First, a huge thanks to Sherry's parents, Ted and Deanna Parker, who housesat part-time and kept the lawn mowed. It was a great comfort to know someone was in and out, checking up on things.
Second, another huge thanks to our neighbors, Gennie and C.J., who kept our cat fed.
Third, thank you to all those who prayed for our trip and our safety. We felt your prayers, and the Lord was faithful to us all along the way.
Fourth, thank you to Forrest's mom Dorothy, who faithfully printed out the 300+ pages of this blog in color and passed them on to Grandma Williamson. Forrest last took the midwest portion of this trip 37 years ago with the Williamson grandparents and mom (and two brothers, in an AMC ambassador).
We bought for $80 a single family pass to the National Parks that works almost everywhere, and it was a great investment. We visited 25 national parks, and 30 national landmarks along the way, in addition to countless other restaurants and hotels. We have a new appreciation for the service of the national park system. Please support your national parks. They are keeping our American heritage alive in the minds of everyone who visits.
We spotted license plates from 49 states along the way. We tried hard for Hawaii, especially on the air force base and Annapolis, but came up empty-handed.
Loot is always an natural consequence of a journey of this type, so we put all our souvenirs into one picture. Ian got 6 new t-shirts, and both boys picked up some hats. Sherry got 5 decks of national park playing cards. The boys got a national park monopoly game with interchangeable deed and square decals, and Forrest got a 1000-piece presidents jigsaw puzzle. Ian also got a model train room sign.
In the end, gas mileage seems to depend more on altitude than on the type of gas, and we went back to "regular" 87 octane. After going through gas receipts, which had our trip mileage on each one, I applied that mileage to the previous tank of gas, and averaged the mileages.
Basically, this method demonstrated that buying the midgrade of unleaded netted an increase in gas mileage of 3.4%, meaning if I paid more than 3.4% extra for midgrade, I would lose money buying midgrade. That amounts to only eight cents extra if the cost of regular is $2.50 per gallon. So it turns out midgrade gasoline isn't worth the extra cost. It is usually 14-20 cents more per gallon.
Hotels were all over the map (literally), but Best Western was consistently good. Days Inn had good and bad hotels. One was dirty. Big city hotels all seem to have some kind of issue, although Rockville Best Western had excellent food.
People always want to know what our favorite place and least favorite place was. Certainly, the D.C. metro was our least favorite experience, with Las Vegas and the Memphis hotel a close second. Our favorites varied: Sherry couldn't pin one down. Ian really liked Gettysburg. Jeremy liked Cody, Wyoming. Forrest liked Baltimore and the area around Mount Rushmore.
We live in a great country, and it was a great privilege to be able to experience and learn about it firsthand. Our trip had three goals: Discover what parts of America are really like outside of Oregon; get out of town for awhile; experience and learn about some of our country's history. In large measure, we accomplished all three, and are quite satisfied.
A short word about blogging: it is not for the person who wants a nice, relaxing time on vacation. It takes a lot of determination and effort to keep up when you are trying to maintain a busy touring schedule. Usually, it requires sleep deprivation and caffeine. However, the rewards are very much worth it. We can remember better what we experienced, and will have a physical record of this 7000-mile trip that is more than a picture book for the rest of our lives.
Thanks again to those who helped make this possible at home; to the estate of Zona Cooper, which helped fund this once-in-a-lifetime trip; to our most faithful commenter and follower Scott Cooper, whose European blog (which we linked to at the top) was the inspiration for this blog; and to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who took care of us when no one else could.
We hope you enjoyed this blog, and will find it entertaining, informative and useful for your own purposes.
God bless America!
