Inspired by True Dough (no poll) what kind of travels across the USA have you done. Especially, say, 500 miles or... [View all]

..and how did you travel? What did you want to see. Whom did you want to visit? Or was it work travel?

🚨This is long! I love reading details of trips, and encourage you to share.

My first big trip was w my sister, and one cousin as a ?16 yr old was to see the Cherry Blossoms by the Tidal Basin in DC! Glorious!
I don't remember anything else about it, other than we had a good time, but I had a photo of my sis, and cousin sitting on the grass in our coats, and tossing a rolled up aluminum "ball" ?from lunch to each other.
By train bc I just remembered I had to read a book for 😑 English class, and I was behind! There I was on the train - resentfully reading. I didn't like very many of "The Classics" much for school. I devoured SF, and certain science books at home.

FYI:
Waaaay more recently DC itself puts out a on line dedicated map of all the different types of flowering cherry trees, where, and a general idea of their blossoming cycle that year. It's really cool!

Next big trip was to Georgia by plane. We flew down through a storm to land in a rainy Atlanta airport. Visited a friend. Saw the creeping kudzu(!!!) from 'Lanta to Athens, etc. LIke a Sci Fi movie! Saw Stone Mountain from a distance, but didn't yet know it's infamous reputation to many of us Northerners, and probably almost all Black people who know of it.

My sis and I went to Boston for 2 days by train, and back by bus. In late October. We were cold in our coats, while Bostonians some strolled by the Charles River in shorts and tees! Visited a lot of sights. Passed by a famous Publishing House, ?Little Brown & Co. .And ?Havard grounds. Saw plaques of the Underground Railroad.
This may have been when we also went up to get tix the night The Who were playing at the Biston Garden! Or that was a separate trip.

I finally at 26 after watching a PBS special about our National Parks in '79, and how encroaching suburbanization & industry posdibly would bring trouble- I "mentally jumped up", and thought I have go there now"!!
This was Feb?
I planned , and went by bus. This was a 2 week bus pass: off & on as many times as you wanted! Slept overnight in the bus, or later in hotels. Going westward at night The Big Dipper hung in the sky.

I made enough good money to save up to visit the high desert of The Navajo & Hopi Nations w a friend I met up with in Flagstaff, and we rented a car for 2 days, went to Canyon de Chelly the next day, and got to Monument Valley by mid afternoon. Took the 17 miles self tour. It was so astonishingly beautiful. We slept overnight in our sleeping bags, and saw The Milky Way bc the moon had set by 3AM when we both happen to wake up! In thst landscapevit arced over likec2/3rds of the sky! We returned after sunrise, and parted ways back in Flagstaff.

I headed to San Francisco. What a wonderful city! Had so much fun. Saw so many different areas, and sights I researched to see! Of course, rode the trolley several times!! Ate dim sum in their Chinatown. Stood outside a Punk Music Club bc I think couldn't get in to hear a band. This was '79 in full punk/new wave swing across the country by now. Could still hear them from outside.

The funniest thing was visiting that famous park where the big Art Museums were. At one The King Tut exhibit was on display. You know there had to be Crowds for that! 😄 I'd seen it already at our crowded Metropolitan Museum of Art. So at the other museum was "5,000 years of Korean Art". That one didn't have many visitors so it was easy to spend time looking at all the beautiful items. Bought the exhibit book, too.

Yes, I was nervous a bit about earthquakes before I decided to plan it in my itinerary; but the (hopefully only, and last ) earthquakes I've ever felt were here in NYC! Go figure. 😄

Visited my cousin in LA, no big wish, I think to visit it other than to see her, she drove me around to see things which was fun. Caught a sweet little lizard one morning in the bathroom sink to gently take it outside (and luckily it didn't loose it's tail).

On one of our drives we passed by one edge of Echo Park. About a block distance away for measure there was a pond with the tallest kind 4 ft high of lotuses 35+ bright shell-pink of them in full bloom. I fell in love w them as a tween from a picture in a science book. This was a glimpse of Heaven!

I went back to Arizona to visit The Grand Canyon from Flagstaff by bus, but couldn't stay overnight (had to book fairly far in advance). Disappointed at first when I arrived. WHY?! How could I be?

Well, at noon the light was flat, except for the beige sand ground, and nearest next level dull reddish rock formations below us - everything was in shades of blues, purples, pale blues, grays and whites.
Where were our glorious warm, glowing colors??!

Ohhhh, well once the sun got to a relatively lower angle about 3PM then they emerged! We had leave at 4PM but at least I had some time seeing them. So magnificent!

Took a tour by Grayline back in Flagstaff. Visited the Hopi's Homegoing Ceremony for The Kachinas. Then two different looking canyons.

Visited my dad's friend's in Alberquerque.
They took me to Old Town. Saw the Native American outdoor craft market place.

Then finally back home to NYC.

I did a partly similar trip the next summer '80. Different start. I headed by bus to South Dakota via going north from Alberquerque through New Mexico (lovely mountains) for a special Environmental and Native Rights gathering that took place on a farmers ranch for several days. I had been involved a bit with it previously. I went for the 2nd to last day. Stayed in Rapid City. Took a tour of The Black Hills.

Then visited Colorado Springs. You could see Pike's Peak right from one of the main streets! Took a tour of the Air Force Academy, and Garden of The Gods: beautiful rock formations.

I visited my cousin studying in Denver, CO. Bc his roommate took the car, and after he tested my ability to handle being on a motorcycle, by making a short trip to the bank with me, we had lunch, and headed off to The Rocky Mountains! 😮 A mix (especially heading back down the mountains) of thrills, and fear!

First we stopped at Red Rocks ampithearter! What beautiful formations. Amazing place for music. Then Golden, an old time mining town.
We were actually looking for the Coors "Red Zinger" annual bike race but we never found it.

We went to a lake about 10,000+ ft up. Looking south west we saw Mt Evans still capped with some snow. Wow.
But more amazing, to our north west "blued" by distance was a line of snow capped peaks. This was the
Continental Divide where all rivers from that area run either West, or East. Majestic!

Finally he took me higher up where we stopped to see a narrow at the top, broadening outward into a triangular shape a vast valley. It was roadless, and filled with thousands of pine trees! So wild, literally, seeing nature like that. A "deep carpet" of greenery.
Then back down to his house.

I went back to Flagstaff, and took the Grayline tours again. Visited my dad's friend's again, and then home to NYC. I left at night. From the bus window in the south distance; lightening danced.

A few visits to Phillidelphia when my sis was at University. I liked it enough that we went back a couple of times after she returned to NYC. Of course m, I did have a Philly Cheesesteak at least once.

Since then a few trips to East Lansing for a convention by bus. Many trips to DC for Marches, rallies, and others for pure fun.

I'll feel extra lucky if I get to Chicago, a city I've wanted to visit but income loss 30 yrs ago hampered bigger trips than DC.
We'll see.