Week 39-41- The Road Home

Friday 15th May-

I got up bright and early for my last day in Missoula. I rearranged some of the stuff in my big bags again to try and make them fit better and packed away the clothes I want for the road trip. Shannen, Siobhan and I went to Shannen's Missoula family's house. They had offered us an old roof box they had never used for our road trip. We'd thought we could fit everything in the car but we were very wrong. Craig attached the box and Shannen bought us a big bag of scones and brown bread for the road trip. When we got back to Lewis and Clark we finished moving everything to the car, said by to our apartment and handed back our keys. Aoife and I squeezed into what space was left and we were on our way. Our first destination was West Yellowstone, a four hour drive away. Our drive south past Butte was lovely, through ranches and mountain passes. We passed a big lake which had been created by an earthquake and another made by a dam. It was evening by the time we got to our motel. We headed into the town and ate at a local diner. I got a half chicken with mash, carrots and stuffing which tasted just like my Mom's Sunday roasts. We drove a few miles into Yellowstone National Park, saw some elk and bison and turned around again because it was lashing rain.

The last time I'll see this view from my room.

The earthquake lake.

The entrance to the restaurant.

Saturday 16th May-

We got up bright and early to head to Yellowstone, but when we opened our door we were greeted by a blanket of snow! Shannen rang up the park to see if it was passable but they'd gotten 12inches of snow so we wouldn't be able to drive through. I quickly found a route south around the park avoiding high mountain passes. This turned our 4 hour drive into a 9 hour one. Our disappointment at not being able to see Yellowstone again though changed to delight during the drive. The route we took brought us through beautiful parts of Idaho and Wyoming that we never would have seen. We drove through the Tetons range for a while before entering the Wyoming sagebrush steppe and the Wind River Canyon area. I saw lots of pronghorn antelope and raptors along the way. It was a really nice detour to say the least. As we were driving through the dark we saw a big thunder and lightning storm off in the distance. It was pretty class to see! It was late by the time we arrived to our motel in Greybull so we just headed to bed.

May snow.

The Teton Mountains

A slightly sodden osprey.

Ranch horses.

Another storm ahead.

Red canyon

Wind River Canyon

Sunday 17th May-

Today we were heading east through Wyoming to Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota. To start our drive we had to drive up and over the Bighorn National Forest mountains. This was a winding road up the mountains overlooking steep canyons. At the top was a plateau with lots of patches of snow. I spotted three moose walking out of a forest, my first time seeing them! Once out of the mountains we had a long drive across a  prairie, including the Thunder Basin National Grassland. After that we made it to the Black Hills National Forest where we saw the Crazy Horse Memorial and Mt. Rushmore. We were all expecting it to be much bigger but it's still pretty class! From there it was a short drive to Rapid City where we stayed for the night. We watched Game of Thrones on tv, which was cool, it didn't even have ads. We were all shocked by the ending, now known as the Black Wedding.

Bighorn National Forest

Crazy Horse Memorial

In the tie-dyes Shannon made us!

Monday 18th May-

Today we continued east across South Dakota to Le Mars, Iowa. We visited the Badlands National Park along the way. No sooner were we in the park then we were treated to some spectacular views and sights of bighorn sheep. The badlands is a really cool place to visit, such a strange eroded landscape. It was a shame to see people climbing all over the mounds and even some digging. After the badlands we stayed on the highway until after Sioux Falls. I saw the last pronghorn I'm likely to see this far east. As we crossed the border into Iowa I saw the first tractors working in fields for months. It looks like we've left cowboy country behind. We arrived in Le Mars after dark and were surprised to see it's the Ice Cream Capital of the World. Unfortunately all the ice cream shops were closed. We got to our motel, which was sold out. Lucky we had booked in advance!

