Back from Vacation: 16 Days, 17 States, 5230 Miles

[Night Hides Not]

Please bear with me, as I'll be breaking this up into multiple posts for readability. Mods, if this is not the location for this thread, feel free to move.

Here is the route we took:

Texas
St. Louis
Erie, PA
Niagara Falls
Cooperstown
Boston (sorry, didn't see any memorials to AOC, that distinguished alumnus from Boston U.)

That covered about the first 5-6 days, the remainder of time was spent between a resort near Harrisonburg, VA,  and side trips to various sites in DC, Virginia, MD, WV, and PA. IMO, we bit off much more than we could chew, a point on which my BIL agreed with me. Our two families met up at the resort, from which the two sisters decided on our adventures.

They did a pretty good job overall, though it entailed far more driving at night than desired. For example, we blew out a tire on I-95 in Providence RI at about 10 PM. GEICO road rescue was great, we were back on the road in an hour.

Let's get this show on the road!

[Night Hides Not]

While driving on the ever crowded East Coast highways, I came to the conclusion that East Coast politicians, no matter the party, are against freedom in general. What's the 20th Century symbol of American freedom? The automobile, of course.

It took us over 4 hours to drive through the NY Metropolitan area! I admit our timing sucked, as it was in the late afternoon. There was no alternate route available, as I was monitoring local traffic channels.

We have bad traffic conditions at times in North Texas, too, but new roads continue to be built as the population expands. The toll system isn't bad, and they now bill you should you not have a tolltag. There are no toll plazas like we experienced in NY, NJ, and other states, which slowed traffic to a crawl, and you had to have cash at many stations.

I saw very little new construction taking place, most was repairing roads that have been overused. The politicians keep talking about infrastructure, with no emphasis on road construction. It's all the sexy stuff like light rail, subways, trains, etc.

[Night Hides Not]

Erie PA to Niagara Falls was a beautiful drive, along Lake Erie. The sheer size of the lake was incredible to us Texans, where there is only one natural lake, Lake Caddo. All other lakes in Texas are man made.

Regrettably, we had no time to stop at any of the wineries and other attractions in the towns along Lake Erie.

Niagara Falls was beautiful, with plenty of activities to keep the kids from being bored.

There's much more to add, such as meeting Thomas Jefferson, and hearing him speak for nearly 90 minutes.



Monticello was simply incredible.

[Sanguine]

Looks great so far!

[Sighlass]

Monticello was simply incredible.

Been many a moons since I last saw it, but yes it is.