Several goals for this trip:
1. Re-photograph the college campus signs for five colleges
2. Visit the International Peace Garden which has been on my To-Do list for decades
3. See several national parks for the first time along with some spectacular overlooks in the Cascades
4. Visit one friend in Seattle
5. Visit three friends in Salt Lake City area

MISSOURI: Pass-thru at the start of the trip, stopped by my alma mater on the way home since it had been a while since I was last on campus

IOWA: Pass-thru

NEBRASKA: Two college campus signs to rephotograph

SOUTH DAKOTA: One cemetery to look for an Ancestor buried there

NORTH DAKOTA: See the International Peace Garden that borders with Manitoba. Also, this is the last state in which I need to spend a night in a third different town.

MONTANA: Pass-thru

IDAHO: Pass-thru

WASHINGTON: Several national parks and overlooks in the Cascades, rephotograph the campus signs of two colleges, and, visit a friend in Seattle, possibly for the last time

UTAH: Rephotograph the campus sign of one college, and, visit two friends (and missed a third one) in Salt Lake, possibly for the last time

WYOMING: Pass-thru

MISSED VISITING:
--International Peace Garden -- I was there but nothing would be blooming (per the border agent) until July. Been nice if their website homepage stated that.
--Lake Chelan National Park site -- it was quite a bit out of the way and looked unimpressive via Google Street View
--Sherry in Salt Lake City area -- she and husband William already had plans when I was in town

OBSERVATIONS: Some observations made while traveling in this area:

• Small wonder that so many people think of the Midwestern states as flat. Northwest Missouri, western Iowa, eastern Nebraska and southeastern South Dakota certainly fit that description. Great for farm land, though.
• I had forgotten about the lesson learned decades earlier while driving along the rural two-lane highways of southeastern South Dakota -- the locals wave at you as they pass going the opposite direction.
• I had most of the two-lane highways in southeastern South Dakota to myself with few drivers to wave back at
• Arkansas and Iowa are the only states where I have seen that their interstates are made of pinkish materials. That realization made me start thinking about what I have noticed over the decades of certain general characteristics about the states and/or their citizens. Example: New Hampshire people generally drive below the speed limits and have a canoe/kayak tied to the roof of their vehicles. Montana and Wyoming drivers are slow to get re-started after stopping at a stop sign or red traffic light. California drivers, particularly Los Angeles drivers, are the most time-efficient drivers. And so on.
• South DaKota uses a state-wide numbering system similar to how Manhattan Island does -- east-west roads are "Streets and north-south roads are "Avenues"
• North Dakota has hundreds, if not thousands, of lakes (although many are small and appear to be fairly shallow) -- they might challenge Minnesota and Wisconsin for "most lakes"
• North Dakota towns all have a speed limit of 25 MPH on the main highway through town -- I really dislike towns that make the "just passing through" drivers go that slow. I have a rule for that: I will try to avoid spending any money or time in such towns other that "get through the town".
• The International Peace Garden truly does exist on both sides of the border. Drivers from either country can go in between the border gates to turn into the park, without stopping. But, getting out, all park visitors must stop at the border crossing checkpoints and show their ID or passport. Once the border guard believes you that you only went into the garden and not into the other country, your Q&A session is very brief.
• Montana has a river named Clark Fork. While driving along the interstate, I noted (thanks to the highway signs) that the highway crossed Clark Fork ten times.
• North Dakota, at the end of April, was just starting to have its first blooming trees
• Idaho allows 70 and 75 MPH on its highways but only 45 MPH through construction zones. Compare that to neighboring Utah that allows 80 MPH and construction zones are 70 MPH.
• I was truly amazed to see, in dozens and dozens of neatly stacked wooden crates for apples along the highways going east to west towards the north Cascades area (mostly between the towns of Bridgeport and Pateros). Each stack probably had a thousand crates. Hopefully the crates were stacked ready to be filled with apples vs. them filled with apples just sitting on the road side. I would loved to have seen how they were brought there and stacked, and, how they get carried away.
• For several miles west of Burley, Idaho were well over a thousand irrigation sprinklers going off simultaneously. I wondered where all that water came from, and, how they all managed to have such strong water pressure.
• During the daylight hours big trucks on interstate highways tend to bunch together. But in the darkness of early morning they keep their distance from each other.
• Nebraska is the only place I have seen an interstate sign that says "Advisory Speed Limit" and a number below it. They also had an electronic sign before a construction zone that said "Head to Head Traffic" vs. the usual "Two-way Traffic".

