How to hit 48 states - RV-Dreams Community Forum

The Bear II · RV-Dreams Family Member

How to hit 48 states

Barbaraok · RV-Dreams Family Member

A pretty good map that leaves off Olympic National Park (temporate rain forest), Mt Rainier & Mt St. Helen but instead includes Hanford? Really?

Luckily, as full timers, we get to really visit even little known national parks, monuments, etc. like the new Pinnacles National Park.

Barb

The Bear II · RV-Dreams Family Member

Scientist put this together what can I say.....he also made Graceland one of the stops.

Nuclear Reactors and Elvis... that's what they live for!

Russ Ranger · RV-Dreams Family Member

"Nuclear Reactors and Elvis... that's what they live for!

Now that's just plain funny. Made me laugh out loud. Being from Washington state I can say in my 63 years I have never been to Hanford and I don't plan to ever go there. The Olympic National Park, Mount Rainier and Mount St. Helens are all amazing places to visit. Hanford???

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

I was born and raised in Washington state. I helped build the working power reactor at Hanford and also worked in the restricted area for many years. The national parks in Washington are also great, along with many other sites. I have no interest in Elvis. When we hit Memphis we enjoyed Beale Street, Sun Studios (Howlin' Wolf and other blues masters are much more interesting to me than Elvis), and the Gibson Guitar Factory.

NWescapee · RV-Dreams Family Member

This made me laugh! Now I will say there are areas that would be of interest in Eastern WA and I love the COE park in Pasco, along with a visit to the wine country, but anyone who chooses Hanford as the most significant landmark in WA to visit is missing so much that the state has to offer. Maybe he just wanted to shorten the drive by cutting through just the SW corner of WA but even then there's other places I'd rather visit.

-- Edited by NWescapee on Friday 13th of March 2015 04:43:47 PM

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Wow! For Oklahoma it was the Platt Historic District.

I was a resident of Oklahoma for almost all of my 68 years except for nearly 4 years in the Army and almost 2 years in Texas. I've never even heard of the Platt Historic District.

Terry

BiggarView · RV-Dreams Family Member

For those that want to glow in the dark biggrin ,.... thank you, thank you very much.... heeeeeeeere's your map... (just kidding). But heh, scientists are people too! The rest of you, shhhh, your giving away the secret spots. biggrin biggrin biggrin . I haven't looked at the "map" but I'll bet there is something for everybody... just sayin'.

-- Edited by biggaRView on Saturday 14th of March 2015 06:01:50 AM

Barbaraok · RV-Dreams Family Member

biggaRView wrote:
But heh, scientists are people too!
-- Edited by biggaRView on Saturday 14th of March 2015 06:01:50 AM

I'm not sure my students would have agreed. When they found out that my husband was also a chemist they would just roll their eyes and ask "Do you mean you talk about science at home?" as if we were some kind of alien species.

Barb

MarkS · RV-Dreams Family Member

"Most efficient way to see 48 states"?

Once I retire, efficiency and travel are two words I never intend to use in the same sentence.

BiggarView · RV-Dreams Family Member

MarkS wrote:
"Most efficient way to see 48 states"?

Once I retire, efficiency and travel are two words I never intend to use in the same sentence.

Apparent you have some training to go, Grasshopper. Only, what, 300 days to go and you will have to find a way to break that habit. Since you're not retired yet... we let that one slide. biggrin

Brian

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

biggaRView wrote:
MarkS wrote:
"Most efficient way to see 48 states"?

Once I retire, efficiency and travel are two words I never intend to use in the same sentence.
Apparent you have some training to go, Grasshopper. Only, what, 300 days to go and you will have to find a way to break that habit. Since you're not retired yet... we let that one slide.
Brian

Hey, Brian.

I wouldn't be calling Mark "Grasshopper." After all, he already has his RV and tow vehicle.

Terry

BiggarView · RV-Dreams Family Member

Terry, he may have the rig..... but he ain't retired... yet. I'm more worried about Red... apparently I'm on his "list". Do I need eyes in the back of my head? biggrin

Brian

pkhalin · RV-Dreams Family Member

Brian,

If you have eyes in the back of your head, can we put you in the 'alien' class with Barbara?

I think we can all take exception to the list. For Colorado, only Pikes Peak. Yet we've got Mesa Verde, Great Sand Dunes, Rocky Mtn National Park (good times in a flood! I believe NWescapee can also attest to that.), and who knows what else. But as FTers (soon to be), those are maybe good starting points and then branch out from there? Hope to exploit something like that.

