Tag Archives: cross country

Road Trip

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Loving Fall Travel

We’ve found that early fall is a good time for a vacation. Most of the summer road repair is completed, the places that we’ll visit are less crowded, gasoline prices have come down and lodging is less expensive. So it’s off we go.

We decided to skip the camping this year and instead enjoy the comfortable hotel beds at the stops along our planned itinerary. This trip is probably a 5000 mile journey, but I like driving and my wife Kris doesn’t mind filling in once in a while. She has plenty of books to read during the long hours in the car.

From our home in Grand Rapids we start with a long initial drive to Salt Lake City to visit our grandson in college. Next across the sparsely populated central Nevada to Mammoth Lakes and Yosemite to view its sweet valley and giant sequoias. It’s a short hop to Reno for a few days stay with family. Then it’s through the mountainous forest of Idaho and Montana to do some hiking in gorgeous Glacier. We’ll head south to northern Yellowstone’s Lamar Valley and then traverse the torturous Beartooth Hwy before the snow falls. Finally traveling east again we’ll hit Badlands and then head home again through South Dakota.

The car is filled with snacks and drinks for the long hours on the road. And as always I have my photo equipment ready to travel.

We’re going to place a few stickers on our car from our sister company StickItToYourCar.com

We’ll have some new photos from our travels here when we return.

View from the Driver’s Seat

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Six Days On The Road

 
Earlier this month I decided to visit a couple of my favorite parks. Since most of the roads out west had been cleared of snow my objective was to beat the crowds at the start of the busy vacation season. The plan was to see Spring arrive in both Grand Tetons and Yellowstone for a couple of days.

I loaded up the car with a small backpack of clothes, a heavy coat in case of cold weather, some of my camera gear and a bunch of snacks to eat along the way. I hit the road very early Sunday morning for a long day drive westward since my first stopover was Laramie about 1100 miles away.

This was my day-by-day itinerary:

  1. Grand Rapids to Laramie, Wyoming
  2. Laramie to Jackson, WY
  3. Jackson to Island Park, ID
  4. Island Park to Gillette, WY
  5. Gillette to Council Bluff, IA
  6. Council Bluffs to Grand Rapids

On this short six day schedule I was able to spend two days each in the Tetons and Yellowstone. As a bonus, on the way back home I spent a few hours at Devil’s Tower National Monument and Badlands National Park.

Along our amazing interstate highway system and rural roads is great scenery, famous landmarks and amazing structures. The views from the journey across the midsection of our country is just as exciting for me as the national parks themselves.

On this long drive I decided to document the 3800 mile trip. These photos are presented in roughly the same order as my travels. I haven’t included any photos of the Tetons and Yellowstone – I’ll save them for another article.


an electrical generating station near Annawan, IL

Rock Island, IL bridge crossing the Mississippi River to Iowa

the huge
World’s Biggest Truckstop in Walcott, IA

newly plowed field in central Iowa

wind generator farm near Lincoln, NE

an irrigator at Grand Island, NE

novel advertisement for Paulsen Cement near North Platte, NE

large feed lot in Ogallala, NE

semi hauling PVC piping near Sidney, NE

a Lincoln monument at Laramie, WY rest area

a small herd of antelope near Arlington, WY

bridge crossing North Platte River in Ft Steele, WY

speed limit sign near Walcott, WY

large refinery in Sinclair, WY

rock formations near Table Rock, WY

small rural town – Eden, Wyoming

animal safety overpass near Daniel, WY

resort cabins in Bondurant, WY

a selfie at elk arches in Jackson, WY

a view of the Tetons from the west in Victor, ID

the Yellowstone River near Emigrant, MT

a small refinery in Billings, MT

a semi hauling logs near Garyowen, MT

electrical power station in Gillette, WY

freight train traveling near Sundance, WY

low clouds over the Devil’s Tower National Monument

walkway to viewing area in the Badlands

one of the bighorn sheep in the Badlands

bridge crossing the Missouri River at Chamberlin, SD

beautiful Native American statue at rest area in Chamberlin, SD

utensils for dinner in Sioux City, IA

final mileage for this six day cross-country drive

 

 
After having driven 3800 miles, I made it back home late Friday night.

While I enjoyed my time in the Tetons and Yellowstone, I also enjoyed the road trip as well.
 
 
Written by Arnie Lee
 
 

Just Up Ahead

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I love to travel and my favorite means of travel is by car.

I’ve driven cross country dozens of times from the east coast to the west coast and from the north to the south. I never seem to tire of being on the road.

One of my driving “hobbies” is to record some of the scenery along the way.

As I travel I’m excited to see and learn about how our county operates. These pictures are examples of how the hardworking men and women keep our economy moving.

cc-by-ndlicense logo  This work by Arnie Lee is licensed under a Attribution-No Derivatives (CC BY-ND 4.0)

So when I’m behind the wheel and see all of these semis and trailers ahead of me, I know that they’re all on the way to deliver equipment, goods and supplies to all of the industries which keep out economy running strong.