one...even on land.
With Whisper prepared for hurricane season, Robin and Duncan hit the road for land cruising back in the United States.
For over seven weeks and ten thousand road miles, we visited cities, parks, forests, ski areas, beaches, family and friends. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Rather than writing lots of text to describe the trip, the summer trip logs will primarily be documented in pictures. The following pictures give an idea of life on the road visiting 14 states in a rental car.
In addition to this log, the following logs cover different aspects of the journey.
- National Parks, Monuments and Forests
- From the Mountains, To the Deserts, To the Prairies, To the Oceans
- Friends and Family
- City Slickers
- Call of the Wild
- Culture Club
Exciting descriptions of events such as witnessing a purse snatching, watching an SUV tire blow out/triple rollover and participating in the rescue, and temporarily being suspected of car theft will be left to your imagination. However, the results of the license plate game will be revealed.
From San Carlos, Mexico to Tucson, Arizona to New Mexico to Colorado to Illinois to Michigan to Wyoming to Oregon to California and back to Tucson...all via rental car...and we still like each other.
A couple of fellow sailors with a car in San Carlos offered us a ride back to Tucson. A quick stop at Mexican customs allowed us to export the life raft and a few other boat parts.
Back in the United States after 8 months of cruising in Mexico, Arizona is our "port of entry".
Having sold our cars back in March, 2002, this is our first major driving experience in over a year. Between the malls and driving, re-entry to the U.S. is a bit overwhelming.
In Albuquerque, we realized the rear tire had a slow leak. Tah Dah! The beauty of a renting cars is the maintenance is the rental car company's issue. We picked up a different car, a very comfy Toyota Camry, which held out through the whole trip. By the end of our trip, this rental car definitely needed new tires.
After visiting Tucson, Arizona, we moved on to New Mexico with overnight stops in Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Taos.
In Colorado, Robin took advantage of the bathtub enjoy the amenities not found on most sailboats. Perhaps she was overzealous in the bubble department.
One of the pluses and minuses of being on the road is getting to eat out in restaurants. Many delicious meals increased both our spending and our waistlines.
After visiting Telluride and Aspen, the journey took us across the plains of Nebraska and Iowa en route to visit Robin's sister, Kari, in Chicago.
Gas stations in the U.S. kept us amused both with the gas price fluctuation and the real time CNN broadcasts at the pump.
Phew! We made it through the corn fields and cow pastures. Now, on to visit Robin's sister, Kari, in Chicago.
Somewhere in the United States, our trusty photographer, Duncan, manages to get his picture taken.
Heading north/northeast from Chicago, we motor toward Traverse City to visit Duncan's parents.
Along the way, we managed to follow several interesting vehicles including two halves of a house.
From Traverse City, we traversed across Michigan's upper peninsula into Wisconsin. Lucky us. We arrived in Osh Kosh, Wisconsin just in time for the Experimental Airplane Air Show.
Music is a key part of any road trip. Robin acquired a guitar along the way. Since she is just learning to play, we purchased a few new CDs to keep us entertained. Check out a few moments of road trip serenades.
The main objective after Michigan was visit Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone and Grand Tetons National Parks. We rushed through Minnesota.
Throughout the journey, we encountered many varieties of road kill. Road kill sightings included deer, mountain lion, prairie dog, beaver, porcupine, skunks, birds (one killed by us), roadrunner (okay, it was still alive), chipmunks and squirrels.
Hurry up and get to the parks. Oh wait, South Dakota is in the way. At least we will get a cheap hotel room. Nope...not with 500,000 Harley riders are on their way to Sturgis, South Dakota for a big rally. Vrrooommm.
What kind of vehicle requires tires this big? Perhaps a Sportsmobile?
Black Hills and four granite presidents sum up our time in South Dakota. On to Wyoming for wildlife, mountains and parks.
Friends Chris & Chris (from Spirit Wind) are traveling in style in their Sportsmobile. After too much time in the rental car, we long for this kind of space, comfort and flexibility.
Hello Montana. Goodbye Montana. We spent about ten minutes in Montana...we'll catch you on the next trip.
Next stop, Sun Valley/Ketchum Idaho. Cool place, quaint town, not enough time.
Oregon dishes out a little bit of everything. High deserts, mountains, ski resorts, river gorges, rugged coastline, redwood forests and bustling cities fill out Oregon's diversity. We tasted a bit of everything.
Various extremes of accommodations fulfilled our nightly shelter requirements. This cabin in the woods of Oregon fulfilled the rustic end of the accommodations...
Casa de las Chimineas B&B gave us all the comforts of home including a garden, a fireplace in our room, a full breakfast and a buffet dinner.
Entering California made us feel like we arrived back home. Whisper and crew left California for Mexico in October, 2002. This is our first trip back home.
Luxury abounds at the W in San Francisco.
With every state license plate accounted for in the license plate game, it must be time to end our journey. Completing the loop, we returned to Tucson after 10,000 miles, 14 states and 2 rental cars....
...and just a few bugs on the front fender.