I took a week-and-a-half road trip through 11 states, covering about 3,400 miles. The journey included two states I had never visited before — Montana and North Dakota — and gave me the chance to reconnect with friends and cousins along the route. Along the way, I visited two state capitols, two national parks, a national forest, an art museum, a botanical garden, a presidential library, and three of the Great Lakes. One of the special stops was the childhood home of Judy Garland in Grand Rapids, Minnesota.

I especially enjoyed the historical markers along the route in Kansas; visiting friends George and Gilbert in Denver, including stops at the Denver Botanic Gardens and the Denver Art Museum; the wondrous landscapes in Wyoming; the breathtaking Montana scenery; going to Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, North Dakota, in Theodore Roosevelt National Park; visiting cousins Lisa and Chris and their three dogs at their home in Mandan, North Dakota, and dinner with them in downtown Bismarck at an Irish pub called Blarney Stone, and a visit with them to the North Dakota state capitol; and driving through Minnesota and Wisconsin, which were beautiful. The grand finale was a drive through western part of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and visiting Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore Park. The last day took me through Hiawatha National Forest in the UP and, after crossing the Mackinac Bridge, a stop for lunch in Petoskey, overlooking Little Traverse Bay.