A California Yankee: Dawn and Gregg's Spring Fling

Continuing in the same vein. (I included MapQuest screen shots simply because Google Maps was not launched until 2005!)

In May 2002, Dawn and I embarked on a cross-country drive with the stated intention of delivering a car to Dawn's mother in Pennsylvania. (This was the same car we picked up last year on the infamous Four Corners trip, with Dawn sick as a dog and me telling her that Four Corners was en route between Tucson and Los Angeles when it's 220 miles and 3.5 hours out of the way!) Well, the trip was successful, the experience was memorable, and we're both very glad to be home. Here is the trip by the numbers:

Number of states visited this trip: 12 (although Michigan and West Virginia were both for less than 20 minutes)
Previous record: 7 (Our New England tour)
States left to visit: 24
Number of different state license plates seen during the trip: 42 (including Hawai'i)
Total miles driven: 4,382
Gallons of gas: 152
Number of "driving" days: 9
Number of "tourist" days: 3 (Salt Lake, Denver, Chicago)
Number of days in Pennsylvania: 2.5
Longest drive: 666 miles (Sacramento to Salt Lake)
Best drive: Through Arches National Park (near Moab, Utah).
Worst drive: Denver to Kansas City (648 miles in the pouring rain, sometimes with zero visibility)
Most unusual activity: Renting remote-controlled race cars with my brother in Sacramento.
Exceeded expectations: Tie between Salt Lake Temple and St Louis Arch.
Biggest disappointment: Driving an hour out of the way to visit Fallingwater, the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house built over a waterfall in western Pennsylvania, but running late and arriving just after they closed.
Second biggest disappointment: Driving the Trail Ridge Road through the Rocky Mountain National Park (12,000 foot mountains aren't so impressive when you're driving at 9,000 feet). However, I had just bought the Lord of the Rings soundtrack and that was the perfect accompaniment.
Best meal: Morton's of Chicago, in Chicago.
Most expensive meal: Morton's of Chicago, in Chicago.
Most disappointing meal: Morton's of Chicago, in Chicago. (Between making the reservation and arriving at the restaurant, I had gone vegetarian!!)
Best animal sighting: Bison at Antelope Island, in the Great Salt Lake.
Worst animal sighting: A turtle on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. (It was a short sighting.)
Most embarrassing moment: Calling our hotel in Salt Lake and asking them to mail our pillow to us.
Second most embarrassing moment: Getting our pillow at the front desk in Denver.
Most annoying moment: Paying the hotel more for the shipping than the pillow was worth.
Most spontaneous moment: Staying overnight in Moab so we could get up at sunrise and take pictures of the arches.
Best Kodak moment: Full moon rising over downtown Denver at sunset.
Worst Kodak moment: Dawn passing a big rig at 95mph down a steep grade because she wanted a picture of its grill (it had teeth).
Wish we could have spent more time: Sacramento with my brother, Ohio with Dawn's sister, and Chicago.
Wish we could have spent less time: Driving (it's a *big* country!)
Funniest moment: Going to our hotel room to change for dinner, hearing it start to rain heavily, and deciding to stay in for the evening. We later realized it was the sprinklers.
Most awkward moment: When one of the Mormons asked if we had accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour.
Sweetest moment: My niece "loaning" us a teddy bear because she couldn't go with us and wanted him to see the sights.