Where We've Been

In 2012 we took a grand tour of the US with our truck and travel trailer. We started in Fayetteville, AR, drove south to Texas, then crossed west to the West Coast, north to Canada, then back east all the way to the East Coast, all to finish the circle back in Fayetteville. We drove 17,100 miles and visited 33 states in nine months. We cataloged all of our stops and the photos associated with them. You can find a map of where we went and picture album links below in the 2012 section.

Of all the places we visited in the US in 2012, we fell in love with Portland, Oregon and at the end of the year decided that we would most likely make that our next permanent home. In January of 2013 we once again left Fayetteville and headed south into Texas. We spent a month in Austin and then continued our treck west by visiting New Mexico and Arizona on the way to California. At the end of March Maria was offered a job in Portland and we planned out the final portions of our route. We stayed two weeks in San Diego and then took a week driving up I-5 all the way north through California. Now we call Portland our home and hope to continue our adventures from a more permanent home base! Follow along and see where we go in the 2013 section!

So, all in all, we've been to 44 states within the United States. The states we are currently missing are North Dakota, West Virginia, Iowa, Nebraska, Alaska and Hawaii. As for internationally, we've been to Mexico, Canada, England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy. Maria has additionally been to Russia, Morocco and France. We hope to expand our international horizon greatly, and hopefully sooner than later! :o)

Welcome! And thanks for following along!

Happy travels!

2013



We started at the green marker and the yellow is our current location. You can view this in Google Maps here.

Jan 5-11 Houston, TX Photos
Jan 6 Galveston and Brazoria Ntl' Wildlife Refuge, TX Photos
Jan 12-Feb 14 Austin, TX Photos
Jan 26 Balcones Canyonlands Ntl' Wildlife Refuge, TX Photos
Feb 2 Carnaval Brasileiro in Austin, TX Photos
Feb 15 Fredericksburg, TX Photos
Feb 16 McDonald Observatory, TX Photos
Feb 17-18 El Paso and Fraklin Mnts. SP, TX Photos
Feb 19 White Sands Ntl' Monument, NM, Photos
Feb 20-23 Tucson and Saguaro Ntl' Park, AZ Photos
Feb 24-28 Phoenix, AZ Photos
Mar 1 Driving on I-8 through California Photos
Mar 2-16 San Diego, CA Photos
Mar 6 San Diego Zoo, CA Photos
Mar 9 La Jolla, CA Photos
Mar 17 Driving on I-5 in SoCal Photos
Mar 19 Redding, CA Photos
Mar 21 Driving on I-5 in North Cali Photos and Ashland, OR Photos
Mar 23 Portland, OR!!!

Possible future destinations:

Mount Hood
Oregon Coast
Columbia River Gorge

2012


The blue line was our main route, along which we pulled the travel trailer. The red routes are where we toured without the trailer. Click here to view in Google Maps.

