USA on wheels – part 2

Our second journey on wheels in North America took us across the north from Seattle to New York, crossing into Canada at both the western and eastern coasts.

This journey took us from Washington State to British Columbia, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Ontario, Quebec, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York.

And for the statistics.

In 30 days we slept in 16 different beds.

Because our journey took us through Canada as well as USA, the distances and fuel consumption was measured in miles/gallons and kilometers/litres, so some conversion was necessary. We travelled 4846 miles (7799 kilometers), averaging 161.5 miles per day (260km per day). We used 529 litres of fuel at an average cost of $AUD1.22 per litre.

It was grey and cool in Seattle, but the weather cleared as we drove north to Vancouver.  We enjoyed Vancouver so much that we extended our stay there. We then drove to Whistler for brunch and continued through the Fitzsimmons Range, admiring the pine forests and lakes, then turned south along the Fraser River to Lytton and Hope.

We drove east along a mining corridor of Canada, past Copper Mountain to Crawston where we stayed on a vineyard run by a German family, and we drank some beautiful crisp white wines.

Travelling south, we crossed back to USA and headed to the Grand Coulee Dam and through the wheat belt, on long straight roads to Missoula. From there we crossed the Rocky Mountains to Wyoming.

There were bike riders everywhere as we visited Little Bighorn – the site of Custer’s Last Stand. We had reached South Dakota with a million bike riders who were there for the 75th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.

We joined bikers when we visited Devil’s Tower, Crazy Horse rock carving, Mount Rushmore, Wall Drug and the Badlands.

We continued east across the prairies of South Dakota and Missouri, crossed both the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers and passed acres and acres of wheat and corn crops.

The land greened and became undulating in Wisconsin, where we visited Frank Lloyd Wright’s warehouse for AD German in Richland Center, and then continued to Chicago to see more FLW houses.

Next stop was Detroit, where we marvelled at Henry Ford’s vision and saw the emptiness left by the demise of the USA car industry.

Back to Canada – to see the amazing Niagara Falls set amongst glitz that rivals Las Vegas, then to the cities of Montreal and Quebec for a little French-Canadian culture.

We followed the Freedom Trail in Boston, learning about the beginnings of ‘Western civilisation’ in the Americas.

We popped into Rhode Island for lunch then onto Milford in Conneticut before the last few miles to New York.

Evan & Steph were ready to greet us in New York and show us the city they had just made their home!