Open wide folks, the 2019 Summer Trip Recap is here!

Betsy took this photo in June when we stopped for grilled oysters at the Wescott Bay Shellfish Co. on San Juan Island.

By Dave Pasley 

As blog readers already know, Betsy did yeowoman’s work reporting on the the first part of our summer trip. 

In this post I'll try to wrap it all up.

Let's get started with some trip stats.

States Visited	20
Nights in Washington (the state)	44
Nights in Wisconsin	26
Nights on the Road, total trip	104
Miles Driven, total trip	12,063
Gallons of gasoline consumed, total trip	868
MPG for the entire trip (a lot of it towing the trailer)	13.9
MPG from WI to TX (without the trailer in tow)	20.0
Hours the truck was running, total trip	296
Washington Counties “touched” (out of 39)	27
NPS sites visited, total trip	25
Betsy's new NPS total (out of 420ish total)	265
Dave's new NPS total	295

The chart below shows how many nights we spent in each state (listed chronologically with a blank indicating that we passed through without stopping). Three states are listed twice because we passed through them on both the outbound and inbound legs of the trip. We stopped in Nebraska on the third night of the outbound portion of the trip, with the trailer in tow, then again while in route to Wisconsin, without the trailer. The only place our route crossed itself was a short stretch of I-80 near North Platte, Nebraska. In addition to Nebraska we also crossed Idaho on both the inbound and outbound portions of the trip (plus twice on day trips while we were in Washington). The only other state we entered more than once was Oklahoma. We drove across (one of) the northwest corner(s) of Oklahoma on the second day of the trip and traveled through the eastern and central parts of the state on the final two days of the trip. Which reminds me - and I'm getting a little off topic here - I was in Total Wine a few days ago shopping for beer (not as crazy as it sounds) when I came across a six-pack of red amber suds called Oklahoma Suks. Seriously. I looked at the can to see where it was brewed and - surprise, surprise - Austin, Texas. Okay, enough of that, let's get back to the trip summary.

States	Nights
Texas	1
Oklahoma (first)
Kansas	1
Nebraska (first)	1
Wyoming	3
Montana	5
Idaho (first)
Washington	44
Oregon
Idaho (second)	4
Utah	2
Colorado	5
Nebraska (second)	1
South Dakota	1
North Dakota
Minnesota	1
Wisconsin	26
Illinois	4
Kentucky
Tennessee
Mississippi	2
Arkansas	2
Oklahoma (second)	1
20 states	104 nights

Mileage Recordings Taken at Random Locations During the Trip
Date	Location	Mileage
6/20/19	Bridgeport, WA	3,428
6/23/19	Rockport, WA	3,788
7/9/19	Gig Harbor, WA	4,656
7/22/19	Mt. Rainier NP, WA	5,612
7/26/19	Kennewick, WA	6,262
8/2/19	Flaming Gorge, Utah	7,477
8/4/19	Rifle, CO	7,808
8/5/19	Buena Vista, CO	8,000
8/10/19	Yankton, SD	8,920
8/10/19	Baxter, MN	9,328
9/6/19	Bayfield, WI	9,630
9/15/19	San Antonio, TX	12,063

Now, shifting gears a bit (pun intended), I'll try to recap the summer trip in segments while assigning letter grades to each segment. Hopefully I’ll get an “A” for effort!

On the road in beautiful Montana.

Trip Segment 1: Getting to Washington

Letter Grade: A+

Reasons for grade: It probably helps that the bar for this part of the trip was set pretty low. Mostly the plan was to drive a reasonable distance each day and get to Washington without a whole lot of sightseeing along the way. That goal was definitely accomplished. The weather was great, and the roads were good. But we also really enjoyed our longer layovers in Sheridan, Wyoming (where we stayed over an extra night) and in Butte, Montana which is a very interesting and (in its own quirky way) charming place (considering that it is smack in the middle of the largest Superfund site in the country). We spent four nights in Butte and loved it.

Highlights: After a cold, snowy drive across the Big Horn Mountains we stumbled on to a street party at a brewpub in Sheridan and ended up dancing the remainder of the day away; boot-scooting with the locals. In the four days we spent in Butte we dove into the city’s tortured history with copper mining and labor unions and the ongoing, valiant struggle of its residents to make some future lemonade from the mounds of lemons bequeathed to them by their forefathers.  I left Butte with a positive feeling about the Environmental Protection Agency and the Superfund program. I even gained some warm feelings for Arco, the successor in ownership to the Anaconda Mining Company. Anaconda was responsible for most of the pollution, but Arco is paying for most of the extensive remediation that is cleaning up the Clark Fork River and creating a beautiful network of hike and bike trails not only in Butte but across a wide swath of central Montana. Also, the fact that the tenderloin sandwich and fries at Pork Chop John’s restaurant in downtown Butte ranked as one of our favorite meals on the entire trip didn’t hurt the grade for this segment. Bottom line, there are some great things happening in Butte, it is a very interesting place with a lot of friendly, hardworking folks; doing their best to play the cards they’ve been dealt. I highly recommend a visit there.

