And so it goes. Bought groceries, Dollarama, while generally I pack hunger along on my vacations the daughter has gotten a little loud with her complaining. I'm pretty much prepared on every level (except where I've left a little room for adventure, I expect he/she to be joining us.) Now to fix the car stereo (50 or so hours driving with only the daughter singing Taylor Swift songs is a bit much, I'm sure you'll agree), download some podcasts (she's being proselytized to the "think for yourself" camp), annotate my maps and we'll be off...
Where to go, where to go?
That's rhetorical, of course, I've trimmed the road trip from Tennessee to Utah, stopping in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, maybe a quick trip to Arizona to see the Grand Canyon (10 minutes should do it...), over to Nevada to check Vegas out (daughter is curious, I've been, but I'm curious about the thrift shops, imagining I'll come away with some real bargains on Lion Tamer and Band Major outfits...), then back through Idaho...
Where to stop, where to go, what to see?
Well, that's the purpose of the maps. And there are tens of thousands of places to stop, of course, thankfully we've covered Yellowstone a few times...
But I don't think she's ever been to Little Bighorn, Custer's Last Stand, the boy and I went, put history to the famous self-same phrase, and I want to share the same experiences with her that I shared with him...
This, of course, where I can, As Utah and Colorado (mostly) is new, our adventures will be unique to ourselves...And as these destinations are new I'm doing a little research to ensure no time is wasted...I'd like to do some rockhounding, what is there to find, I wonder? A little bit of searching and...
OK. So I'm going to have to narrow that down a bit, we've only a week or so (less transport), I'll be a bit selective...
No Fee Digging, that's for sure (there are some excellent fee digging sites in Nevada, for example, Opals, ranging in cost from $600 per person per day to a "mere" $70 per day to dig through tailings. To dig through tailings. Yeah. No.
But as you survey the map you'll see there's a lot of other options...
Then there's the Caves. Lots of Caves in Utah, the daughter likes caves, we should hit a couple...
And hot-springs. No vacation to the US is complete without hot-springs (the ones in the river on the North End of Yellowstone were a perennial hit with the kids).
Then there's the Smith Mansion in Wyoming and the Magic Underpants in Salt Lake City (souvenirs for the Boy, who can't join us).
There's Petroglyphs, we gotta see some of those. And the Pueblos. And the red-rock canyons, a few hikes for sure, there's Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park and Arches National Park and The Narrows and I'm already feeling a bit overwhelmed and we haven't even left...