back from my cross country road trip

Thanks to all my TLP friends who gave me suggestions in the thread I posted a month ago. I really did take note of them all, adding them to the planning journal entries I wrote and referred to during my trip. I can confirm, like Courtney @bestcee said, that Love's Travel Stops are the best. And I loved meeting Farrah @FarrahJobling in Denver. I forgot to ask if I should share the selfie we took here though; feel free to do so Farrah if you'd like. I thought of Karen @Karen as I was driving past you too. Seeing a Great Lake or two was something I especially wanted to do, and since I was avoiding toll roads (I think that's why) I had several opportunities to see Lake Erie. Albuquerque, The Grand Canyon, the California coast, and Niagara Falls were the highlights for me.

I meant to check in the TLP forum a few times during my trip, but inexplicably, even though normally I have a tab open in Safari on my phone constantly, always logged in, the first time I tried to visit the forum on my trip, it had logged me out. My computer also keeps me logged in so I don't know what my password is. I have it written down in my house, but not memorized.

Here's the first of many pages I'll probably be making about this trip. Although I have already journaled about it daily during the whole trip, so I'm not sure I'll make a separate album.

 

Looking back at my journaling, which includes screenshots of Google Maps I was on 80E when I entered Ohio. Then, at a pit stop south of Toledo (I didn't realize how close I was to Toledo until I looked at the map again just now), having tired of the tolls and wanting to the see the Lake, I searched for a restaurant near it and chose Erie Steak & Seafood in Lorain. I think that was when I turned on "Avoid Tolls" in Google Maps and for the rest of the trip enjoyed many lake views and more scenic highways. After eating a yummy but overly charred salmon wrap at that restaurant we headed southeast to the Cleveland suburb of Macedonia because I had chosen a hotel in close proximity to the Cuyahoga state park. Simply because I had walked in a lot of city and not much wilderness. Unfortunately, it rained A LOT and we never made it to the park. But the next day, we continued driving near Lake Erie for the remainder of its length, stopping a couple more times.

 

In part, yes. In part, no.

I love cities and was very excited to see it.

Originally I hadn't intended to stay in downtown though, knowing how hard it is to navigate a new city, but when I was searching the hotels.com app, I was enticed by a great deal at The River Hotel on the Riverwalk. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't a great hotel either. First, it's extremely stressful trying to get to check in, with nowhere to park. Then I asked for a high level floor thinking it would be a good view and was told the room I had originally reserved isn't available high up, only small rooms. I said I didn't care about the size of the room, as long as it has 2 beds, which is true. I don't want to spend much time in hotel rooms; I want to be out exploring. But this was the second tiniest room of all 17 hotels of this trip and the view from the tiny window was not as impressive as a few other cheaper hotels where we stayed that had huge windows from which I could see expansive scenery and sunsets and sunrises.

I can't really fairly judge Chicago. We were only there for about 16 hours. But it rained almost the entire time, which I don't know if that's to be expected a lot? Rhiannon did like the deep dish pizza we got from Giordano's. And the river walk is nice, and I can't blame Chicago for my accidentally walking away from the Lake instead of toward it as I had meant to.

I love cities. I grew up in San Diego and then lived in L.A. But I didn't go downtown much. I think maybe this taught me that what I love is a metropolis, not necessarily the downtown area of huge cities where parking is difficult and often involves scary multilevel parking garages several blocks from your destination, and there's so much dirt and noise.

But I'm glad I went and satisfied my curiosity, and I would go again!

 

I wish I hadn't accidentally unchecked "Avoid Tolls." It's annoying having to repeatedly slow down and figure out how the next toll booth is going to work and which one I need to enter.

I wouldn't mind seeing more of the Great Lakes. I was especially impressed by the information about them contained in a sign by Niagara Falls. It explained how the water progresses through them, how long water can stay in each lake (some for decades, others it moves much faster). But I was kind of surprised at my reaction to Lake Erie. It's impressive that it's so huge you can't see the opposite shore, just like the ocean. But it's also so quiet and inactive. I think I like the wildness of the ocean more. Perhaps just because that's what I'm more familiar with.

 

I loved Niagara Falls. It's funny because I thought I was going to be more impressed by seeing a Great Lake but it was the other way around. (See my previous post about my reaction to Lake Erie.) The roaring of the rapids and the breathtaking crashing of the falls is exhilarating. I felt similarly about seeing the Grand Canyon and the huge mountains as we drove out of Utah into Colorado.

Rhiannon doesn't like to walk a lot so on the afternoon we arrived in Niagara Falls, we only walked from our hotel (I recommend it for easy walking access to the Falls at a moderate price: Comfort Inn The Pointe) to the Falls, up on the observation pier, and then rode the trolley. But I got up early the next morning while she was still sleeping and walked further, including across to Goat Island and the viewing balcony on the other side of the Falls. It was wonderful seeing it in the coolness of the morning and having it nearly all to myself!