Road Trip! Coast to Coast

Did you know this blog was initially intended to be a travel and adventure blog?

I launched it in January of 2020. Remember what happened in March 2020? Yup. COVID-19 happened. This was an opportunity to shutter my brand new blog or…pirouette. If I’m ever idle in body, I am NOT idle in mind. My curiosity led me down many paths and I invited you along with me. I also started looking for adventures that were less about flying to exotic places and more about finding the spirit of adventure wherever I could.

When my sister decided to purchase my seven year old vehicle from me, I COULD have put it on a car transport and shipped it cross country. How boring would that be? I’ve never driven from coast to coast. So we decided to DRIVE it there!

George and I thought about an intinerary that would take us across the middle of the county, but since neither of us had ever seen Lake Superior, we decided a northern route might be fun.

Day 1

Our first day, we drove about 8 hours from Maryland up to Burlington Ontario. I’m always a little nervous about border crossings but Canadians are so lovely and inviting…it was a great experience. We crossed at the Peace Bridge.

Our itinerary was fluid so we agreed to “book as we go”. As we set out travel plans for each day, we would pick a target and about midday the passenger had to find accommodations for the night.

Night 1, we stayed at the Waterfront Hotel in Downtown Burlington ON. It’s a lovely location with a pier out to the water – worth the walk!

Our biggest surprise was the discotheque and police presence in the lobby. We were a little apprehensive but when we got to our rooms, we couldn’t hear any ruckus at all. Out like a light!

Day 2

We turned north on day 2 and headed around Lake Huron. One of our trip objectives was to put our feet into each one of the Great Lakes we had never seen. Lake Huron was the first. We hit it as the day was drawing to a close. But not before an unexpected detour…

Side note: We noticed that this little spot by Lake Huron had a great setup for bike maintenance.

George has a habit of marking things in google maps that he wants to see one day. He saw that we would be passing close to Swift Canoes and Kayaks and persuaded me to stop to check it out. George has been jonesing for a Swift canoe for quite a while now so this was a chance to check them out in person!

This turned into a great little side trip when the staff at Swift told us to go check out the barbeque festival in near by Muskoka.

It’s a lovely little town and we were charmed by it as we drove slowly through. As we were leaving we heard Sean Cotton on the local radio singing Broke in Muskoka. It’s a catchy tune and became the anthem for the remainder of the trip!

We later discovered that Muskoka is a favorite destination of some famous Hollywood celebrities. Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn own a cabin up there and Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks are frequent celebrity sightings! We knew there was a reason we liked it!

Our hotel stop for the evening was the Quattro Hotel & Conference Centre, an Ascend Hotel Collection, in Sault Ste Marie Ontario.

This was RIGHT on the road and seemed like it had been pieced together from a number of different buildings over the years – but we were able to book it on the fly and we found it clean and quiet. Another 8 hours of driving in the books!

Day 3

We hit the road early and after driving for about 3 hours, we stopped to grab breakfast in Wawa Ontario. As we entered Wawa Ontario where we were greeted by a MASSIVE Canadian Goose statue. Are they just “geese” in Canada?

We decided to take a quick spin around the town to see what our options were. We discovered Wawa Lake and had to take a moment to get our feet wet.

We decided on a local joint called North of 17 which was filled to the brim with locals. It was one of those experiences where you walk in and everyone is quiet for a moment. They were pleasant and kind. We had fun eavesdropping on the greetings that neighbors were sharing as they came and went for their breakfast.

We headed out with full bellies, knowing that it was going to be a tough day of driving. We caught glimpses of Lake Superior much of the trek but weren’t able to stop and dip our feet. Next stop was Winnipeg, a full 15 hours drive from Sault Ste Marie, in Manitoba. This took us around the upper edge of Lake Superior.

George and I were doing our best to stay amused but much of our humor leeched out that day. Fortunately a well-placed Tim Horton’s helped us along our day. George said a Tim Horton’s stop in Canada is a must-do!

George finished the day’s driving as we pulled into Winnipeg EXTREMELY road weary. We were able to blearily stumble into a Four Points Sheraton right at the cross roads where we needed to turn south back into the US. The people were friendly despite the late hour. We hit the road early the next day and never got to check out the full set of amenities – but looking at the website, I’m sorry we missed the pool!

George is very tall and requires a King sized bed for comfortable sleeping. All of the accommodations we selected had King beds available. Not every hotel provides them as an option.

Day 4

As we set out on Day 4 to return back into the US, we agreed that we wouldn’t do any more brutal days. Rather, we wanted to take time to smell the roses and enjoy ourselves. The pace felt more like a meander as we looked around and enjoyed the sights.

