Head West not so young Man

[daugen]

National Museum of the United States Air Force - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

one of the fun things about planning a trip like this is I'm constantly changing things...
I think one of you mentioned this before, but I just have to see this. And that swings me North away from West Virginia
after I look at zillion dollar horse farms in Lexington KY. Then I'd pretty much head for Pittsburgh from there, but I'm sure I'll zig zag around
a bit.

well, between St. Louis and Lexington, what should I see?

 

[wngsprd]

We stopped at the Air Force museum during a trip in 2002. What a fantastic surprise! Plan on at least several hours.

Have you already been to the Tetons? You could drive straight south through Yellowstone and take in an incredible Natl Park. Maybe that is one of your day trip plans in your Golf.

In North Carolina, check out Beaufort and then take the passenger ferry over to Cape Lookout National Seashore...then the "Mule Train" down to the point. This is experiencing the beach and ocean the way it is supposed to be.

 

[daugen]

this afternoon my intent had been to cut and paste every suggestion here to a new list which I could then start pushpinning on the master map.
but it seems we have a batch of snow headed our way and I have to go move some equipment before that arrives tomorrow. Maybe later.
It really is fun doing this research. This is where Google Maps is just amazing. I always check things out, even the highways, from their satellite images.

 

[MotorSeven]

daugen, if you're cheap like me you will be hunting free camping places along the way. If you are coming through East Tennessee(Thorn Hill area) you can camp at the swimming hole....just a pasture and a creek w/a gazebo and yes a place to dump the head. PM me for the gps coordinates if interested.

 

[terryknight]

sounds like a great trip. I don't know if you plan on driving around the National Parks or getting out and doing some hiking. Zion is beautiful though I think there re too many people and every hike is different. Bryce's Canyon is about 2 hours away and awesome wildly different than any other place I've seen. Canyons is cool, Arches is lots of fun, I went in my truck and drove cross country and went down some of the trails in Arches it was great. Glacier is beautiful. the west side is more touristy, the east side less so, but better hiking. if you go to East Glacier try Serranos Mexican restaurant. The Badlands is also awesome. I wasn't a fan of mt Rushmore, too many people for my taste when i went. Someone suggested the Henry Ford Museum outside of Detroit it is worth it. I could spend all day in there and not see everything.

When I went i didn't have a GPS just an atlas some address of friends/family and a cell phone. it was great driving along saying let's see where this road goes getting to the next town figuring out where you were and how to get where you were going. Probably not the smartest idea in a 12.5 ft RV though. One of teh best parts of that trip was in CA trying to get to the pacific cost highway over the mountains and somewhere along the line i made a wrong turn and kept climbing higher and higher into the mountains, the road turned to gravel then dirt, guardrails disappeared. The views were spectacular. have fun, planning can be almost as fun as doing it.

only other thing i would suggest is to find someplace hlfway where you can stop and do or get maintenance done ie. change the oil.

 

[MacLawn]

Well now that you're in Kentucky, I'd want to see Boonesboro and all things Daniel Boone and Simon Kenton.

 

[daugen]

Simon Kenton (April 3, 1755 – April 29, 1836) was a famous United States frontiersman and soldier in West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio. He was a friend of Daniel Boone, Simon Girty, Spencer Records, Thomas S. Hinde, Dr. Thomas Hinde, and Isaac Shelby. He served the United States in the Revolution, the Northwest Indian War and the War of 1812. Surviving the gauntlet and ritual torture, in 1778 he was adopted into the Shawnee people. He married twice and had a total of ten children.

fascinating guy, like John McCain, he would not break under capture and torture and earned the respect of the Native Americans, who clearly were not friendly to their invaders.

Since most of Kenton's exploits, like Daniel Boone's, were on the frontier, the possibility of exaggeration cannot be discounted, but the respect his contemporaries had for Simon Kenton probably proves his ability, strength, frontier wisdom, endurance, skill, luck and boldness.

Adopted into the Shawnee tribe, that's something for a pale face. And he had time for family life too...ten kids no less.
and I had never heard of him. I love history and am particularly interested in Native American ritual sites, something other than tacky
tourist shops. And yes to the Arches and that whole area, I'm going to a bunch of them. When I get time, I'll fill in the line and you'll be able to better
see where I'm going. One hour north or south of that line is game for car visits.

 

[ronjhall]

One of the best non tourist places that I have visited was the Amerind Museum. Off I-10. in AZ. Put it on your list when you plan to travel that far west.
Another place we have visited and would do it again. Is RW Norton Art Gallery in Shreveport, LA. To see what they offer you need to check out self-guided tours.
Dayton is still on my bucket list.

 

[jerrybob]

If you make it to the West coast.....spend as much time on Hwy 101 as possible. Northern Calif., Oregon Coast and the Olympic Peninsula can't be beat for beauty. Lots of historic parks and museums along the way. Have a safe trip!

 

[daugen]

I'll make the west coast another time, want to drive in a fun car there.
well, spent three hours plotting everything, struggled to get the software to take me down the Natchez
Trace, but I got it. I'll put a new map up shortly. Maybe I can figure out how to export the MS map into a pdf.

I'm up to Houston so far, with a lot of the nits worked out, but not the daily excursions. I'll figure that out when I settle in for the night
at the rv park and decide where to explore. and yes, I plotted a nice rv park right near the Alamo and the Riverwalk.

Next is to work on heading from Houston West to the Grand Canyon. Maybe I'll work on that tomorrow if I survive another layer of wet snow shoveling.
actually the exercise is good, I'm kinda afraid I'm going to eat my way across the US and need to get some exercise on the way. Just have to walk all around the rv park.
probably ought to get myself a can of pepper spray for dogs and stuff. Do armadillos attack?