Pictures part 2

Shall we continue our trip?  We left off on the western edge of Pennsylvania, which really is a lovely state.  It's surprisingly hilly and surprisingly rural (other than Pittsburgh, of course).

 We ended up very close to Shanksville.  The fields there look like this, and Flight 93 crashed in a place just like it on 9/11.  It's very pretty.

 We ended up at Gettysburg, high water mark of the Confederate army during the War Between the States.  This is one of the most peaceful places you can go, and it's hard to imagine it as the site of such fierce fighting.  I have heard people say it's one of their favorite places to visit, and I can't recommend it enough.

There was a tower you could climb with signs explaining the troop movements and the landmarks.  There were also monuments to the various armies and units from each state here.  A warm summer evening, the breeze, and the crickets made it a reflective place to visit.

 Pickett's Charge ended here in hand to hand combat.

After driving through Gettysburg we ended up on some REALLY rural, extremely pretty back roads on our way to Baltimore, MD.  The result was that there was no sign telling us we had crossed into Maryland.  I had to content myself with this sign announcing the Maryland State Route 140.

We crossed the Chesapeake Bay and drove down the Atlantic Coast, stopping for seafood on the way.  Yummy!

Here we are near Chincoteague Island, a place near and dear to the heart of every horse lover.  As you can see, the landscape along the coast is scrubby brush and pine.  It's still quite rural--the cities are mostly a bit inland--and the highways are still not big.  Thus the signs for VA and NC are not great pictures.  They grow a lot of tobacco around here.

North Carolina is of course home to the best university ever.  No trip is complete without a stop at Duke University.  Go Devils!  The campus is lovely.  Alumni are allowed to get married in this chapel, and when I was a student we once had a class on the top of the chapel tower at night.  It was amazing!

The western side of North Carolina as well as South Carolina are beautiful.  The Smokey Mountains, the Blue Ridge Parkway, and amazing weather made this part of the drive pretty fun!

We have finally entered my old home state of Georgia!

 Atlanta is actually not a bad city, and the Varsity fast food joint, pictured here, is worth a visit.  It's your classic greasy fast food--chili dogs, nachos loaded with cheese, curly fries, and orange smoothies are the way to go here.  Be sure to get one of their paper hats.

Driving through South Georgia there is NOTHING but flat, hot, scrubby land for miles--except this enormous KIA plant.  I wonder why they picked this place for their plant.

The town where I grew up is known for its golf carts.  It's pretty normal to see people go through drive throughs in them.  Chick-fil-A is a southern fixture of fast food.  The chain hasn't made it to Oregon.  Most people in Georgia can't imagine living without it.

We spent a few days with family in Alabama at a lake house.  The walk down to the water was pretty steep, but the weather was awesome and the lake nice.

 This was in GA just before we got to Florida.  I had to put it in, of course!

We stopped to get him out of the road.  He was kind enough to pose for a few photos first.

When people think of southern Florida, they think of beaches or CSI Miami.  I think of strip malls with some palm trees.  I get lost every time because all the strip malls and palm trees look exactly the same.  It's neat the first time you go, but it's crowded, hot, and somehow feels very superficial and plastic and phony.  I'm not a fan, though the beaches are nice.  I got eaten alive by mosquitos though!

From here we caught a flight out to Munich!  We spent the rest of the summer getting settled, and I think it's time to get you caught up on life in Germany in the coming posts.

Study hard, and be sure to look up our route on a map in the library!

Pictures!

I know you guys are all like looking at pictures more than reading, right?  Okay, some of you might like to read, too.  Anyway, I thought this might be a better way for me to tell you about the summer.  THIS is why you should all make travel a part of your life, even if it's only in this country!

Warning--VERY LONG post of mostly photos to come.

We left Eugene on June 20th, 2012--just a few days after school got out.

Lone tree in eastern Oregon somewhere.  There wasn't much else.

