7,313 Miles, 12 National Parks

After nearly seven weeks on the road, we arrived home tired and dirty, glad to see our own shower again after spending the night in a highway rest area in Connecticut. We left Shenandoah in the morning taking Skyline Drive through a gorgeous spring landscape of blooming mountain laurel and wide open vistas into the valley below. Looking at the map, we were deep in Civil War country so we decided to stop at Antietam battlefield. It is a deeply moving hillside, this beautiful and terrible place. Antietam (as you'll remember from your U.S. Civil War history) was the bloodiest of the Civil War battles with more than 20,000 men killed in twelve hours. According to the National Park Ranger, it is  the best preserved of the Civil War battlefields; no Antietam McDonald's or Walmart. We sat in on a ranger talk (these talks are at all National Parks) and, for once, the ranger was a gifted speaker who cared passionately about his topic. We spent about three hours wandering around and knew if wasn't long enough. We decided we would read more history and visit more of these special places in our travels.

We continued to drive northeast and were probably within range of making it home in the wee hours but we were simply too tired. About 10:00 p.m. we pulled into a highway rest area to use the facilities and talk about what next. When we came out of the building, we saw a bunch of big RVs parked in a small section of the parking area that was a little back from the road. Well, why not? We drove the speedy Roadtrek between two big bus-types (called Class As) and were somewhat protected from the highway noise. Next morning we were up by 5:00 and on the road, home by about 10:00, feeling like we'd spent the night sleeping in a highway rest area.

So, here's the trip numbers:

7,313 miles
7 weeks
12 National Parks and Monuments
2 State Parks
1 County Campground
1 Walmart

... and home at last:

countless loads of laundry
7 tomato plants
6 basil plants
2 parsley plants
3 cucumber plants
1 sage plant
1 dill plant
1 eggplant
2 pumpkins
many lettuces

Photos