I would not be surprised if we took more than 100 photos of Mt. Rainier, from near, far and in-between. This is one of them.

Trip Segment 2: Really Getting to Know (the state of) Washington

Letter Grade: A

Reasons for grade: Again, it probably helps the grade when the expectations start out relatively low but are greatly exceeded. That was certainly the case here. Washington is the seventh state to get the full-bore, Pasley “Really Get To Know A State” treatment and, frankly, I was not all that enthused about doing it. However, once we got there it was fabulous and I’m glad we gave it a shot. In fact, Washington has now vaulted to the very top of my RGTKAS list.

RGTKA State	Year	Rank
Washington	2019	1
Oregon	2013	2
Wisconsin	2016	3
Florida	2013	4
Ohio	2014	5
Delaware	2011	6
North Carolina	2017	7

(Note: I think Betsy generally concurs with these rankings but she may have Oregon in first place with Washington second.)

In 44 nights spent in Washington we “touched” 27 of the state’s 39 counties and found a lot to like in all of them. It also helped that we had great weather. Of course, there were a few rainy days and plenty of clouds but there were no forest fires near us, no smoke, no volcanic eruptions or tsunamis and only one (to our knowledge) small earthquake that did not impact us.

Highlights

The Mountain is "Out"

One of my favorite things about Washington were the random “appearances” of Mt. Rainier. Most of the time the mountain is cloaked in clouds or haze and you forget it’s there because you can’t see it. Then, suddenly, you turn a corner and there it is; this massive, white hump looming – somewhat eerily – in the distance. We enjoyed the two days we spent in Mt. Rainier National Park, hiking around the base of the mountain, but it was those occasional glimpses of Mt. Rainier from the deck of a ferry in Puget Sound, from the porch of a restaurant in Port Townsend, through the window of a trolley in Seattle, walking down the street in Gig Harbor; that left a unique, slightly unsettling, impression. Speaking of volcanoes, the day we spent at Mt. St. Helen’s was one of my favorites.

"Commuting" from Gig Harbor

Our decision to use Gig Harbor as the base for our 19-night stay in the Seattle area worked out exceptionally well, logistically, but also because we really got to know and really liked Gig Harbor itself. We also loved the one-hour ferry ride from Bremerton over to Seattle, and we loved Seattle. We navigated around a large swath of the city on foot, bicycle, trolley, train and monorail. Top-rated stops like Chihuly Glass were great but stumbling on to a reading by the author of a book about the prohibition era in Seattle, in the basement of the Elliot Bay Book Company in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, was probably more satisfying. We bought the book and both read it before we left the Seattle area.

Surprisingly Interesting Tacoma

We also liked Tacoma and had some fun times there. As most readers know we have patronized a lot of beer-drinking venues across the country so it is worth noting that the taproom at the 7 Seas Brewery in Tacoma is now our second favorite beer drinking venue in the country (the Memorial Union Terrace at the University of Wisconsin in Madison remains #1). As readers probably also know, we have been to a lot of minor league baseball games and Cheney Stadium, home of the AAA Tacoma Rainiers, now ranks as one of our favorite minor league ballparks.

Port Townsend Serendipity

On a whim, we stopped in Port Townsend on our way back from a trip to the Hoh Rain Forest in Olympic National Park (which was spectacular), stayed in a 19^th century Victorian mansion and walked up the block to a wonderful farmer’s market the next morning. There is something to be said for the appeal of serendipity.

And Many, Many More Plaudits

I also want to give a shout out to the beautiful campuses of UW, Washington State and Gonzaga, Spokane’s lovely downtown waterfalls and hike/bike trails, the incredible Palouse hills in southeast Washington, scenic North Cascades National Park, spectacular Lake Chelan National Recreation Area, the fascinating tour of the B Reactor at the Hanford Nuclear Site, San Juan Island, Whidby Island, Forks, Olympic National Park, Olympia and, basically, every place we went in the state that I haven't mentioned. Bottom line, we are really glad we really got to know Washington!

City of Rocks National Reserve in Idaho was a prominent landmark on the 19th Century California Trail, not far past the point where it diverged from the Oregon Trail. Today it is a unit of the National Park Service and a highly-regarded rock climbing venue.

Trip Segment 3A: Washington to Colorado

Letter Grade: B+

Reasons for grade: Similar to Segment 1 the primary goal here was to cover some ground and get from the Tri-Cities area of southern Washington to Buena Vista, Colorado to put the trailer into storage (note: the trailer is still there, I may go retrieve it in a few weeks). We planned a few stops along the way but, again, our modest expectations were greatly exceeded.