Manitoba is filled with grain silos. We had no idea it was so agricultural! In hindsight though, it makes sense based on its location and geography.

The border crossing took a bit longer than we expected but we came back into the US without any trouble. We headed due south on Route 29 to Fargo.

We were both excited to finally see North Dakota. It’s surprisingly flat but pretty in a big, expansive, open country way. Everyone we met was friendly and kind. Once we hit Fargo, we stopped for food at Granite City Brewery. Despite being a fairly large chain restaurant, we recommend it. The food was great and their wifi is decent enough for me to do a little work while we waited for our food.

After lunch, we turned due West to eventually make our way out to the coast.

A favorite stop of the whole trip was a chance sighting of a large Holstein cow at the top of a hill in Salem ND. This was about 7 hours into our trip and we decided to take a much needed rest break by following our noses to this cow. Holy cow! Salem Sue is the world’s largest Holstein cow at 38 feet high, 50 feet long, and 12,000 pounds!

Our plan to drive a leisurely pace was a little disrupted by the sparseness of parts of North Dakota and Montana. We headed to Billings MT, grabbed a bite to eat, rode a dinosaur, and settled in for the night. We were tired enough that I didn’t even think to keep a record of where we stayed.

This day was a little better but it was still 12 hours of driving.

Day 5

I’m very glad we didn’t continue to push through Montana. It needs to be seen in the daytime. Talk about Big Sky country! It’s massive and stunning.

A highlight of the day was stopping to wade and play around in the Yellowstone River near Greycliff MT. It feels very River Runs Through It. Of course we had to stop and get our feet wet. It was a hot drive so I’m sure that contributed to our desire to constantly be touching water!

We started getting a little road silly during this drive. It’s such big country and such a relatively straight road that head to expanses you feel like you’ll never reach!

We passed into Idaho and had to stop to take a record shot. These were a bunch of “new” states for us. It was part of what influenced our decision to go north instead of straight across the country.

After 8 hour of driving, we pulled into Spokane Washington, exhausted again but happy to be back in familiar territory.

I will NOT mention the hotel. It was clean and nice but the staff – well it was a story we repeated to friends and it was NOT complimentary! There was a large vagrant community wandering the streets and the staff stressed that it wasn’t super safe to be wandering at night. That said, if you are feeling brave, check out Iron Goat Brewing.

I’m not a beer drinker but George loves to check out local micro brews. We liked the people, the atmosphere, and the food!

Day 6

As we progressed farther into Washington State into Oregon, we were struck by the high desert. We “knew” there was high desert but driving through it is a different feeling. There are a lot of long flat expanses of road but coming from the east coast, it was thrilling in its own way.

We decided to head to Hood River Oregon for lunch and got to enjoy the sweeping vistas going toward Blalock Canyon and then our first sightings of Mt. Hood.

We had a delicious meal at Full Sail Brewing Company and wondered if a move to Hood River was a rational option for us. Of all of the places we went, Hood River was our favorite. It has a quaint feel, close to nature, near water, near mountains. Truly idyllic.

Next stop was Tamanawas Falls for a quick hike to see water coming off Mt. Hood. I can see this was our “thing” this trip! We took an obligatory photo with Mt. Hood and then continued working south towards my sister’s home in southern Oregon.

We took another quick pitstop to marvel at the Crooked River High Bridge. If you have vertigo, you might want to skip this one. It’s an engineering marvel and will give you stomach flutters if you think about the drop too much.

If you like odd roadside attractions, we recommend driving through Crescent Oregon. We respect a place that has giant carvings of Bigfoot holding a beer (tavern) and a 20 foot tall Grizzly holding a salmon as the mascot for a self-storage business. We do NOT recommend driving through Crescent Oregon when there are wildfires in the area. We watched the winds and warnings carefully but it was one of the eeriest drives either of us has experienced!

We HAD to stop at Crater Lake – another favorite drive of mine. I wanted to make sure that George got a chance to appreciate the beauty of the area. He did me proud with his photos!

With all of our stops, our last day was a 12 hour push but we got in safe, sound, and within our expected timeframe.

An unexpected bonus from this trip was my sister’s new puppy! She got him a couple of days after we arrived and I immediately fell in love with him!

This was an adventure I never planned on taking but I’m glad the opportunity presented itself and George was onboard with a crazy long trip! I never had a ton of interest in wandering around the US but this roadtrip changed my mind.

Most photos, unless noted, were taken by @mobtowngeorge. Check out his instagram for more beautiful pictures of – everything!

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Have you taken any epic roadtrips that you recommend? Please share in the comments below!