Yes, I documented each state line.  You'll see I got good at it, and it gives a nice narrative of where we are geographically, as pictures are in order.  It was harder to do when there was no interstate.  Idaho was my first state sign.

Gravel roads, dust, and traffic meant the Wyoming sign didn't turn out great.

Jackson Hole, WY

I saved the Grand Teton/Yellowstone pictures for another time.  Otherwise this would be overwhelming.  Imagine a bunch of pictures of Yellowstone here.


This is the Beartooth Highway, which is closed much of the year (look at the snow in late June!), which winds from the Northeast end of Yellowstone, to Red Lodge, MT.  Worth the drive, but hard on older engines as it climbs to about 12,000 ft.  Sarah (our car) was having trouble cooling down.  Popping the hood and letting icy winds do the trick while we looked at the mountain goats was a good plan!

Montana is called Big Sky Country for a reason.  It's big, empty, and you can see for miles--further than  anywhere I've ever been.  The sky just keeps going.  The pictures below were taken hours apart.  It was an endless drive through nothing.  Occasionally a ranch house.  It was pretty, but it was VERY big and VERY empty.

 The occasional geological formations broke up the long drives of nothing.

As you can see, not much changes once you enter South Dakota (unless you take the detour to Mt. Rushmore, which we skipped because we'd both been and it's out of the way).  That's why they create their own fun.  Wall Drug is a kitsch store that is advertised on signs like these for hundreds of miles.  We spent a half hour there (we spent the night in Wall).  It's a must-see.

Plains like this were once buffalo as far as the eye could see.  These are cattle.

 Like I said, they create their own fun in SD.

 We weren't in MN very long.  I drove for most of it, though, so not many pics.

A true midwestern storm (thankfully no tornados).  This was pretty much the only bad weather of the trip, and it didn't last long.

 Crossing the Mississippi River is quite a milestone after so many miles in the car.

 Yep, there are cornfields in IL.

Up until this point there had been trees, but no forests.  Driving through Illinois and beyond it was easy to understand why they say that once upon a time, a squirrel could go from the Atlantic to the Mississippi without touching the ground.

Indiana was my least favorite state.  The heat (Sarah had no air conditioning) may have unduly biased me.  The lack of scenery compared to previous states didn't help.  However, pictures show that I am, perhaps, being a bit harsh on a state whose capital is India-no-place.  Oh, I meant Indianapolis.

This picture was actually taken on the eastern end of the state (the next day), but I included it in the Ohio bunch for the sake of geographic clarity.

 Cincinnati lies along the Ohio River, which forms the state line with Kentucky.  We spent the night in KY with a friend, but we didn't really get any pictures of the state.  We did walk along the river.  It is a lesson in pollution.  Sad.

 We crossed just a tiny snippet of WV.  We were only there for maybe 30 minutes.  Anyway, this is the last of our states (other than our side trip to Alabama) which didn't border the Atlantic Ocean.

Okay, a future post will include the rest of our adventure--we're almost in PA!  However, since we moved to Germany and that's what you all want to see, I included the section below.

Germany is the land of castles, but the most famous is the iconic Neuschwanstein, inspiration for Disney's Cinderella castle.  Built by Bavarian King Ludwig II ("Mad King Ludwig"), this fairy tale location was built before Bavaria belonged to Germany.  It isn't old like many casltes--it was built during the American Civil War.  Look for a READ poster from this place--one of the CY teachers came here with me!  Do you know who it is?

The best views of Neuschwanstein are from this bridge, but it was crowded (and the castle's exterior is under repair).  It wasn't worth the effort to get a good shot.  Next time!

 From the walk (and it's a walk!) up the mountain to Neuschwanstein--the bus only takes you part way anyway, so we walked the whole thing.

One of Ludwig's other castles from the trail to Neuschwanstein.  You can visit this one, too.  Haven't done that yet.

 Hope you weren't too bored!  Still to come:  pictures of geysers, buffalo, waterfalls, Gettysburg, Duke University, and Florida.  I may be kind and include a few more pics of Germany.

Ms. K