Highlights: Our first stop was Boise, Idaho a place we’ve been before and liked. Now we like it even more because we rode our bikes 25 miles round trip from our RV park to the beautiful state capitol downtown on a wonderful paved trail along the Boise River. We were also treated to a new experience at a minor league baseball game because a pair of Osprey and their two chicks were nesting on a platform high above the center field fence. Occasionally one of the adults would swoop down over the heads of the outfielders. It was awesome. From Boise we went to City of Rocks National Reserve in the southeast part of the state near the Utah border and did some hiking and biking and then on to Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area in the northeastern corner of Utah. We drove from there through southern Wyoming and north-central Colorado to Buena Vista. There was some road construction and a few steep and gnarly sections to negotiate (and/or detour around) but overall it was a pleasant and scenic route.

We can attest to the fact that upper-Midwest got a LOT of rain this summer. This is the rain-swollen Missouri River on the Nebraska-South Dakota state line at Yankton, South Dakota. We had to detour from our route in both of these states because bridges were out or water was over the road.

Trip Segment 3B: Colorado to Wisconsin

Letter Grade: B

Reasons for grade: Pretty and pleasant, but mostly just lots of driving.

The nice thing about not having the trailer in tow is that you can drive much faster and much further in one day; which is mostly what we did on this segment. We did stop in Valentine, Nebraska to check out the beautiful Niobrara River National Scenic River and in Yankton, South Dakota to cross the rain-swollen Missouri National Recreational River on a pedestrian bridge. Our only other stop was in Baxter Minnesota to shop at Costco. Several roads were closed in Nebraska and South Dakota due to the epic flooding earlier in the summer. But, soon enough, we arrived in Bayfield, Wisconsin and began preparing for our three-week stay on Sand Island.

Sunrise on Lake Superior, taken from our "home" at East Bay on Sand Island.

Trip Segment 4: Sand Island, Apostle Islands National Lakeshore

Letter Grade: C+

Reasons for grade: This was our fifth time volunteering for the National Park Service on Sand Island, giving tours of the historic lighthouse, cleaning privies and serving as the face of the NPS on the island. For me it was a bit of a grind, but Betsy will likely have a different perspective, and a much more comprehensive report, posted soon.

We bought this 2003 Honda Odyssey used in San Antonio in 2006 to drive to Alaska via, of course, Washington. Betsy named him Homer. When we got home from that trip I couldn't bring myself to sell Homer, which had been the plan. He was just too good a vehicle to let go. In 2008 Homer delivered pizzas for Tex's summer job. In 2011 we gave Homer to Tex as a graduation present. Homer has had Texas, Arizona, Virginia and, now, Illinois plates. He may look a bit haggard, but it was good to see Homer still rolling on the streets of Chicago.

Trip Segment 5: Bayfield, Wisconsin to San Antonio, Texas

Letter Grade: B-

Reasons for grade: By this point in the trip we were pretty eager to get home. But, of course, it’s not in our DNA to go straight home. The Pasleys are, by nature, a circuitous people. An obvious first stop was Chicago to visit Tex and Rachel. Tex had just moved in after completing his clerkship in Knoxville and had just started his new job at the Shriver Center on Poverty Law. So we stayed only one night on the weekend. But it was a good visit and we had beautiful weather for a walk over to Lake Michigan. Somehow, on our last visit to Springfield, Illinois (in 2016), we missed the wonderful Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. So, we stopped there and then proceeded more or less due south all the way to northern Mississippi; visiting NPS sites along the way, all of them related to Civil War battles. From Tupelo, Mississippi we headed west for a one-night stay with Betsy’s sister Kathy and her hubby Gary at their (relatively) new (to them) house in Hot Springs Village, Arkansas and then drove on to Oklahoma City for a night at the Oklahoma State Fair. It was our 16^th state fair and you can see below how it ranks with the others. From OKC it was 500 miles (our longest one-day drive of the entire trip) due south to San Antonio. And, just like that, the trip was over.

It's been unseasonably hot and humid here since we got back, but we are happy to be home.

State Fair	Rank
Minnesota	1
Texas	2
Iowa	3
Wisconsin	4
Indiana	5
Illinois	6
Kentucky	7
Oregon	8
Washington	9
Idaho	10
Wyoming	11
Oklahoma	12
Florida	13
Colorado	14
Tennessee	15
Georgia	16

Links to Random Videos

Puget Sound has a long association with the U.S. Navy and there are several naval museums in the area, including one next to the ferry terminal in Bremerton. The city has a submarine-themed park with these water features adjacent to the museum.

The water falls on the Spokane River in downtown Spokane are impressive.

This seaplane flew by as we were hiking in Ebby's Landing National Reserve on Whidby Island.

You may recall Betsy's posted commentary about the goofy, go-kart-like contraption we rented to putter around San Juan Island. This is what it looked like driving down the road.

These young violinists serenaded patrons at the farmers market in Port Townsend.

Palouse Falls is the tallest waterfall in Washington.

They get a lot bigger than this sometimes, but this video of some waves hitting the rocks below the Sand Island Lighthouse on a windy day will give you an idea of what the lake can do.

We've seen some pretty crazy things while volunteering in the Apostle Islands. This one is near the top of the list. Note that the winds and waves are, fortunately for the guys in the video, much calmer than in the previous video. I should also note that I shot both video from the lighthouse tower, the second while conducting a tour of the lighthouse.