Last week I went on a road trip. For the first time I drove across country in the US (most of the way). I know that lots of people do it, but I’ve never been big on driving and driving and driving, as I usually prefer to just get somewhere and get on with it.
My son was moving from Maine to Colorado to live with his sister for the winter season. He got a job on the mountain where she lives, and figured he’d need his car and his dog while he was there. My wife suggested “why don’t you go with him part way? You could drive with him to Chicago, see friends and then fly back home?” At this point we were in our home in Connecticut. I tried to avoid thinking about it, but eventually offered to my son – “would you like me to go with you?” “Sure” he said.
Then, a few days later, he said “let’s go to the Badlands on the way!” I didn’t even know what state the Badlands are in – it is a good Springsteen song, but that’s all I knew about it. A quick google search told me it’s in South Dakota….not really on the way to Colorado, but sorta. Okay now i can’t resist, so I sign up for the whole trip. First we had to drive to our house in Maine (he left most of his stuff there at the end of the summer), thats a 7-hour drive to start with. We pack the car and plan the journey (sort of).
Our first day was a 12 hour drive south from Maine, through New Hampshire, across all of Massachusetts (who said MA was a small state) then up through New York to Niagara Falls. It’s on the way west and Will had never seen it so what the heck. I booking.com’d a hotel room there. We crashed and got up early, had breakfast (we were the only people in the entire hotel – who goes to Niagara Falls in November??) and went to see the Falls. It’s a great example of what happens when people surround a majestic natural wonder with tourist shit. What a crappy town….but it was worth a look…once.
We then got in the car and started driving west. We stopped in Cleveland for lunch and booking’d a hotel room in Toledo – it was on the way. Cleveland looks like a nice small city. Toledo looks like a bunch of strip malls.
In the morning we continue west – identifying a spot to take the poor dog for a hike along the way. the poor thing was sitting in that cramped car all day – what a great dog is Surrey. So we found the Indiana Dunes State and National Parks. It was a cold November day but its a cool park. We did the “3 Dune Challenge” and then headed to Chicago.
We hung out with our respective friends – his from high school a few years ago and mine from college 40 years ago. The next morning we hit the road again and drove north, through Wisconson and west through Minnesota to get to South Dakota. This was the first time I’d ever been in SD and it is beautiful. Badlands National Park is wonderful. We hit a few other spots before heading south to Wyoming and then on to Winter Park, Colorado.
All told we did about 2,500 miles and 13 states….and it was a lot of fun, even though it was tiring. I heartily recommend seeing the west by car.
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