Many more happy trails. Yeah!

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

pkhalin wrote:
Brian,
If you have eyes in the back of your head, can we put you in the 'alien' class with Barbara?
I think we can all take exception to the list. For Colorado, only Pikes Peak. Yet we've got Mesa Verde, Great Sand Dunes, Rocky Mtn National Park (good times in a flood! I believe NWescapee can also attest to that.), and who knows what else. But as FTers (soon to be), those are maybe good starting points and then branch out from there? Hope to exploit something like that.
Many more happy trails. Yeah!

Pffftttt...

...you've barely scratched the surface of great attractions in Colorado. We've vacationed in Colorado ever since I was a toddler, and last year, we moved to the Colorado Springs area. Without even referring to "city attractions," there is also the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Royal Gorge, and so many more that aren't classified as National Parks or Monuments.

Like petrified forests? Try Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument. Petrified Redwoods?

Terry

pkhalin · RV-Dreams Family Member

Ok, Terry. Now you're just showin' off. Lol.

Agreed, a lot of stuff here. And how about Utah. You've got the parks, but my favorite is Lake Powell. Now there is an 'OMG'!

pkhalin · RV-Dreams Family Member

Ya know, I went back and read my post and, this may not be necessary but I want to clarify something. I mentioned the flood that occurred in Rocky Mtn National Park and probably treated a bit too lightly. To any that aren't aware, that flood caused A LOT of damage to Estes Park, Lyons, and a lot of others down stream. Way down stream. Homes, business, bridges, roads and a lot of other things had to be rebuilt. Not pretty. So, I didn't want to be glib about that.

Thanks.

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Agreed. Jo and I had a co-worker in Oklahoma City that owned a cabin up around Estes Park somewhere. The river literally took the whole thing out by changing its path. The experience that it brought to many is to always be aware of possibilities for natural disasters when booking reservations for RV parks. While camping near a river or stream can be a beautiful experience, it can change in a hurry. In some areas of the west and southwest, it can be dry as a bone where one is located, but heavy rains "upstream" that can't even be seen can cause flooding to occur. When traveling, try to be aware of "flash flood" warnings.

Terry

Diana and Jim · RV-Dreams Family Member

That seems to happen up that way quite often. Do you remember the 1976 Big Thompson flood, Terry? Something like 140 or so folks lost their lives in that one. Then in 1982, the Lawn Lake Dam failed and ended up flooding Estes Park. Scary stuff, indeed!

Jim

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Diana and Jim wrote:
That seems to happen up that way quite often. Do you remember the 1976 Big Thompson flood, Terry? Something like 140 or so folks lost their lives in that one. Then in 1982, the Lawn Lake Dam failed and ended up flooding Estes Park. Scary stuff, indeed!

Jim

Jim,

Even though we weren't living in Colorado, 1976 was the year that we went to one of our favored National Forest campgrounds in Southern Colorado. While we discovered Purgatoire River Campground in late August of that year, the Big Thompson flood was in our mind because we were near to the Purgatoire River in our campsite. (The Purgatoire River at that point is only about 10 to 15 feet wide and not very deep.) However, the ranger explained to us that the campground was relatively close to the headwaters of the river, so if there were to be any flooding on the Purgatoire, it would be further downstream and heading towards Trinidad.

Nasty stuff, those natural disasters. While this topic of floods may have been a bit off-topic, with Spring right around the corner and the coming of Spring rains, this topic might serve to remind folks to be alert and cautious.

Terry

NWescapee · RV-Dreams Family Member

Terry - we've learned to be a lot more cautious after our experience of being caught off guard by how bad the flooding was in Colorado in Sept of 2013. Been there, done that, don't want to do it again.

I was looking at the map again and the more I think about it, the more unrealistic it would be. So many places to visit and yet some of them would not be where I would want to take an RV at certain times of the year, sorry, have no desire to be in OK during tornado season, you won't find us anywhere north when chains are required or icing is likely, etc. I'm trying to remember which blog I found a much more likely scenario for FT RV'ers, it had a map that went West to East, south in the winter, north in the summer and over a 4 year period made it all the way from CA to NY but with routes north and south that made sense seasonally. Someday, when we're retired and not deciding our travel schedule based on art shows we'll look forward to planning a long trip (multiple years) to make it all the way East and then back to our beloved Western side of the US.