Road Trip 2010: The Summary.

Well then.  The trip is over.  What did I actually see, accomplish, and take note of?  Well, let's see how far this list actually goes.

First, the logistics.

Days gone:  39.
Miles Driven:  10,914. 
Hours Moving: 216.
Average Hours driven per day:  5.5
Average miles per day:  280.
Days of rain: 3. (incudes the last stretch from Sanger to Houston).
Tanks of gas: 33.
Gallons used: 392.
MPG: 27.9
Average Gas price/gallon: $2.93
Highest Gas price/gallon: $3.39 (Arcata, California)
Oil Changes: 3.
Nights Camping: 8 (average camping price $20.06/night)
Hotels/Motels: 18
Average price per hotel/motel stay: $67.77 ( Priceline exclusively, usually day of)

Dams:  3. (Grand Coulee, Flaming Gorge, Hoover)
States: 13. (TX, NM, CO, UT, AZ, NV, CA, OR, WA, ID, MT, WY, OK)
State License Plates seen:  40.
Canadian Plates:  4. 
Baseball games: 15.
Baseball Stadiums:  16. (Toured Safeco Field, Seattle, WA.  Mariners were at Yankees that day).
Canadian Breweries:  1.
Aircraft Carrier Museum Tours: 1.  (USS Midway, San Diego.  Awesome!)
Volcano craters: 2.

National Parks and Monuments:  13.
Visited the highest National Park Ranger Station (Rocky Mountan NP, 11976 FT).
Stamps in my Passport to NP Book:  38. 
Crossed the Continental Divide 16 times.

Drove the Million Dollar Highway.
Drove on Historic Route 66.
Drove the Road to the Sun (Glacier NP in Montana).
Drove across the highest paved road in Canada. (Kootenay Skyway, Highway 3, summit 1774 metres).
Drove less than 200 miles on Interstate Freeway.

Got car searched twice in Canada, in and out, and spent more time in Customs than Canada itself.  Evidently Texans use brass knuckles to fight off bears at night while camping.

Drove on approximately 96% of Highway 101 from San Diego, California to Olympic NP in Washington.
Rode bike across the Golden Gate Bridge.
Drove across Tacoma Narrows Bridge, Seattle.

Completed 173 miles on bike over three days (July 31- Aug 2) including three passes:  Vail, Tennessee, and Fremont.

And how much did this cost, you ask?

For the entire trip:

Gas:  $1,150.
Lodging:  $1,220.
Food:  $1,600.
Other:  $550.

Total for the entire trip:  $4,520.
Daily Average:                $116.

And I'd do it again.  I saw the best national parks this nation has to offer, and I can't tell you how majestic, unique, spectactular, and just awestriking they are.  Take the family.  There's definitely one within a day's drive.  I can't tell you what my favorite park was; hard to choose between the Rocky Mountain NP, Grand Teton, Yellowstone, Sequoia, the Grand Canyon or the Painted Desert.  Or Glacier.  Or Olympic.  See?

You'll just have to visit them yourselves.  I did.  And I will never forget.  Just awesome.