Well, I have the feeling that the previous 45 days have been a once in a lifetime experience. I traveled through Michigan, Indiana, Iowa, South Dakota, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Idaho and Montana. I’ve met an incredible number of new people whose company I have enjoyed immensely. I’ve taken more pictures than I can count and most will never see the light of day.

I visited 8 National Parks and 5 National Monuments stopping at countless other places along the way. Spending two minutes thinking about it, I actually spent longer than half an hour in the following places:

I’ve also come up with a list of figures:

And kept track of when I rolled over every 1,000 miles:

Woke up this morning at 7am in order to head back to Michigan. After an awful experience at the Perkin’s on Collins Ave. by Kevin’s apartment (that is the most disgusting Perkin’s I’ve ever been in) we were on the road by 9:30.

It wasn’t long before I was in Illinois, which is probably one of my least favorite states. It’s boring and the drivers education system there leaves much to desire in Illinois drivers; especially around Chicago. And then… a few hundred miles or so left to drive through Michigan to make it to my parents house, where I will promptly collapse in bed from what I think was a mild case of food poisoning from a Wendy’s along the way. Not too much exciting happened during the 12 hours of traveling today.

And that brings my trip to a close… forty-five days of vacation and I’ll have 16 days to get all my affairs in order before I fly to Alaska. Hopefully I’ll make it to Houghton one last time and down to see Rae in Ohio. Tomorrow, I’ll put up a post with all the statistics for my trip.

Travel Distance: 628 miles

Another nice slow day today, spent hanging out in Cedar Rapids. Kevin took off from work early, and we’ve watched a couple movies (Top Gun and Hot Shots) in addition to spending a little bit of time out on the town. Tomorrow I head back to MI, but I was really glad to spend a bit of time with one of my best friends before heading to Alaska.

Another day with nothing too exciting going on. I got to sleep in until the glorious hour of 9am this morning and spent a good chunk of the day playing video games while I waited for Kevin to get off work.

After that, we watched one of our favorite movies, Bad Boys II and sat around catching up with another friend of ours Betsy.

I’ve decided to stay one more day and head back to MI on Saturday.

Hit the road from the hotel at 8:30 this morning on the way to Cedar Rapids via the Badlands. Sarah needed some painkillers, so we stopped at Wall Drug. (They are a drug store, right?) I think it was worse this time around… not only is it the world’s worst tourist trap, but it’s all so cheesy. I did find the “ice water” though… which wasn’t even cold.

Down into the Badlands and through the scenic highway. I think I liked it better before I headed out west and saw Arches and Zion. It’s still amazing and awe inspiring, but a little less so than before. And it was definitely hotter; I didn’t feel like hiking nearly as much, though the low elevation definitely makes it easier.

We hit the road around 2:30pm for a long haul across South Dakota, through Minnesota and down into Iowa. it’s a bit rough when your directions include, “Stay on I-90 for 430 miles.” We finally pulled in at nearly 1am after a time zone change lost an hour. Oh well, not too much father back to MI now.

Travel Distance: 717 miles