2023 Travel Map

 Another year comes to and end so it's time for the annual travel map. This year is added in orange.

We just made the one big loop but it included 9 National Park Service sites, one state capitol and a few other interesting sites. Then, of course, time was spent visiting family and friends.

Summer 2023 trip wrap-up

We're back home from our trip. From the Wisconsin Dells we dropped southwest to Dubuque, Iowa where we got on US-20 west. We took US-20 all the way to Mountain Home, Idaho (other than a short jaunt on US-26 in Wyoming and eastern Idaho). We enjoy the US highways so much more than Interstate highways because life is a journey, not a race. Trip mileage was about 6,300 miles.

I'm attaching a few pictures taken since the last post. We drove through the Grand Tetons National Park because it had been awhile since our last visit and we were experiencing beautiful weather as you can see.

Hell's Half Acre near Casper, WY

Hell's Half Acre near Casper, WY

Teton Mountain Range from
Togwotee Pass to the east

Mount Moran from just east of
the Moran entrance to 
Grand Teton National Park

Tetons from Jackson Lake dam

International Crane Foundation - Baraboo, WI

After doing some visiting with family, we started our trek west toward home. First, a stop in south-central Wisconsin to rest-up for the drive and visit with some friends. 

We visited the International Crane Foundation near Baraboo with one of those friends. The mission of this foundation is to save cranes and the places where they live as well as their migration paths and stopovers. They are very active world wide. Click on the link above to go to their website and read about the amazing work that they do. 

We enjoyed the Cranes of the World habitat walk where you have an opportunity to see around a dozen different types of cranes from around the world, if they don't have themselves hidden in the grass or shelters.  

Here are a few pictures.

Sarus Crane

Blue Cranes

Black Crowned Crane

Red-crowned Crane

Wabash and Erie Canal Park - Delphi Indiana

Over our years of traveling in RVs we've stumbled across some little, seemingly hidden, gems. We did again in north-central Indiana. This was another discovery resulting from trying to find a good RV park to spend a couple nights. It just so happens there is a nice little RV park as part of this gem. What is the gem? It is the Wabash and Erie Canal Park in Delphi Indiana. A great piece of American history.

Most adults have heard of the Erie canal in New York that ran from Lake Erie to the Hudson River but how many have heard of the Wabash and Erie Canal that ran from Lake Erie to the Ohio River near Evanston Indiana? A short section of this canal, and a mid-1800s village, has been preserved at Delphi. The park also has canal boat rides, an Interpretive Center, and a lot of informative interpretive signs.

Note: you can click on a picture to make it larger and then use your browser back button to return.

George Rogers Clark National Historic Park

About 50 miles northeast of the Lincoln Boyhood NM is the George Rogers Clark National Historic Park. I had a vague memory of hearing of George Rogers Clark but knew no details. This historic park is all about memorializing George’s impact on history due to his leading a band of men on a seemingly impossible quest to capture several British forts in the western frontier in 1778-79. The story is incredible and I will not try to tell it here but instead direct you to the website for the text. The park has a great 30-minute film that tells the whole thing in dramatic fashion. The visitor center doesn't have much to offer other than the film, but the large, impressive memorial building has large paintings. The website has pictures of the paintings. We are glad we made the stop to learn this amazing story.

Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial

There are a lot of Lincoln related historic sites and memorials. On this trip we went to the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial. This site was first established in the 1940s and was administered by the state of Indiana until 1962 when congress established it as a national memorial.

The outside wall of the Visitor Center has a wall with large sculpture panels and inside there is a small museum that tells the Lincoln story. You can walk to the Lincoln homesite where there are reconstructed buildings and gardens that give you a feel of the life that Abe had from age 7 when they moved there until they moved to Illinois in 1830. The original site of the cabin has been excavated and walled in so you can see the actual size of the home. This is a stop worth making to see first-hand the environment that you read about elsewhere.

There are a lot of pictures on the NPS site that I link to above so I won't add many here.

Missouri State Capitol

After spending a couple nights resting up near Branson, Missouri, we headed north to tour the Missouri State Capitol. Even though we lived in Missouri for eleven years, I had never toured the Capitol so it was time to do so since we were in the neighborhood.

Both inside and out, this building is pretty typical of the era when it was built in 1917. There is some marble and a lot of murals and paintings. The first floor is setup as a museum in the main area. The overall feel is dark and dingy due to a lack of lighting. They keep the House and Senate Chambers locked but if you take the guided tour you are taken into the House Chamber (not the Senate).