Bighorn sheep

Prairie dogs

Tuesday 19th May-

We had breakfast in our motel before leaving. I made waffles for us, which were tasty. We only had a two hour drive today to Omaha, where we visited the Henry Doorly Zoo. This zoo had been famed as the best in the world, but after seeing it I would have to disagree. There was a lot of construction going on in the zoo and many of the animals were off display. They had many big cats which were in quite small enclosures. Fortunately they are building new areas for them. We got to see keepers training the jaguar to show off different parts so if he needs to be seen by a vet he won't get so stressed. The aquarium section of the park was cool. They had many different kinds of sea life including sharks and turtles. It's a nice zoo, but definitely not the best in the world. We relaxed in our motel that night, watched some Supernatural and got pizza delivered to our door.

Tawny frogmouth.

Training the lion.

Wednesday 20th May-

We decided to have a sleep in today seeing as we only had a 4 hour drive across Iowa to Bettendorf. Iowa reminded me a lot of Ireland. For a long stretch of the drive all you could see was green fields, rolling hills, trees and of course rain.  We stopped in Des Moines for dinner at Smokey D's. This was a BBQ restaurant that had been on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, a show on Food Network. The food was amazing and really cheap, I got a pulled chicken burger which I quickly scoffed. It was another two hours by the time we got to Bettendorf, where we just chilled for the night.

The Mississippi River.

Thursday 21st May-
I got up early today and had breakfast in the motel, some nice blueberry pancakes. We left  Bettendorf just after 11am, crossed the Mississippi river and were into Illinois. It was just after 2pm when we arrived at the Chicago Getaway Hostel, which is definitely the nicest hostel I've stayed in. We have our own private three bed room so we don't have to worry about locks. Seeing as we're staying so close to Lincoln Park we decided to walk to it and check out the free zoo. We were so glad we did because after about 10 minutes there we all agreed it was much nicer than Omaha's "Best Zoo in the World". We got to see lions, tigers, jaguars, rhinos, bears and red wolves among many other animals. The enclosures were much more natural and the animals all looked happier. We stayed there for about two hours before it closed :) . We went to Lou Malnati's for some Chicago style deep dish pizza for dinner. This had been recommended to us by a few people as the best in town. After a 30 minute wait for our pizzas (perfection takes time we were told) they arrived and they were so worth the wait. I had a sausage, spinach, tomato and mushroom house special which was delicious. When we were finished we rolled back to the hostel to relax.

Fennec fox

Painted dogs

Chicago deep dish pizza.

Friday 22nd May-
I had breakfast in the hostel before we headed out for the day. We got the red train into Grant Park and wandered there for a while, seeing Buckingham Fountain and the Cloud Gate, aka The Bean. We walked to the riverside where we relaxed for a while before going on our boat tour. We went with Wendella boat tours who took us along the Chicago river telling us about the architecture of the buildings and then out to Lake Michigan to see the skyline. After the tour we went to the Willis/Sears Tower, which is the tallest building in Chicago and was once the tallest in the world. We had great views from the top and got to step out onto the ledge. This is a glass floored room hanging 110 stories above the ground. To say it was slightly terrifying is an understatement. We saw the sunset from the observation deck before we went back to the hostel for the night.

Buckingham fountain

The Bean

Built to look like a waterfall.

On The Ledge

 

Saturday 23rd May-
We had breakfast in the hostel before we checked out and headed off for Canada. We traveled through Indiana and some of  Ohio before heading north towards Detroit. Indiana and Ohio are very pretty with lots of rivers, trees and farms. We crossed the border into Canada in Detroit, which was less daunting then we expected. It was another hour before we made it to Leamington where we stayed for the night.

Dust twister in Ohio

Sunday 24th May-
We drove alongside the north side of Lake Erie for a while to get to Niagara Falls. We arrived early at our hostel so we finally did some much needed laundry. We ate dinner in a local restaurant, where I had a Canadian dish, duck poutine. This is essentially chips/fries, gravy, cheese curds, mushrooms and duck, which was lovely. After dinner we went to the falls, just in time for a fireworks show that happens every Friday and Sunday night. The waterfalls were way bigger than I was expecting and lit up in colours for the night. The fireworks show was pretty cool. We went into the main street of the town. We were not expecting it to be so commercialised. We got souvenirs and decided to head back to the car. On the way we passed two people staring at a tree. We thought they were a bit loopy until we saw a little raccoon up the tree. This was the first I'd ever seen a live wild raccoon so I was pretty excited. We continued heading back to the car until we came across another raccoon in a bin. Two in one night was fairly cool!

