Brock recently decided it was time to move back to Portland, but he wanted to take an extended visit in Florida in with his little cousins first. We looked at the map trying to figure out which route to take south. He wanted to check out rest areas while I wanted to see visit national monuments and historical sites. He and I were able to agree that whatever route we took should check new states off our list. It took 9 days, and roughly 3500 miles, but we finally made it. Much to my surprise Brock didn’t split much of the driving.

We left Washington and drove to Idaho, trough Montana , Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, back to Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and finally Florida. That puts Brock’s number of states visited at 34 and 46 for me! He’ll get 4 new states on the way back home while I’ll only get 1; I’m still winning though. He loved getting out and stretching his legs, and thinks Minnesota and South Dakota tied for best places to run around. Wyoming was close behind but neither of us could understand why there were signs everywhere saying no pets allowed on the grass. Not sure where else they’re supposed to go…?

Brock usually hangs out in the back seat when he’s not driving, but somewhere in South Dakota decided he was riding up front and assumed shotgun while I was doing 80mph! We were both done by the time we hit Kentucky, so a few planned stops got delayed until the trip home.

He and I had a great time and got to see some amazing places along the way. Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Lady of the Rockies, Little Big Horn, Devils Tower (my favorite), ate Wisconsin cheese (his favorite), and toured the Louisville Slugger museum. Saw a dear old friend and got caught up on several podcasts. Highly recommend roadtrippers.com for all road trip planning. Full of random interesting stuff like Lady of the Rockies is the third largest statue in the US. Who knew?!?!
We’re both very thankful to spend the next several weeks playing in the sun, and hopefully by then we’ll both have forgotten just how far home is.

Here are a few pictures of our trip.

Devils Tower

Looking over a river in Minnesota

Don’t mind me

Not havinga a left leg makes peeing on the hydrant easier

Montana snow

Little Big Horn