CCC Camp

SEVEN WEEKS ACROSS AMERICA

Well, here we finally are. The last post about our epic, seven-week road trip across the country. The last place I photographed was the campground we stayed in, right outside the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. In the 1930s it had been home to two companies of the Civilian Conservation Corps, who built two of the picnic shelters in the North Unit. You can see one in my previous post. Their structures are usually pretty easy to identify - they are frequently stone and have that sort of iconic look you associate with national parks.

And it was here that I finally got a good shot of our camper in action. I had taken so many photos of it in the beautiful places we had visited, but this is the one I liked the most. The last one of our little home away from home. There are many like it (we saw many twins on the road) but this one is ours :)

I don’t know when we will get back on the road. There are so many factors that steer our lives, but we were lucky to see an opening and just go for it. We had four weeks to plan our trip, and it went off without a hitch. We changed the plan only once (Death Valley, see you some other time when it’s not 107 degrees) and had only one unfortunate incident when the fridge decided to cut off and we had to throw a bunch of food out. And that one time we missed the ferry… we learned that you need to plan on getting there not one hour early, but two, because you might spend every second in traffic behind an accident. We learned that our country is so big that it can be deceiving. The southwest is so rich with places to visit that we rarely had to drive more than 3 hours between destinations. But the northwest is so big that we were driving twice that between destinations, and it would have been nice to drive a little less and explore a little more in that region. We learned that the Pacific coast is really no place for a camper (I’m looking at you, Oregon) because there is scant parking for large vehicles. But truly, the frustrations were minimal, and of course what we experienced in seeing our grand country was worth every minute. I think this will rank up there as one of the great adventures of my life, and I am truly grateful for the opportunity and for my family who came along for the ride.

Road Trippin' - Day 1

Seven Weeks Across America

Missouri had some beautiful roads and to offer.

And we're off!  My family is on an epic summer trip, what you might call "The Great American Roadtrip."  We started at our home in Pittsburgh, picked up my father-in-law, and have headed to Colorado. 

W enjoys "The Muppets Take Manhattan."

We planned two hard days of driving, traveling through Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri.  There were red-winged black birds perched in nearly every bush or atop every fencepost in the last two states.  They are one of my favorite birds and I enjoyed seeing more of them than I could count.  We really enjoyed our first campground at Long Branch State Park in Missouri.  It was lush, with bunnies everywhere we looked.  That last detail made my daughter so very happy (and who am I kidding, me, too)!  

We convinced my daughter to try sleeping in the top bunk, which my husband made safe with an improvised net.  And a restful night's sleep was had by all :)