Grand Junction…Brunch at Spoons, pastries at Home Style Bakery, and gelato at Gelato Junction
Grizzly Creek rest area on the way the staying with Dave
Day 2…Colorado and Kansas
Attempted to go to church in Aurora but no one was wthere. 😦 Long boring day driving through long boring Kansas. Stayed in Mulvane.
Day 3…Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas
Delicious corn muffins at Urban BBQ and the Capitol building in Oklahoma City
Route 66 Sites…great soda and the most amazing strawberry shortcake from Pops 66, the Round Barn, the Golden Driller statue and the Blue Whale of Catoosa
In the middle of Tulsa there is an acoustically weird spot called the Center of the Universe. If you stomp on the ground you can hear it like it’s happening right next to your ear. Peach cobbler and apple crisp mix from the Peach Barn in Porter. Amazing!
Talimena State Park
Day 4…Arkansas and Tennessee
Hot Springs National Park…cool forest area with small hikes, the historic bath houses (mostly closed due to COVID), and spouts to fill your empty containers with the spring water (I took a gallon and wasn’t really impressed but there were people there filling up dozens of containers!)
Little Rock Central High National Historic Site…where a major integration incident took place (very moving! And still a functioning high school)
Arkansas State Capitol building and delicious soul food (fried catfish is my favorite!)
Typical Jen…went to Graceland but not to tour Elvis’ house but to see the Disney Archives exhibit…so neat! And I was seriously the only one there.
Memphis sights…Mud Island Park, National Civil Rights museum (it was closed last time I was here too, darn it!) and the Memphis temple
Crazy cool place in a random graveyard called the Crystal Shrine Grotto
Day 5…Tennessee, Kentucky, and Indiana
Casey Jones park. Cute little store and restaurant 🙂
Nashville temple, dinner at Arnold’s Country Kitchen, and the Tennessee State Capitol
Octagon Hall – supposed to be really haunted but only seemed mildly creepy to me
Stumbled upon a cool random aviation park in bowling green
Mammoth Cave National Park…super neat!
Crazy Stonehenge replica and awesome foggy drive through rural Kentucky to get to Lincoln State Park in Indiana where I camped
Day 6…Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Kentucky
My campground at the state park. Beautiful serene and solitary early morning walk through Lincoln Boyhood Home NM
Drove through Illinois to see Gateway Arch. Incredible and terrifying! Got my own pod on the way up thanks to Covid 🙂 And there were fewer people on the viewing platform
Italian food and delicious sugar pie with strawberry sauce at a random corner restaurant
Golden statue of David in Louisville and the Kentucky state Capitol in Frankfort
Day 7… Kentucky and Tennessee
Went to the original Colonel Sanders restaurant but it was just a KFC. And the museum wasn’t open. Sad face
Manhattan project NHP Oak ridge was awesome! The volunteers were floored by how much I already knew 🙂
Great smoky mountains NP…stunning!
Day 8… Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia
This trip had been planned around the National storytelling festival. It got cancelled but I decided to drive through Jonesboro anyway. Cute town. Made me a bit sad.
Brief foray into Virginia and then on to the Capitol of West Virginia
New river gorge…the newest National park is beautiful! pulled into the “campground” which was really a campground but a large field basically. I couldn’t find anyone to pay that night or at dawn when I left. Sorry!
Day 9…West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina
Beautiful misty early morning at new river gorge and Humpback Bridge
Booker T Washington NM…fascinating!
North Carolina state Capitol
Raleigh temple
South Carolina state Capitol
Day 10….South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida
Columbia temple
Congaeee NP…wild and wonderful 🙂
Stopped to work for a bit at a rest stop. There were so many loud birds there! Beach at St Augustine. Stayed at nova family campground in Daytona beach
Days 11 and 12…Disney World
Magic Kingdom is such a beautiful park. I still prefer Disney but there are a few cooler things. ..the mine train ride and the some of lines have interactive things for kids.
Magic kingdom food…the most incredible impossible meatloaf, toffee cake, and cool swirly lemonade at Liberty Tree, frozen mint julep at Casey’s, and fried mozzarella, impossible meatballs/spaghetti and dreamy donuts with strawberry sauce at Tony’s restaurant
I found all of the 50 new golden statues that I could (a few are at Animal Kingdom that I didn’t make it to)
I love Epcot! The New remy ride is awesome!
Amazing food at Epcot…small things all day at the food festival booths and that evening ate at the swanky French restaurant 🙂
Rode the sky tram over to Hollywood Studios for the afternoon. The new railway ride was really fun even though the line was long and excruciatingly hot. The impossible totchos are yummy, the alien saucers ride is just like Mater. 🙂 love me some Tower of Terror!
Went back to Epcot for the cool new nighttime show for the 50th anniversary
TaylorHaps 
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