In August of 2011, I headed across the country with my husband, two kids, and chihuahua in our 1985 VW camper van. We drove and camped through southern Canada, spent the fall in Maine and then explored down the East Coast to the Forida Keys, along the Gulf Coast to Texas and then north through the Desert Southwest to home. Our 13,000 mile, six-month-long journey led us through twenty National Parks, National Monuments, Historical Sites and Seashores. We experienced an amazing diversity of landscapes, history and culture while exploring the granite-lined forests and waters of Maine, the streets of Boston and New York, the warmth of Florida beaches, the swampiness of Louisiana, the cool depths of Carlsbad Cavern, and the dry deserts of the Southwest. We saw cross-sections of the economic strata of this country reflected in how people live; the quiet neighborhoods of Newton MA deemed the safest city in the U.S., the shacks of battle-torn Juarez Mexico across the river from El Paso, the brownstones of Jersey City, the tents and dilapidated campers of the Appalachians, the high-rise apartments of Washington DC, the uber-mansions in Atlanta, and houseboats in Boston. We saw a staggering variety of wildlife; manatees, raccoons, dolphins, alligators, crocodiles, owls, portuguese-man-of-war, sharks, bioluminescent plankton, sea turtles, iguanas, lizards, and more fish and bird varieties than we can name.
Badlands National Park, SD
Ontario River, Ontario, Canada
Mount Mansfield, VT
Acadia National Park, ME
Castine, ME
McGlatherly Island, ME
Minute Man National Historical Park, Concord, MA
Boston Harbor, MA
9/11 Memorial, Jersey City, NJ
Statue of Liberty National Monument, NYC, NY
Washington D.C.
Colonial Williamsburg, VA
Wright Brothers National Memorial, Kitty Hawk, NC
Hurricane-ravaged Cape Hatteras National Seashore, NC
Blueridge Parkway, Asheville NC
Great Smokies National Park, TN
Jekyll Island, GA
Hunting Island, SC
St. Augustine, FL
Cape Canaveral National Seashore, FL
Florida Keys, FL
Everglades National Park, FL
Everglades National Park, FL
Sanibel, FL
U.S.S. Alabama, Mobile, AL
Breaux Bridge, LA
Breaux Bridge, LA
Carlsbad Caverns National Park, TX
White Sands National Monument, NM
Canyon de Chelly National Monument, NM
Moab, UT
