Dear Reader Wrap Up

Dear Readers,

I want to thank you for joining us these last 13 months since I started this blog as a place to document and share our ambitious trip to see the middle part of the United States.  This trip was two years in the making, and your input, suggestions, and advice proved, as usual, to be invaluable.  

And during the 46 days we were traveling, we thought of you often!  Some of the activities and destinations made it onto our itinerary because you told us about them.  We had appropriate outerwear because you told us that while it's 90 degrees in Florida in May, it can still be cold in the northern part of the country.  We used money-saving apps and took routes based on your recommendations.  And we had offline maps on our phones for those times we were in places where cell service was spotty because you warned us where they were!

Some of you we met along the way - because we stayed in your town, or attended church services with you, or struck up a conversation at a tourist attraction. 

By way of recap and general observations:

While we stayed on our "schedule" for most of the trip, there were times we made adjustments on the fly - because we saw something interesting we wanted to check out, or because weather was going to impact us.  I like to have things planned but leave room to be spontaneous.  We had a good balance of both.   

We set a budget before we left for accommodations, gas, food, attractions/tickets, supplies, and other (like souvenirs).  We came in an average of $42.15/day under budget!  Our accommodations were about $4.50/day over what we had budgeted for, but we had over-budgeted for gasoline - we only spent 55% of what we'd budgeted.  And we only spent 61% of our food budget, mostly because we had free breakfast at most of the hotels we stayed at and we prepared meals ourselves at the places we stayed at like Air BnBs.

We had good fortune in that each of our Air BnBs and the condo in Gatlinburg were all great.  Most of the hotels were good, too, although we had a couple that if we'd been staying more than one night, we would have moved.  I wrote reviews of each place we stayed so future travel planners can have our experiences to use in making their decisions about where to stay.

We had a few meals that stood out.  Our favorite Mexican restaurant was in Marceline, Missouri.  Our favorite Italian was in Springfield, Illinois.  Gary's favorite "comfort food" was in Rochester, Minnesota.  My easiest gluten-free meal was in Omaha, Nebraska.

I'm not a hiker or even really outdoorsy, but I enjoyed each of the state and national parks we walked at.  I'm not a stair-climber, either, but it was pretty cool to climb two lighthouses.

I do love flowers, so it was nice to visit several gardens.  My favorite was Olbrich Gardens in Madison, Wisconsin, but I was most excited to find a lone Indian Blanket flower at Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma.  And my first tulip across the street from the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in Walnut Grove, Minnesota.  Speaking of tulips, I was thrilled that we hadn't missed their season when we were at Mackinac Island in Michigan.

I was most surprised by how much DH loved the Sleeping Bear National Dunes.  This was a place we wouldn't have gone to if it weren't for some of you, dear readers!  After we got home, we saw that Samantha Brown has just recently filmed there - I cannot imagine how excited DH would have been if we had been there on the same day that she was!  (He's a big fan - well, we both are!)

We saw so many beautiful places, but the one that I was most fascinated by was the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.  It is definitely worth taking the scenic boat ride to get up close look at them.  

So now that we're home and I've blogged and shared photos of the trip, are we glad we did it?  What would we do differently?

Yes - we're glad we did it!  DH was ready to come home just after we crossed into Michigan about 19 days in.  But we had enough things in the days after that that held his interest, so I only had a brief thought of ending the trip early.  (That's why I didn't make non-refundable reservations!)  I loved the adventure of it all, and believe it or not, I made sure to "stay present" each day while we were out and about.  I did my blog post writing and smash-book page creating in the evenings at the hotel, but when we were in the car, if I wasn't driving, I was navigating, looking at the scenery, and just enjoying conversation with DH.  It was nice to know that after 34 years together we still have things to talk about and learn about each other!

What we'll do differently for future trips is not plan one as long as 46 days!  And we'll try to have less one-night stops.  We had a good system for getting things in and out of the car (thank you, Tetris!) so after a few days we had our routine and self-assigned tasks to get things re-packed and ready for the day.  We think 3-4 weeks on the road would be about right for us.  Unless we have a cruise in the middle of it, then we could stretch out the time away.

So, dear reader, this wraps up our Middle States adventure - I hope you'll share the link to anyone you might know who is planning to go any of the places we made it to.

And I hope you'll check back here from time to time - we've got the bones of our next big trip laid out - the lower Edges of Florida in 2025.  

All the best to you.

~ Cindy D.