Blog

Did you miss my previous posts leading up to this one? Check them out here:
Background to my road trip
Part 1: Georgia & Tennessee
Part 2:  Kentucky & Indiana

Chicago!

I made my way from Indianapolis to Chicago, IL and saw some incredible windmills along the way.  You don’t realize how big they are until you’re up close to them.  Holy cow!!  What a site! 

Once I arrived in Chicago, I dropped my car off at a parking garage nearby and checked into my accommodations:  Hostelling International Chicago (aka HI-Chicago). This was a great place to stay!  It’s located in downtown Chicago for about $33/night, but beware of the parking fees in the area.  I spent more to park my car (around $100) than I did for my lodging, but it isn’t necessary to move your car once you park it.  If you fly or come in on a train, this would eliminate that additional expense. 

This hostel sees so many international visitors that they have at least six clocks on the wall with different time zones for their guests.  The hostel also had some great mural artwork in the stairwells, so creative and talented!  Each area had its own theme and not all US based.  I elected to have a shared bunk bed room (female only) and I had seven roommates.  Most of them were from outside of the US and didn’t speak English regularly; one girl was from Australia and the majority were from various parts of Europe.  What was fun was the last morning I was there, I went to the cafeteria for breakfast and some of the girls saw me and invited me to sit with them.  They spoke English so I could follow along and they were talking about Harry Potter.  I know nothing about HP, but it was really neat to hear people from another country be as excited about the new books as my friends back home.  Just a good example that we’re all similar, regardless of where we are from (so why can’t everyone get along?!?).  

I bought a City Pass so I would be able to go to all of the mainstream tourist sites without having to stand in long lines and have my ticket ready to go.  Sometimes I like to do this in big cities and sometimes it doesn’t make economic sense.  For this trip, it did.  I visited the Adler Planetarium, Museum of Science and Industry (aka MUSI), Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower), John Hancock Center, Museum of Contemporary Art, Art Institute of Chicago (Ron Lichtenstein had an exhibit during my visit!) and the Shedd Aquarium.

I really enjoyed the Art Institute because there are several pieces of artwork that I remembered from my high school Humanities class, such as American Gothic, some Picasso, Van Gogh and Monet.  My teacher would have been proud that I remembered them, LoL!  There also was this fine piece of art… I truly thought someone forgot to move the boxes, LoL!

The Willis Tower has an audio tour and provide the headsets for you, so make sure you grab that when visiting!  The speed in which you reach the top in the elevator is quite impressive!  All of these sites were interesting in their own way and I am glad I had the opportunity to visit them.  One could always spend more or less time in museums depending on their interest.  I chose to spend 2-3 hours at each of the sites so I could take it all in while I was in the area.

In addition to the above, I also visited the famous Bean, the Navy Pier and stopped by the Millennium Park Amphitheater for an unexpected show by the Navy’s symphony.  It was free to attend, so I stayed a little while to enjoy their excellent music.  What a great surprise!

I’m a small town girl, think lots of cows, horses and agriculture, with very minimal, like zero, experience with public transportation.  No trains, subways or buses where I am from.  Chicago is based on being able to use the public transportation, so me, my phone, friendly strangers and maps got me around quite well.  I didn’t die!  That was a big win for me, my first time in that big of a city by myself, and I fell in love with how easy it was once I figured it out.  So if you don’t have experience, don’t fret, it really isn’t too bad and much easier than trying to drive around.  Similar to New York City.  You can usually find a ticket that will cover the public transportation for a set number of days at a discounted rate – get one.

Side note:  A very, very rude train station woman provided me with my favorite words from my Chicago trip: “I just got here and haven’t had a chance to breathe yet, so that’s why I have this attitude.  It’s not you.” 
(That makes everything better, LoL!)

Southbound!  Where Should I Stop?  Detour to Saint Louis, Missouri!

