Cross-Country Trip Wrap-Up

Shane with Silvia, our Volvo, that took us on our trip, standing on a corner in Winslow, AZ... Such a strange sight to see.

On February 4th, 2020, Shane and I set off to drive across the USA in our Volvo XC-70 station wagon. We started from our island in Maine, Stonington, and we traveled through 23 states and DC, returning to our home yesterday, March 1.

Places We Visited: Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington, DC, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and Connecticut. (The states underlined are ones I had not been to previously.)

Miles Traveled: 7,906

Here's the whole route.

Click map to enlarge.

Below are some photo highlights if you want the Reader's Digest version of our trip and don't want to bother looking through the last 4 weeks of posts -- some photos are new and some already published on this blog.

Niagara Falls, NY

The St. Louis Arch

In front of Harry Truman's house in Independence, Missouri.

With our sister-in-law, Laurie, in Kansas City, Missouri.

The Scout statue in Kansas City, MO.

Dodge City, Kansas

The Grand Canyon

Hiking in Sedona, Arizona.

Shane walking across the scary Devil's Bridge near Sedona, AZ.

Cleaned bird poop off of  Tippi Hedren's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

And the Oscar goes to... Shane!

That tiny white speck over Shane's right shoulder is the famous Hollywood sign.

In Santa Monica, California, near the Pacific Ocean.

Relaxing in Palm Springs.

At the Alamo.

Dr. Now's office in Houston, Texas, shown on the TV reality series, My 600 Pound Life.

Mardi Gras Sunday in New Orleans.

With our friend Ashley on Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee.

In front of Elvis's home Graceland in Memphis, TN.

Outside the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville.

At Monticello, Jeffersson's home outside of Charlottesville, Virginia.

Day 20 - To New Orleans and Mardi Gras Sunday

Today we traveled from San Antonio, Texas, to New Orleans, Louisiana, which took about 8 hours. We did a quick stop-over in Houston to see the office of Dr. Younan Nowzaradan, also known as Dr. Now, an Iranian-American surgeon, TV personality, and author. He specializes in vascular surgery and bariatric surgery. He is known for helping morbidly obese patients lose weight on the TLC reality television series My 600-lb Life. We are huge fans of that show... no pun intended.

Shane was worried he cheated on his diet too much and didn't make his weight goal this month.

I hope I have finally lost enough so that Dr. Now will perform my skin removal surgery.

We finally made it to the Big Easy after some bad traffic near the hotel. We immediately went out to the nearby Mardi Gras Parade to collect beaded necklaces. We luckily found lots of them discarded in the street.

Finally found Waldo.

Stopped in to hear some music.

Shane had a job interview while we were in town

There is a house in New Orleans, it's called the Rising Sun. 

We had a great dinner at Muriel's... Shane had Shrimp and Grits and I had the Pork Chops.

I believe this guy was in the Dick Tracy comic strip.

We went back to this club after dinner and heard more from another band.

It was quite crowded and the aroma of pot and puke mixed in the air. We decided to call it a night.

Day 17 - Last Full Day In Palm Springs

This is day #17 of our trip across the USA and we are enjoying our last full day in Palm Springs. We started out from our home in Stonington, Maine on February 4 and traveled in our station wagon to the Pacific Ocean (Day 13). On our way back East, we stopped in Palm Springs for 4 nights. Today, we have done even less than we did yesterday, but we are having a nice break from driving in the car. I did manage to get out for a bit to get my hair cut. It was looking too much like a toupée.

Our days of relaxation come to an end tomorrow, as we have to get up early and head further east. Our goal is El Paso, Texas, which is about a 10 hour drive. Tonight we have to do some laundry, repack (so nice not having to dig clothes out of a suitcase), and load up the car. Think we will just get a pizza for dinner.

This is a shot from our webcam pointing out the front window of our house in Stonington, Maine.
I was missing our view early this morning. It is nice to be able to see a live shot from the phone.
What I don't miss is that the low tonight is going to be 8 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Before and 

After

Shane in the backyard of our Palm Springs rental with a post-sunset sky.

Day 16 - Relaxing Day Around the Pool

This is going to be a shorter post than I have been doing on this trip as we are having a down day. We mostly stayed in our rented home in Palm Springs and relaxed most of the day... laying by the pool, reading and eating snacks. We did get up a little gumption late in the afternoon and played a couple sets of tennis. We came back, had a quick dip in the pool, and then got ready to go out to dinner. We have learned you need to make reservations here. We didn't make a reservation tonight and just walked around until we found something that looked good that could seat us. We ended up eating Italian again and sat outside near a very loud and not great Latina singer. It wasn't the best. Anyway, it was a beautiful day. The weather can't be beat here.

I finished the book I was reading(Everything Is Awful and You're a Terrible Person by Daniel Zomparelli) and I am glad it is finished. Not my favorite read. Tedious. Starting a new book called What Belongs to You by Garth Greenwell. Hope it is better. Shane is reading the sequel to Olive Kitteridge called Olive, Again by Elizabeth Stout. I want to read that one too.

Here are also few closer shots of the plants in the backyard. We are getting to see lots of hummingbirds here. They come right up at you. They don't seem as skittish as the hummingbirds in Maine.