Review of the United States ("Number one at saying number one")

Starting and ending our 9 month road trip at Buc-ees

Hello Family and Friends,

We have been in a time of resetting and planning for the next phase of our trip. Before sharing what's in store for us next, I would like to give a little summary of our travels thus far.

Best City to Live in is D.C. In all cities, the public transportation is barely handicap accessible. However, all metro stops in D.C. have an elevator even if they aren't always conveniently located. Also the metro is just super easy, clean, doesn't smell like urine and is a common form of transportation.

The convenience of the metro is one reason D.C. is high on our list. The other is the free Smithsonians. If you are bored in D.C., it is your own fault. You can jump on the metro for about two dollars and fifty cents, head to one of the eighteen Smithsonians, check out a floor or two and do that every weekend for like 10 years and maybe you will see everything.

D.C. has great public transportation, free museums and top notch elementary schools. Our plan for each city was to look at schools that were rated six or higher (as this is the ranking for our local schools back in FL). However, in DC we only looked at schools that were rated nine or higher because there were so many.

Now D.C. was probably one of the most expensive places. We were looking at homes between fifteen hundred to two thousand square feet with three bedrooms and at least two bathrooms. We discovered that the minimum budget is a million dollars. If we upped it to two million than we had some options. So, yes, D.C. is expensive.

As far as the culture of D.C., it's stale. Both the food and the people all feel the same. I think in trying to appeal to the most. D.C. has lost a lot of flavor in every aspect.

But my favorite city to visit is without a doubt is NYC. NYC speaks to my soul. I feel I can be my truest self in NYC. I walk through streets and my heart just smiles. It just rings true for me. Brett's favorite place is Chicago. He loved the architecture and feels the city just fits together really well. He actually credits the multiple fires in Chicago for it's excellent design. It is like each time it burned down gave it a chance to build the city anew and with better planning.

The west coast has by far has the weirdest people. First, they talk too much. We're in San Francisco, riding the elevator, why are you asking me questions right now about why the security guard had to run off the elevator. When she ran on, I looked at her and then looked at my phone, when she ran off, I looked at her and then looked at my phone. Again, I'm minding my own business. The real question is why aren't you. Another guy walked in the opposite direction he was headed halfway down the block to talk to us about our dog. Dude, don't you have something to do? I mean we may be on what seems like an eternal vacation, but surely you're not too. No, but for real they are super nice. The west coast is where two women picked up Atlas and sat him between them on a full bus so that I wouldn't have to balance myself and him while standing. But they also are a little self sabotaging. Their super Wal-Mart only has one door, because theft is a problem out west. We had a saying that whenever we saw something super inconvenient like one door for Wal-mart access, "this is why they can't have nice things". And as for the theft on the west coast, we witnessed it first hand as we had our bikes stolen on two separate occasions. Just can't have nice things on the west coast as someone is going to take your stuff.

Now for the scenery, how do I describe it? The east coast is like a woman with green hills that are just beautiful. The smokey's are the most beautiful to me. However the west coast is like a man with it's jagged, super imposing rocky mountains. As for the most beautiful state, Oregon without any contest. Just driving along the interstate you see trains cutting through rocky mountains, wind surfers along the water way of the interstate and views that will make you pull off the side of the road along a major interstate. Just absolutely breathtaking.

On this trip we ended up visiting ten national parks: Shenandoah, Acadia, Badlands, Death Valley, Glacier, Grand Canyon, Grand Teton, Yosemite, Olympic, and Yellowstone. Acadia is absolutely the best for biking. They have something called "The Carriage Roads" which are exclusive for bikers and hikers and is THE way to see the park. Glacier has the most amazing views. Glacier contains "Going to the Sun Road" which has the most amazing views I have ever seen in my life. Death Valley is exactly like it sounds. Yellowstone is enormous, but worth all the driving within the park to see some pretty amazing sights. Grand Canyon has the most ways to take your money with all their gift shops. But one park that I don't find worth returning to is Yosemite. Might not be a popular opinion, but for us, it didn't live up to the hype.

Now you all know I can't get through this blog without talking about the food in this country. The award for the freshest food in the country goes to Maine. It tasted like they had caught the fish that morning, grilled it up and put it on my plate. It tasted like real, fresh food. Even diner food taste fresh. However, the best flavor goes to Philadelphia. We could not find bad food. We even went to this asian chicken place that sold burgers (so many contradictions), even that food was good. Philadelphia might have smelled the worst, but it had the best food and even better at a reasonable price. And of course the best barbecue goes to Kansas City, Missouri. I didn't think I liked barbecue, but then I had burnt ends in KC, now I understand what all the fuss is about. I didn't even use barbecue sauce, the meat was that good. Brett made me add the sushi on the west coast especially in LA was to die for.

We have had an absolutely incredible time driving throughout the United States. Even with all that we did explore, we are nowhere close to seeing everything. The more we traveled, the more we discovered places we wanted to visit. One day, in eternity, we will see it in perfection and have all the time to fully enjoy.