Chicago was my most northern destination, so from there, I turned south to head back home to Florida.  Of course, I had no intentions of going the exact same way because that would be kind of boring to see the same sites.  I even decided to get off the interstate and take some back roads.  Illinois has a ton of agricultural land and small villages, which was slightly a surprise to me since I hadn’t ever been to this state before and Chicago is all I have ever heard about.  It’s amazing how easy it is to know very little about our own country.  I know I’m only familiar with a small amount of my own state (this is a big reason a lot of people are doing “trips on a tankful” and “backyard vacations” to explore their home areas). 

Fun side stop:  Rantoul, IL and had a nice meal at the Red Wheel Pancakes/Steak restaurant.  Pancakes AND Steak!  Ha!  Photo as proof, LoL!

I was cruising down Interstate 55, on my way to New Orleans, Louisiana, when I saw the sign for St. Louis, MO.  I hadn’t thought about it prior to making my trip, but when I saw the sign, I remembered the Gateway Arch!  I always thought it would be neat to go to the top for the view!  I didn’t have any timeline on where I needed to be for the remainder of the trip, so I took the detour westbound to St. Louis! 

I only spent a few hours in St. Louis and the traffic was crazy!  And it was raining.  When I say raining, I actually mean a torrential downpour.  Cats and dogs were coming down.  At one point, I was trying to sprint my way from the Arch to my car for fear that I didn’t put enough change in the meter.  There I was, trouncing through the lawn behind the arch, barefoot, in a poncho thing in a severe thunderstorm. Haha, a kid looked at me like I was a homeless person.  I made it though, LoL.

At the Arch, I went up in a little tram car type of thing.  That was an experience in itself, as was coming back down in it.  The doorways aren’t big enough to step through, so you have to crouch to get in.  There are 5 seats inside and you are pretty much touching each person on both sides of you.  If you’re claustrophobic, there’s no way you can get in there for the 3-4 minutes you have to ride in them.  It was TIGHT!

Despite the rain, the view was awesome!  630 feet in the air, looking down on the Courthouse, stadiums and the Mississippi River.  I would love to go back at night sometime to see the view then too. 

The Arch takes its name from the city’s role as the “Gateway to the West” during the westward expansion of the United States in the 19th century, which is why the Museum of Westward Expansion*** is located there as well.  I took some time to tour the museum (besides, what else did I have to do in the rain?) and it was pretty cool!  The Clark character moved and talked!  It was a fun extra to the visit!

After I dried out, I jumped back on the road and continued my journey south! 

Back on the road!

Due to my detour to St. Louis, it was getting pretty late so I made a stop for the night in Sikestown, Missouri at a generic hotel to rest my weary, nearly-drowned head.  In the morning, I got back on the road and headed south to Memphis, Tennessee.  I wanted to make a quick pit stop here since my Dad and a family friend are HUGE Elvis fans.  I found Memphis to be rather dirty (a guy was peeing outside the gas station in the broad daylight!😲) and the whole area gave me a creepy feeling.  I’m sure there are nice areas that I didn’t make it to, but all of the places I drove around or stopped were not places I want to visit again.  I drove by Graceland, but there were lines forever long, so I decided to keep going.  I found another generic hotel for the night somewhere south of Memphis.  (There was no 🎼”walking in Memphis“🎼 for me!)

Next Stop:  New Orleans!

I wanted to make a short day visit in New Orleans, if for no other reason, to say I have been there.  Of course, it was raining.  I think the rain followed me all of the way from Chicago to St. Louis to Nawlins.  Nevertheless, I made the best of it and did some of the touristy things:  ate at the famous Acme Oyster House in the French Quarter (it has been featured on TV), walked the streets and enjoyed a beignet and coffee (except I don’t like coffee, but it seemed like the thing to do, LoL) from the well-known Café du Monde.  It was a good visit and somewhere I would like to go back again when I have more time – and without the rain. It’s a little smelly when it rains, LoL.

Almost Done!

I stopped in Mobile, Alabama area to rest for the night and enjoyed a can of Spaghettio’s!  Classy, haha! 

After a good night’s rest, I made my way back into Florida and stopped at Big Lagoon State Park to visit a buddy of mine, Geoff.  We met in 2006 when he was on my interview panel for my first full-time job with the Florida Park Service (FPS), so it was fun to be able to stop by and visit him at his new-to-him park.   