The Bests:

1. Leared a new phrase from national park ranger Tom for when a person spends many hours just driving: Windshield Time
2. I learned why the Davenport Hotel in Davenport, Washington, a bit west of Spokane, had vacancies whereas most everything else in the Cascades area were booked months in advance -- this place can barely call itself a motel. Of its dozen or so units, only one other than mine was occupied. The motel is at the intersection of two highways and numerous biug trucks go rumbling through all day and night.
3. There was a business in western North Dakota named "Wyze Acre". I think it had something to do with horses.
4. Mountains of western Montana and northern Idaho are spectacular to look at -- and that understates it!!
5. I was stunned how the corridor along I-90 between Coeur d'Alene Idaho and Spokane Washington was -- I expected much less dense congestion and businesses. It reminded me of the super congestion in the southern part of Idaho from Caldwell to Boise along I-84.
6. Northern Cascades -- truly breathtaking. A sunny clear sky certainly helped!
7. Bellevue Botanical Gardens - numerous colorful (and delicious-smelling) blooms over several acres. And, it was free to all visitors.
8. Spending a night in Minot, North Dakota -- it completed a goal of spending a night in at least three towns of all fifty states from at least three different trips (vs. spending a night in two towns of one state in a single trip). That means I have visited all fifty states at least three times each. The exception is Hawaii -- I had to fly to each of the three islands I visited during a single main trip to the state in February 2020, just before the COVID-19 shutdown began).
9. Touring the Washington University arboretum with my Seattle friend Lisa. We toured this place in June of 2023 which actually is a different season for flower blooms than the first week of May.
10. In Wyoming and Nebraska (and other "flat" states where one can see for many miles around) a person can view thunderstorms that are many miles away -- the dark clouds, the lightning, the sheets of rain. Nice sight until you have to drive under one.

The Worsts:

1. Rained all day the first two days of this trip.
2. So many parks are only open in the summer months
3. The International Peace Garden has nothing in bloom until July :>(
4. The nearly-four-hour 208-mile-drive from Davenport, Washington to the Ross Lake Overlook at 50 or 55 MPH seemed quite a long drive. There were many drivers who driver 5 to 20 MPH below the speed limits on the very winding and hilly two-lane highways.
5. School Busses -- they are quite disruptive to traffic, and, are usually going at rushhour times. They are a bad idea too. As during my grade school days, parents should be responsible for getting their kids to school -- we used car pools with one family rotating weeks to drive the kids to school.

The Totals:

• Miles Driven: 4583
• Driving: 4583 miles in 10 days
• States: 11 -- Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Utah, Wyoming
• Major Universities: 5 (total 541 visited) -- Rephotograph campus sign for all of these: Creighton, East Washington, Central Washington, Brigham Young, Nebraska
• Pictures Taken: 359 (and deleted 31 of them)
• National Parks: 4 (363 or 429 visited): Missouri River (repeat), Lake Roosevelt (at Fort Spokane), Ross Lake and North Cascades (both at the North Cascades visitor center), plus, International Peace Garden

