NOTE: this trip needed three maps, each following upon the previous one
The Highways Traveled

Two reasons for this trip:
1. Visit several places to complete some travel goals in the Southeastern states
2. Use up Delta flight credits left over from cancellations during the pandemic

GEORGIA: Visit four national parks plus one college
SOUTH CAROLINA: Visit one national park
NORTH CAROLINA: Visit one national park and one college
VIRGINIA: Visit one national park and one college
WEST VIRGINIA: Visit one college
MARYLAND: Visit one national park
D.C.: Visit two national parks and three colleges


MISSED VISITING:
--University of New Orleans -- decided not to take the 14 hours needed on this trip to include New Orleans on the trip route.
--Jean Lafitte National Historic Park -- same reason as for University of New Orleans
--The four national memorials near the national mall area -- these are all walkable ones in the same area once the car is parked so perhaps I can come back to D.C. once more someday and visit these four places
--Second attempt to visit Greenbelt National Park in Maryland just northeast of D.C. -- it is basically just a park like Rock Creek and Piscataway so figured I could skip it
--Second photograph of the campus sign for the Shenandoah University in Winchester Virginia
--Second attempt to visit the Thomas Stone House in southeastern Virginia on the Delaware Peninsula -- staffing issues thus only open a few days each week and not on the day I was there
--Charles Pinckney National Historic Site -- their website said they are open only a few days each week, presumably due to staff shortage, but the website said the grounds are open daily from 9:00 am. I checked it at 9:08 am and the place was still gated closed on a Monday.

OBSERVATIONS: Some observations made while traveling in this area:

The Bests:

  1. Since I grew up in one of the Southeastern states, I am quite familiar with the wonderful collection of trees and flowering bushes and flowers in the southeast. When I moved to the Midwest, I immediately noticed they were missing from the landscape. I also said that the Midwest does not have "real trees" but only some "very big bushes". Thus, everytime I am back in the southeast, I enjoy looking at the beauty of the land,
  2. I have long known which states and cities are my least favorite ones to drive in/through. Until this trip, I had never really thought about which states and towns I indeed enjoy driving in/through. Vermont, Maine and New York all have an indescribable special feeling while driving there. Princeton New Jersey and Albuquerque New Mexico also have a special "feel" to them although the two towns have totally different feelings to me. I always enjoy driving down two-lane highways that the trees provide a canopy over the road. Roads that offer a spectacular long-distance view of tree-covered mountains (i.e. national forests) are always great to see.


The Worsts:

  1. Road construction projects. As a country, while we believe we are really good that building roads, we are actually very bad at it. It is stunning to me that we have to re-do roads that are just a few years old. We should easily have the technology and know-how to lay down roads that last fifty years or more. Our roads also should be more safe to people and wildlife. We should have found a way to keep animals off at least the major highways. And while driving major highways in the dark, we cannot use our bright headlights because of constant on-coming traffic whose lights are in our vision instead of blocked.
  2. Self-centered drivers who believe they have the right-of-way over everyone else on the road. Uncertain if the 2% of drivers who go way over the speed limits and weave back and forth through traffic to edge further down the road are self-centered or just Dr. Jekylls who turn into Mr. Hydes once behind a wheel of a vehicle.
  3. Boeing 757 aircraft -- the boarding/un-boarding door is behind aisle #6. For me, the main reason I book first class and choose aisle #2 is so that I am one of the first eight off the plane. In the 757, about 100 passengers get off the plane before me. I don't really care about, need or use the other niceties of first class although the extra leg room and early boarding are nice.

The Totals:




Just to list this as of end of September 2023: