Fall 2014 Cross Country National Park Trip (Day 1)

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Day 1 - Oct 8, 2014, Ohio to Luverne, MN

810 miles, the 1st National Park of this trip and 5 states

Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota

 
We had the opportunity to drive across country to hit some National Parks on our trip from Kalida, OH to San Jose, CA for a conference. We were weaving across the country hitting as many National Parks as we could on this journey. And part of that mission was to hit some of the park that were more difficult to get to and some that were much less popular. We had 11 days to get to San Jose for a conference and then our car that has been in storage is getting a "luxury container cruise" over to Honolulu to it's new home. 
 
This blog is retro of the 2014 fall trip as we have had many people ask us to blog our adventures.
 
Here is a map of our Adventure...sweeping the country! 
Our itinerary was decided by how many National Parks we could visit. 
This trip was 5765 miles 17 states and 34 National Parks in 12 days. 
  
 
 
To kick off the trip, we got up around 4am to catch the lunar eclipse and blood moon before we head west.  Great omen for a great trip!



 
 
Good fall colors in NW Ohio!
 

Here is 1 of the 88 Bicentennial barns painted in 2003.












We came into a nice little town called Galena, IL 


Lady Liberty must be on loan..at least she uses energy efficient light bulbs!!!
And we found this!  Not a NP but worth the stop. We toured the house and left a card, as leaving a calling card was traditional during this era.

We saw a lot of pretty colors in the Midwest.
  
Marquette, Iowa housed pretty trees & colors, the mighty Mississippi and Effigy Mounds NM
 
Somehow we forgot to take a picture... This one was taken directly from the internet on the NPS site.  Thank you whoever you were for the very nice picture.
Flowers were beautiful!
 
Ancient Native Indian burial mounds arranged into many shapes.

 
Neat moon!

Some of the trip means driving at night to get as many National Parks as possible. This means allot of planning to get within range of the next park as close to operating hours as possible.
 
We finally called it a night in Luverne, MN 810 miles for the day! 

Needless to say, this trip wasn't centered around a leisurely trip west.  We were on a mission and the time and the miles were flying by.

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