7AM Eastern:
As we work our way steadily westward, we are greeted by empty roads and overcast skies. So far the only signs of life we’ve encountered have been the few unfortunate souls who have become the first catches of the day for the local variety of police. Fourth of July weekend is starting out strong for the journey, we’ve already made up plenty of time and should arrive in Minneapolis just shy of 4:00PM Central, hopefully without incident.
Welcome everyone, it’s finally upon us, the West Coast Adventure: Redux. As we set out towards Minneapolis I’d like to take a minute to explain our new feature: Travel Updates. Last year one of our primary features was road updates, however this year we will have many days without actual road travel, and therefore had to come up with a new system. Introducing, the Travel Update. Sounds fancy I know, but really it’s jut your all inclusive ticket to semi-live updates across the entire trip. Be it road, rail, or foot, you can expect consistent time stamped updates under this new monicker. Keep checking the updates throughout the day, as each post will be edited to include the latest update, rather than each getting a new post. This way clutter is reduced and each day has a single travel update page, the title of which will reflect the latest post. That’s all for now, but expect a veritable torrent of content in the hours, days, and weeks to come. See you all very soon.
Cincinnati, an old American gem on the southern border of Ohio, is a city garnered by its industrial era achievements, trying to find its purpose in the modern world. Now the 66th most populous city in the United States, at one point Cincinnati was a true American powerhouse, much like Pittsburgh. Its strategic position as a river city made it a center of industry and commerce, rivaling even many of the coastal cities and at one point rising to the 6th largest city in the country (during the 1800’s). Over the years, the rest of the world began to slowly outpace Cincinnati and in the centuries that followed, it has meandered through a variety of different cultural and architectural stages, finally resting on what seems to be a family haven for the middle-class. That being said, it’s old-world glory still shines through in the form of classically built skyscrapers, old industrial river-bridges and the oldest major league team in baseball, the Reds.
The Sleeping Bear Dunes, perhaps one of the most awe inspiring and beautiful facets that the great lake’s state has to offer. Established in 1970, this colossal park is much much more than just a great collection of sand. In fact, in 2011 the area actually won “The most beautiful place in America”, and it’s not hard to see why. A product of the Ice-Age glaciers that once covered much of North America almost 70 million years in the past, Sleeping Bear houses a landscape so dramatic it’s scarcely believable. The sands, some towering almost 500 feet above lake Michigan, gained their impressive stature as a byproduct of the glacier’s cataclysmic force. As sheets of ice over a mile thick crept slowly across the land, they pushed thousands of tons of rock and earth ahead of them, creating moraines upon which lake Michigan deposited it’s vast collection of silt and mud for millions of years. In effect, stacking sand upon ancient glacial hills, creating this indomitable landscape which now draws over 1,000,000 tourists a year.
The world. It’s our home, our backyard, our playground, and our benefactor, all rolled into one. Some people live their lives taking it at face value, walking through life without much regard for the mysteries and majesty our planet holds, cradled in it’s many countries and provinces. A mistake if there ever was one. There’s more to see out there than could ever be accomplished in a single lifetime, but that certainly isn’t going to stop us from trying.
Last year, the two of us traveled from Michigan to New Orleans, from there to Las Vegas, from Vegas to Los Angeles, and then to Seattle and all the way back across the northern United States, home to Ann Arbor. We called a 2009 Ford Focus our home over the course of 25 days. We saw 14 total National Parks, Monuments, and forests, and stayed in some of the biggest and brightest cities the U.S. had to offer, as well as visiting a plethora of other amazing sites and scenes. This year, we’re doing it again, but even bigger. Continue reading Introduction to West Coast Redux
Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Located just north of Akron, Cuyahoga is Ohio’s one claim to national park fame, and quite a good one at that. Established in 1974 as a national recreation area, Cuyahoga was finally recognized as a national park in the year 2000, making it one of the youngest in the country. Originally named “Kahyonhá:ke” by Native Americans, it loosely translates to “crooked river” or “twisted water”; quite an apt description for the wandering streams of the Cuyahoga River, though the name gives no hint of the river’s troubled history. Wedged between the industrial centers of Ohio, the river became so polluted that in 1961 the water itself actually caught on fire, sparking a major shift in environmental awareness, and leading to the preservation of the pristine setting we can enjoy today. Now, the 51 square miles of wilderness draw over two million visitors a year, and for good reason. One of the most diverse national parks ever to surface, Cuyahoga offers a wide variety of natural elements, from towering waterfalls and shattered limestone creek beds, to valley overlooks and winding bedrock caverns.
As seems to be our custom, we arrived in Holland greeted by rain, a particularly forceful wind, and damp sand. A couple weeks back we were here to see the Saugatuck Dunes, but we were met with some rather unpleasant weather and decided to come back later to see the area at its best. Of course, as fate would have it we picked a day nearly identical to the last, with just one major exception. The tulips. Every year this lost slice of the Netherlands is covered by hundreds of thousands of tulips, in just one of many nods to it’s namesake. This colossal blooming is even accompanied by its very own festival, conveniently named: “The Tulip Festival”, dating back over 50 years, it coincides with the peak of color for the bloom, around May 7th – 14th. However, we did not come to this corner of western Michigan solely for the flowers. The Dutch culture and heritage in Holland is some of the richest in the midwest, making it one of the most unique cities in the Great Lakes State.
To most, the name “Saugatuck” may seem completely foreign, you might not even place it in the states if asked to locate it. However, ask a Michigander, and you’ll discover some of the state’s most prominent dunes. Michigan’s many dunes are primarily located along it’s western border with Lake Michigan, the strong westerly winds from the lake blowing massive heaps of sand into the great piles we see today. Over time as the dunes built up, the oldest ones started to become part of the permanent landscape, covered in topsoil and plant life. Locked into position, the dunes support what can almost be described as a shell of earth, a thin slice of life that has deigned to integrate itself into the sandy hills. It is this phenomenon which makes Saugatuck worth the visit, a rather twisted mixture of rough forest trail and unforgiving dunes, some 200 feet tall, it can give any experienced hiker a run for their money; while simultaneously offering more direct and scenic trails right to the beach. With over 1000 acres of land and roughly 2.5 miles of shoreline, spending a day here is easy, even if you don’t get lost. Not that we did.. Continue reading Saugatuck Dunes
6:30AM Central
It’s the final day of the journey. 24 days ago we departed from Ann Arbor on an epic road trip around the country. Many doubted we could do it in the time allotted, even the counter girl at REI didn’t have faith. Today we prove them all wrong. The sun is doing its very best to blind us irreparably as we cruise along the interstate towards Madison Wisconsin. The light is bouncing smoothly off the Mississippi, and the tops of the trees are emitting a gentle glow. A2 is calling our name, and though it’s quite sad to be leaving the road, we’re both ready to be back at least in some capacity. More updates to come.
After a night of rattling AC and torrential rain, we’re headed into Minnesota on the second to last day of the journey. The sole attraction today is the Mall of America, I’m not sure quite what to expect, though I assume it will be beyond hectic. The amount of cops posted up on the highway has increased exponentially as we head further east, as has the road work. The terrain has remained decidedly monotonous, the most interesting thing we’ve seen has been a repair man dangling from a helicopter about 70 feet up trying to repair a massive power line. And corn. More updates to come.
The World As We Know It 