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Day 0:
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Leave New York around 10pm. Need to be in Chicago for dinner on Day 1.
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Day 1:
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Arrive on outskirts of Chicago early, seeing signs for
Indiana Dunes National
Lake Shore I decide to make an improptu stop at my first National Landmark.
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Day 2:
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Spend the day sightseeing in Chicago. Leave Chicago around midnight,
heading north towards Wisconsin
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Day 3:
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Pull over at a rest stop around 2 A.M. and see a brochure for the
Circus World Museum
in nearby Baraboo. Sleep in car at reststop until Museum opens the next morning.
After visiting the museum, continue on through Minnesota and into South Dakota, making
some stops along the way to visit
roadside attractions.
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Day 4:
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Wake up at dawn at a reststop in S.D. and drive final few hours to
Badlands National Park.
Visit Wall Drug.
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Day 5:
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Pack up and head to
Jewel Cave National Monument
in the Blackhills. Set
up camp in a very wet National Forest.
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Day 6:
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A day for Monuments...
Crazy Horse Monument, Mount Rushmore, and
Devils Tower National Monument. As night falls I make my way through
the winding roads of the Bighorn Mountains and find myself at the edge
of the Shoshone National Forest.
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Day 7:
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Sunrise and off-roading in
Shoshone. Continue through Gallatin National Forest in Montana.
Set up camp by 8 A.M. near the North East enterance of
Yellowstone National Park.
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Day 8:
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Dawn in Yellowstone.
The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.
Backtracking to Shoshone.
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Day 9:
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Yellowstone's geo-thermal wonders:
Hot Springs, Geysers, and Old Faithful.
Breakfree of a jam packed Yellowstone, in time to arrive at
Craters of the Moon National Monument at sunset.
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Day 10:
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A day of driving. Through
Idaho and across Nevada (speed limit 75).
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Day 11:
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Yosemite National Park.
Hot and crowded. Spent the day recovering in my tent, the evening hiking around the falls.
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Day 12:
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Yosemite's Mariposa Grove of giant Sequoias.
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Days 13-14:
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Berkeley, a flat tire, worn out brakes, and San Francisco.
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Days 15-19:
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Los Angeles. City of Angeles and old college friends.
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Day 20:
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Zion National Park.
The Narrows, a great hike and a great place to make new friends.
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Day 21:
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Riding the Virgin (River, that is)... tubing in Zion.
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Day 22:
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Hoodoos everywhere. Sunrise at the east enterance of Zion. A beautiful morning
near the Checkerboard Mesa, and Zion's hoodoos.
Arrive at
Bryce Canyon National Park.
Home of the greatest Hoodoos you'll ever see.
A landscape straight out of a Star Trek episode.
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Day 23:
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A beautiful sunrise in Bryce. A short drive to the Kaibab National Forest.
Set up camp in Kaibab, on a peak overlooking the Grand Canyon. Spend the evening
watching the sunset from Bright Angel Point on the Northern Rim of
Grand Canyon National Park.
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Day 24:
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Sunrise over the Grand Canyon. Speeding Ticket. Vermillion Cliffs. Painted Desert.
Navajo Reservation. Sunset in
Monument Valley.
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Day 25:
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Four Corners. Tacky Trinkets.
Route 66, where are you? Scared Shitless in the
Texas Panhandle.
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Day 26:
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Oklahoma City.
A very emotional visit to the site of the Federal Building
Bomb Blast. Comic relief at the Oklahoma City Zoo.
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Day 27:
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Elvis Day. Cross the Mississippi just as the sun rises over Memphis. A monumental
visit to Graceland.
A quickstop in Tupelo, Mississippi, to see the birthplace of the
King. Arrive in Athens, GA for a nightcap at local college bar, The Velvet Elvis.
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Day 28:
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Athens, GA
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Days 29-30:
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North Carolina. Durham and Baseball's Bulls. Raliegh and more college friends.
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Day 31:
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Back in New York... and just in time to drive to Philedelphia to help my sister, Enid, move in to her
new apartment.
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