1st X-Country Trip by Prius

Road Trip Album at:

August 4-19, 2012

Overview

Our first Cross-Country Trip in the Prius was a summer run west from Mark’s house on the Jersey Shore, to Gail’s in Puget Sound.

We started out heading west through Pennsylvania, Ohio, and SW Michigan, visiting family. Then it was on to to Chicago, where Mark worked a couple of days, while Gail got the Prius oil changed and explored on her own. Leaving Chicago, we mostly drove west on I-90, with 2 jogs north to go to Minneapolis and then spend 2 days at Glacier National Park.

Spring Lake Heights to Bellevue, Spent the night in:

This was our first trip, since Hawaii in 2003, with visits to multiple National Park Sites…the start of a trend!

Highlights

Family visits and other highlights:

• Visited Mark’s Brother Dave-V & Joy in Pennsylvania, Cousins Janice-O, Ricky-V, Michael-V in Ohio
• Visited Gail’s Brother Charlie-W in Michigan and swam in Lake Michigan
• Gail visited Oz Park and Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago and met a new cousin, Lee-N in Peoria (while Mark worked)
• Began our quest to attend a game at every MLB Stadium:
  • Wrigley Field – Cincinnati Reds @ Chicago Cub (#2 Together)
  • Target Field – Tampa Bay Rays @ Minnesota Twins (#3 Together)
• Visited Harley Davidson Museum in Milwaukee
• Enjoyed visiting University of Wisconsin in Madison, and driving around the Capitol Building, but didn’t take a tour
• Spent a better part of a day in Worthington, Minnesota, including Pioneer Village
• Visited Crazy Horse Monument
• Visited 10 States for the 1st time: Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho

We visited 6 National Park Sites, in South Dakota & Montana:

• Badlands National Park (#19)
• One of the Rocky Mountain Historic Parks:
  • Minuteman Missile National Historic Site (#20)
• Mount Rushmore National Memorial (#21)
• One of the Rocky Mountain Cave Parks
  • Jewel Cave National Monument (#22)
• One of the Battlefield Sites-Rocky Mountain
  • Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument (#23)
• Glacier National Park (#24)