Big Lagoon State Park is a nice park with a lot of fun activities to do, such as swimming, hiking, kayaking, camping, fishing and boating.  One of the major attractions is birding.  It happens to be a gateway for the Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail, making is a very popular place to visit to see some amazing birds.  If you’re in the Pensacola area, be sure to swing by!

Next, My Parents!

My Mom also works in the FPS system and was the Park Manager at Camp Helen State Park near Panama City Beach (PCB), FL, which was a part of my trip plans to visit few a few days.  PCB is around four hours from my home in the North Central Florida area, so I rarely had a chance to visit them when I was working as a Park Manager at a county park.  Now that I was a deliberately unemployed, full-time student with time to travel, I got to visit with them!

For fun, to keep the tempo of my trip, it rained the whole time I visited them, LoL.  Since the water was too choppy to go fishing on my Dad’s boat, we decided to have a movie day.  Hunger Games, Mirror Mirror and Letters to Julia were on the menu!  Not what I had planned for my visit, but I enjoy getting to spend time with my folks any time that I can.  It’s so important to take advantage of the time that you have with your parents.

We enjoyed some minimal boat time and fishing, plus some of our favorite activities: yard saling and thrifting!  Love it!  We also visited a couple of nearby parks, so crossed off a couple of other state parks from our list.

Home!

After a few days of relaxing and sleeping in the same bed for a few nights, it was time for me to make my journey home.  A total of 17 days, 16 nights on the road, journeying through 10 states and having an amazing solo trip, it was time be home.  I missed my boyfriend, plus it was time to dive back into my college classes, but what an incredible trip!  This was a trip of a lifetime for sure!  And it did nothing to help cure my travel bug, LoL!

Some Final Thoughts & Tips:

I was able to do this road trip for around $1,000, start to finish, including hotels, gas, parking, attractions and food.  This is less than $60/day, so not bad at all.  Here are some ways I was able to keep costs low while still doing exactly what I wanted:

• When I said I packed my little red car, I wasn’t kidding. I loaded up a large cooler, filled with ice, strawberry jelly, drinks and some other snack items, plus brought a ton of snacks, like peanut butter, bread, crackers, fruit and cookies, and some quick meals (like Spaghettio’s) to cut down on the cost of food. 

• I packed a HUGE duffel bag of clothes, but I would only take a backpack’s worth of things that I needed into my hotel or place I was staying vs carrying the whole duffel bag.  In the future, I would prefer to find a place to wash clothes and keep a small suitcase, but this worked well enough.  I had plenty of clothes options!

• I primarily stayed with friends, family or at hostels, with a few lower-cost hotels sprinkled in. I’m not a big fan of spending a lot of money on a place I am going to sleep and not spend much time in otherwise.  Save the money for food and experiences!

• My Celica could easily get 29-31 miles per gallon on the highway and around 22-25 miles per gallon in cities. It made filling up the tank not nearly as painful because it wasn’t too often.  I also looked at apps that found cheap gas along the way.

• I looked for local things to do that were either free or low cost (like the meetup.com site) to mix in with the paid attractions.

• I also ventured off of the interstate when I could to travel through small towns and backroads. Prices for hotels, snacks and restaurants tend to be a little cheaper than on the highways.

• I didn’t travel around any major holidays. Not exactly by design, but I have seen the difference it can make when I have traveled around holidays on other trips.  Prices truly skyrocket.

• I didn’t factor it into my costs, but I used my bank rewards credit card to earn small percentages back on my spending. This was somewhere around $20-$30, so it wasn’t worth calculating into the total cost, but every little bit helps, right?  Of course, this ONLY makes sense if you pay the balance off every month and never pay finance fees.  Be smart!

• Keep an eye on Groupon and Living Social deals for restaurants, activities, admissions, etc. You can get great deals on things all over the US. 

If you missed my background story of how and why I took this trip, check it out here.

If you missed the beginnings of my trip, read
Part 1: Georgia & Tennessee and/or
Part 2: Kentucky & Indiana

***I believe the Museum of Westward Expansion closed, but reopened as the Museum of the Gateway Arch in 2018.