50 States Complete!

After a few months of preparation, I finally was able to give notice at my job and make some final plans for the move from Denver to Traverse City, Michigan. The final day of work came and went and with only two days to pack the car (I should plan some extra time as a buffer next time...), Friday, August 3 had arrived and it was time to depart Denver with one really full car! 

Roof box on the Jetta fully loaded for the trip to Michigan

My little sister, Emily, flew out to Denver to join me for the road trip, so I picked her up on Friday evening from DIA and made it all the way through Colorado and Nebraska to our stop for the night in Hot Springs, South Dakota. Little did I know when I was making travel plans two weeks earlier that the largest bike rally in the country (Sturgis) was taking place less than 30 miles away, so lodging options were limited. I ended up finding a tipi (aka teepee or tepee) bed and breakfast to house us for the evening, so when we finally arrived about 2am, our cozy little tipi was waiting our arrival!

TiPi Bed and Breakfast in South Dakota

Emily and I inside our TiPi!

Day two began with a quick trip to Mount Rushmore, but since we had both been there before, we decided to skip the $14 parking fee and just take a picture with the camera as we drove by. By mid-afternoon we had made it to North Dakota and I quickly stopped on the side of the road to grab a photo with the "Welcome to North Dakota" sign, as it was my last state to visit and now I have been to all 50 of the glorious states in this Country!

State #50 of 50! 

We stayed with one of my former co-workers (thanks Linda Khols!) and enjoyed a little down time after a long day of driving.

We had intentionally planned a short day of driving so that we could enjoy our drive as we wanted and we only had about four hours of driving on day three. It just so happens that some of our cousins were moving to Fargo the same day we were there, so we enjoyed a quick lunch on our way through town and made the rest of our trip to Minneapolis (actually Wisconsin) to stay with some friends that Emily and I met at Camp Goodtimes (thanks Rocksie!) We wish we could have stayed longer with both of our wonderful hosts. 

The fourth and final day of our drive began early and after a quick stop in Green Bay for some cheese, we made our way to Manitowoc, WI to board the ferry over to Michigan. The S/S Badger is not just any ferry, but it is actually a national registered historic place and is the only remaining coal fired steamship in commercial operation in the country! In just four hours, we were across Lake Michigan and only 1.5 hours away from the new home of Traverse City!

Sailing on the S/S Badger - the only coal fired steamship
in commercial operation in the US from Manitowok, WI to
Ludington, MI

Welcome to Michigan!!!