Remaining to Visit by State
• AL - DONE, but would like to revisit Russell Cave in the northeastern corner that was missed in Sept. 2022 trip
• AK - DONE, but would like to visit the Klondike National Park site in Skagway which requires driving through Canada's northwestern corner of British Columbia
• AZ - DONE
• AR - DONE, but could visit to do family history research in two counties -- Pike and Clark -- and possibly at the state-level facility in Little Rock
• CA - DONE, but three parks in the San Francisco area were closed in June 2023, and, in L.A. would like to visit JPL and Mt.Wilson. And, after several attempts, I have still yet to actually get INTO the Lassen Volcanic National Park site.
• CO - DONE
• CT - DONE, but maybe do family history research in the counties of Windsor, Hartford and Middlesex
• DC - A dozen national park monuments to visit as well as the Smithsonian is always worth a visit
• DE - DONE
• FL - DONE, but maybe will visit Orlando area where a high school classmate and a cousin both live, still want to take the ferry at Fort Matanzas, and, re-attempt to visit a couple of places on the Gulf Coast: Sarasota (downtown), Pine Island and the Naples Botanical Gardens
• GA - DONE
• HI - DONE
• ID - DONE, but would like to drive from Boise to Moscow to cover that part of the state to yet drive through
• IL - DONE, but Chicago has some tourist-type places yet to visit, and, might still re-visit counties for family history research -- Vermilion, Winnebago, Washington
• IN - DONE
• IA - DONE, but family was in Dubuque for a couple of decades and a great grandmother was born there although it was before birth records were available
• KS - DONE, but currently live here
• KY - DONE
• LA - DONE, but have some cousins in New Orleans
• ME - DONE, but a couple of counties in the extreme southwestern section of the state had some ancestors living there
• MD - DONE
• MA - Family history research probably never ends for this state, including at NEHGS. Also, a good friend lives in this state, and, I know many fellow Toastmasters in Boston
• MI - DONE, but would like re-photo Univ. of Michigan Ann Arbor (lower penisula) and, in upper penisula determine what (and where) scenic things can be seen in Pictured Rocks National Park and maybe someday ferry to Isle Royale National Park
• MN - DONE
• MS - DONE
• MO - DONE, but might return once more to Lincoln and Pike counties for family history research of the Melvin and Riggs. Also, despite a couple of visits to Grant's farm, a national park site, I have yet to actually enter the visitor center.
• MT - DONE
• NE - DONE
• NV - DONE
• NH - DONE, but could re-visit the three southernmost counties for family history
• NJ - Recently discovered that the Riggs line goes back from northeast Missouri and northern Kentucky into seven counties all across the state north to south
• NM - DONE, but I loved the town of Albuquerque and the surrounding area when I spent four days there in 2004
• NY - Many many places yet to revisit (from the 2015 trip) in this state. Also, need to visit White Plains area (family history research) of Westchester county. A visit to the New York Historical Society (77th St and Central Park West) might be a good idea too.
• NC - DONE, but the Deaton allied families were in dozens of counties in the state
• ND - DONE, but would like to drive from Bowman to Rapid City, South Dakota to cover a part of those states I have yet to drive through.
• OH - DONE, but still have mysteries and loose-ends with the Wilsons and Searls in various parts of the state such as Muskingum county and Medina county and Clermont county
• OK - DONE
• OR - DONE, and N E V E R want to be in this state again (despite never having visited the Oregon Caves national park site in the southwest part of the state). Oregon is my least favorite state to visit. Reasons: one, I-5 is one lane only both northbound and southbound because the right lanes both directions are clogged with big trucks and RV's. Two, a person cannot pump his/her own gasoline (New Jersey being the only other state with that law/rule).
• PA - Family history research probably never ends for this state even though I seem to have "run dry" the places for research in some counties -- the Wilsons plus a number of immigrants from Germany and Switzerland first settled in the state
• RI - DONE, but some ancestors lived in three different towns/counties in the state
• SC - DONE, but have recently discovered a couple of ancestral families that lived a few years in this state
• SD - DONE
• TN - The Deatons in western Tennessee may never be completed. ALSO, would be nice to find the Woody Cemetery property owners at home to photograph the ancestral headstones there, assuming they are still readable.
• TX - Brother lives in this state as does a friend, also, would like to drive from Amarillo through Lubbock and on to San Angelo to cover a big chunck on the state I have yet to drive through
• UT - DONE, but some good friends live in Salt Lake City area. And, it might be worth it to use the LDS genealogy research facilities.
• VT - Family history mystery research in several counties likely will never be complete including finding their cemetery burials and some birth records
• VA - Several first cousins live in this state. Two national parks -- Fort Monroe near Hampton, and, Prince William Forest north of Richmond. Also, the Melvins were from the northeasternmost county before moving to Ohio. Lastly, Ferrum College in south central part of the state could have its campus sign photographed.
• WA - DONE, but a good friend lives in Seattle
• WV - DONE, but maybe the Melvins lived in the early 1800's in the extreme northeastern part of the state
• WI - DONE, but would like to maybe re-attempt (it was pouring rain years ago when there) to visit the House of the Rocks and Taliesman near the town of Spring Green
• WY - DONE
• AB - DONE
• BC - DONE, but would love to drive along the coast of Vancouver Island all the way to Port Hardy, several hours for two ferry rides are needed. Could also visit several places in central B.C.: Prince George, Terrace and Prince Rupert.
• LB - Newfoundland/Labrador is NOT worth a visit because the ferry ride and the three-leg airplane ride each way is expensive and time-consuming (i.e. two days each way). Plus, there really is very little to see on the island beyond St. Johns.
• MB - DONE, although it would have been nice to get a sunrise or sunset photo over either Lake Manitoba or Lake Winnepeg. And I spent the night in only one town of the province whereas I have spent the night in two towns of most other provinces
• NB - DONE
• NS - DONE, although never did make it to the southwestern portion of the island
• NW - The Northwest Territory towns of Hay River and Yellowknife might be worth a visit if I someday drive up that way
• ON - DONE
• PE - DONE, though I did entirely miss the western half of the province, and, I spent the night in only one town of the province whereas I have spent the night in two towns of most other provinces
• QC - DONE
• SK - DONE
• YK - Yukon is NOT worth a visit since it is a long way to get there and really nothing in particular to see or do except the scenery, lousy hotel accommodations in the few towns