Recap

My sister posted a super sweet status on Facebook that included something about not remembering how many states I passed through: So here's the recap, with a little summary of what happened in that state. 

Virginia: The start and finish of the journey, and home, of course. We won't count this one. 

1. Maryland: Met up with Mea and Co. for the first part of the trip to Niagara, New York. 

2. Pennsylvania: Drove through on the way to New York.  Went through it again between New York and Ohio and visited the Erie Maritime Museum. 

3. New York: Stayed through the weekend for the re-enactment of the Siege of Fort Niagara. Visited Niagara Falls.

4. Ohio: Visited the Kent State University Costume Museum. 

5. Indiana: I did absolutely nothing but drive across I-90, stopping only for guess and a milkshake at a Dairy Queen on the Interstate.

6. Illinois: Chicago!  Water Taxi, deep-dish pizza, and visiting my friend DJ. Passed through it again on the way home, but Charles was driving and I was asleep through most of the state. 

7. Wisconsin: I stopped at a Culver's for lunch. Culver's is a Wisconsin-based chain, and they claimed to use local beef and cheese. They also had frozen custard.  

8. Minnesota: Pretty much the same as Indiana.

9. South Dakota: Sioux Falls, Crazy Horse, Custer State Park, Mount Rushmore (from a distance), Mammoth Site, Wind Cave National Park. 

10. Wyoming: Yellowstone

11. Montana: The tiny part that's in Yellowstone, and a horseback ride in the National Forest. 

12. Idaho: Crossed the skinny part. Had lunch in Couer D'Alene...with no potatoes, there were none on the menu!

13. Washington: Seattle (Space Needle and Pike Place) and Whidbey Island.

14.  Oregon: Portland and Multnomah Falls

15. California: The entire coast? San Francisco, Muir Woods, Big Sur, Disneyland, Legoland, Coronodo Island. 

16. Nevada: Vegas, Baby. 

17. Arizona: Grand Canyon. 

18. Utah: Zion National Park. 

19. Colorado: Boulder! Hiking and eating, and seeing Cowboys and Aliens. 

20. Kansas: Another Indiana. Not sure if Charles even stopped for gas. 

21. Oklahoma: Stayed with very extended family in Tulsa.

22. Arkansas: Ozark Medieval Fortress, Historical Arkansas Museum, saw the Little Rock. 

23. Missouri: St. Louis Science Museum and more eating. 

24. Kentucky: Doesn't really count as it was dark and I was sleeping for a large portion of our driving. 

25. West Virginia: See above.

So, I wouldn't necessarily say I visited 25 states, but I did pass through that many!  

Last Stop

It's hard to believe it, but we've actually made it to the last stop on this far more than seven thousand mile adventure.  We're in St. Louis, Missouri, which we will explore tomorrow before heading home at last on Wednesday morning. It's somewhat fitting to end our journey here. I saw sights visited by Lewis and Clark, saw landmarks from the Louisiana Purchase and the Oregon Trail.  I saw the grandest sights in the West, and here I am, making my way home from the Gateway to the West.  Maybe a little backwards, but still, fitting.

The adventure is not quite over...we still have the City Museum and some cadavers on our schedule before we drive the 12 hours home.

Before we get too reflective, let's talk about what we've been up to.  We had a nice visit with relatives/friends in Tulsa, for the two hours that we were both there and awake, before heading to visit the Ozark Medieval Fortress, a 14th century-style castle being built in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas.  It has a lot of promise, but the staff was a little absent because of it being a Sunday. I did get bitten by a horse for the first time, but we decided we needed to come back in about five years.

Then it was time to head down to Little Rock to visit my sis-in-law.  She made us a delicious dinner of chicken and dumplings, and then today we visited the Little Rock that the city is named after.  We also paid a visit to the Historical Arkansas Museum (HAM), which is a reconstruction/preservation of a block of LR from the 1820s-40s. It was pretty neat, and the museum itself was great. There was an exhibit comparing the Civil War/Old South as shown in Gone With the Wind (movie) and actual history in Arkansas. There was more on the making of GWTW than film analysis, but since I've been re-reading the novel on this trip, it was especially interesting. After lunch, it was time to hit the road again to St. Louis.

Here in St. Louis, we went straight to the Schlafly Bottleworks, an awesome brew-pub that I visited when I was here in the spring.  They have a lot of great local food, and of course, awesome beer.  We shared the goat cheese dip, which was amazing, and I had a beer cheese soup which was almost as delicious.  Now, here we are, blogging and catching up on internet stuff.