Lake Erie

Duck poutine.

Horseshoe falls

Monday 25th May-
We went back to the falls this morning. They are definitely more impressive in the day time, bar all the silly people standing on the walls above the cliffs. We decided to go on a boat tour to the base of the falls. This was so much fun even though we got soaked and I couldn't see much because I couldn't wear my glasses :P . When we finished up on the Canadian side we decided to cross the bridge to America. It's so weird just driving to another country. It was slightly stricter getting into America than it was to get to Canada, but we got on fine. We decided to check out the view of the falls from there and were disappointed. You view them from the side so you don't get a good idea of just how huge they are and there was rubbish everywhere. The trip to Canada was definitely worth the view! We drove to Binghamton that evening. We'd decided to extend our trip by an extra night so Shannen wouldn't have to drive 7 hours straight and we could spend more time at Niagara. We watched the new episode of Game of Thrones that night, where finally some justice has been served :) .

Horseshoe falls.

American falls.

On the American side.

Tuesday 26th May-
This was the last day of our road trip :( . We had a 3 hour drive through the Appalachian mountains, which are beautiful, to my cousins house. These are the cousins I stayed with over Christmas so it was nice to call in for a visit before I head home. We only had a 45 minute drive from there to our final destination, Shannen's house in Queens. Shannen's Dad was happy to see us back safe and sound, and had BBQ burgers ready for us. We spent the rest of the night just chilling after we unpacked the car.

Upstate New York.

Wednesday 27th May-
We had a nice sleep in today before getting up and getting the subway into Manhattan. We visited Times Square and wandered around Central Park for a while. It's nice to visit New York but I could never live in a big city full time. That evening Shannen's Dad's friend got us tickets to go up to the observation deck of the One World Trade Center, aka the Freedom Tower. This was really special because it doesn't officially open to the public until the 29th. The views from the top were class and even the elevator rides were run. They showed the city growing around you over time on the way up, and zoomed around buildings on the way down. Seeing as there were few people at the observation level you didn't have to crowd for views, which was great. They did a great job designing the tower and hopefully I'll get to see it again in the future.

Central Park

Twin Towers Memorial

Inside the Trade Center.

 

Thursday 28th May-
We had another sleep in today. I sorted out my luggage, deciding what clothes I wanted to keep. We sorted out the rest of the random stuff we'd unpacked from the car, and relaxed around the house. That evening we went to see Pitch Perfect 2 in the cinema. I'll miss going to American cinemas but definitely not the price! It wasn't as good as the first one, but still a good laugh.

Friday 29th May-
I spent my last day in America relaxing in Shannen's pool. It was 27°C (80°F) and I was loving it. Sadly I still had some rearranging to do with my suitcases. When they were packed and I'd put on some of my heavy clothes (which sucked in the heat!), we drove to the airport. I said bye for a while to Shannen and Aoife, I'll hopefully see them both in August. I checked in my bags, which were just on the allowance weight. After making it through security, and being questioned about my multiple Hershey's bars (presents), I went to duty free for some shopping. I relaxed by my gate for a while before our plane was eventually opened. I had a nice window seat and watched some movies during the flight. The flight landed early and I met my Mom and sister Catriona at the airport. I was welcomed home in the Irish way with a proper fry up. You don't realise how much you've missed something until you have it again. I spent the rest of the day with my family.

Just chilling (Shannen's photo)

I don't exactly pack light! :P

Sunset in New York..

Sunrise in Ireland.

So there you have it, my last two weeks in America. What a fun two weeks they were! I've had an amazing time abroad but am happy to be home, even for a short while before I head off to my internship in Spain next week! Thanks so much to all of you have read and followed along with this blog. I hope you've enjoyed reading it as much as I have writing it. - Fiona

I visited a total of 23 states in my time abroad.