Feb 22- Left Fayetteville, AR!
Feb 22-23 Tulsa, OK Photos
Feb 24-25 Oklahoma City, OK Photos
Feb 26-28 Wichita Mountain and Wichita Mnts Ntl Wildlife Refuge, OK Photos
Feb 29-Mar 1 Black Creek Reservoir, LBJ Ntl Grasslands, TX Photos
Mar 2-11 Austin, TX Photos
Mar 6-11 McKinney Falls State Park (outside Austin, TX) Photos
Mar 12-Apr 14 Fredericksburg, TX (Texas Hill Country) Photos
Mar 19- Boerne & Luckenbach, TX (Texas Hill Country) Photos
Mar 20- Pedernales Falls State Park, TX (Texas Hill Country) Photos
Mar 24- Lost Maples State Park, TX (Texas Hill Country) Photos
Mar 30- Willow City Loop Bike Ride, TX (Texas Hill Country) Photos
April 6-8 Big Bend National Park, TX Photos
April 15- Guadalupe Mountains National Park, TX Photos
April 16- Carlsbad Caverns National Park, NM Photos
April 17- Roswell and Ruisodo, NM Photos
April 18- White Sands National Monument, NM Photos
April 20- Santa Fe and Bandelier National Monument, NM Photos
April 21-22 Albuquerque, NM
April 23- El Malpais National Monument, NM Photos and Petrified Forest National Park, AZ Photos
April 24-28 Flagstaff, AZ Photos
April 28- Humphrey's Peak Trail, AZ (outside of Flagstaff) Photos
April 29-30 Grand Canyon National Park, AZ Photos
May 1- Kaibab National Forest, AZ Photos
May 2-5 Zion National Park, UT Photos
May 6- Las Vegas, NV Photos
May 7-8 Kingman's Wash Beach, Lake Mead, NV Photos
May 9- Hoover Dam Ntl Historic Landmark, NV Photos
May 10- San Bernardino National Forest, CA Photos
May 11-14 Orange County Beaches, CA Photos
May 15-17 Los Angeles, CA Photos
May 18- Ventura, CA Photos
May 19- Santa Barbara, CA Photos
May 20- Santa Ynez Valley, CA Photos and Pismo State Beach Dunes, CA Photos
May 21-22 Morro Bay, CA Photos
May 22- Biking at Montana De Oro State Park, CA Photos
May 23- Drive through Salinas Valley to Monterey Bay,CA Photos
May 24-28 Lake Tahoe, CA Photos
May 29-June 1 Marin County and Muir Woods National Monument,CA Photos
June 1- San Fran with Parents Photos
June 2-4 Petaluma, CA Photos
June 5-11 Larkspur and biking on Mount Tamalpais, CA Photos
June 8 Hiking and Biking around Marin County, CA Photos
June 10 Marin County Festivals Photos
June 2,5 and 9- San Francisco,CA Photos
June 12-14 Ft. Bragg, CA Photos
June 15-16 Humboldt State Park, Avenue of the Giants and Arcata, CA Photos
June 17-18 Crescent City and Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park Photos
June 19- Grant's Pass, OR Photos
June 20-25 Eugene, OR and the Olympic Trials 2012 Photos
June 26- Cottage Grove, OR Photos
June 27- Beaver Creek, OR Photos
June 28-July 28 Portland, OR Photos & Vancouver, WA Photos
July 19- Mt. St. Helens National Park, WA Photos
July 23- Columbia River Gorge and the Oregon Waterfalls Tour, OR Photos
July 24- Hood River and Mt. Hood, OR Photos
July 27- Oregon's Brewer's Festival in Portland, OR Photos
July 29- Tillamook, OR Photos
July 30- Seaside and Haystack Rock, OR Photos
Aug 2- Astoria, OR Photos
Aug 3-4 Aberdeen and Olympic National Forest, WA Photos
Aug 5 Seattle, WA
Aug 6-7 Vancouver, BC Canada Photos
Aug 8- Garibaldi Provincial Park and Whistler Mountain, BC Canada Photos
Aug 9-15 Seattle, WA Photos
Aug 16- Spokane, WA Photos
Aug 17-18 Coeur d'Alene Lake, ID and Missoula, MT Photos
Aug 19- Driving through Montana Photos
Aug 20-21 Yellowstone National Park, WY Photos
Aug 22-23 Grand Teton National Park, WY Photos
Aug 24- 25 Driving through Wyoming Photos
Aug 26-27 Rapid City & Mt. Rushmore National Memorial, SD Photos
Aug 28 Wall Drug and Badlands National Park, SD Photos
Aug 29 Sioux Falls, SD
Aug 30-Sept 3 Minneapolis, MN Photos
Sept 4-6 Madison, WI Photos
Sept 7-9 Milwaukee, WI Photos
Sept 10-13 Portage, IN (Indiana Dunes Nat'l Lakeshore) Photos
Sept 12 Chicago, IL Photos
Sept 14-16 Southern Michigan Shore, MI Photos
Sept 17-19 Ann Arbor, MI Photos
Sept 19 Detroit, MI Photos
Sept 20 Erie, PA
Sept 21 Niagara Falls, NY Photos
Sept 21-23 Rochester, NY Photos
Sept 24 Albany, NY
Sept 25-Oct 24 Middleboro, MA
Sept 29- Providence, RI Photos
Sept 30-Oct 1 Burlington, VT (Trip through New England part 1) Photos
Oct 2 Bangor, ME (Trip through New England part 2) Photos
Oct 3 Acadia National Park, ME (Trip through New England part 2) Photos
Oct 4 Portsmouth, NH (Trip through New England part 2) Photos
Oct 6 Cranberry Harvest Festival Wareham, MA Photos
Oct 10 Plymouth, MA Photos
Oct 13 Cape Cod & the National Seashore, MA Photos
Oct 15 Martha's Vineyard, MA Photos
Oct 16 Newport, RI Photos
Oct 17 Boston, MA Photos
Oct 19-20 Stamford, CT (visit with Lindsay) Photos
Oct 21 New York City, NY Photos
Oct 25-27 Philadelphia, PA Photos
Oct 28-30 State College, PA Photos
Oct 31-Nov 6 Washington DC Photos
Nov 7-8 Shenandoah National Park Photos
Nov 9 Galax, VA
Nov 10-11 Asheville, NC via the Blue Ridge Parkway Photos
Nov 12-13 Great Smoky Mountains National Park Photos
Nov 14 Knoxville, TN Photos
Nov 15-16 Nashville, TN Photos
Nov 17-18 Memphis, TN Photos
Nov 19 Driving through Arkansas Photos
Nov 20-Jan 4 Fayetteville, AR Photos