Rounding out our second month on the road, we started week eight by finishing off our northern U.S. 5-park circle. After visiting Badlands, Yellowstone, Grand Teton and Glacier National Parks the previous week, we found that Theodore Roosevelt National Park — a park we’d never heard of until we spotted it on the map — was an unexpected gem of wildlife large and small.
Once we’d had our fill of bison and prairie dogs, we headed back toward the Windy City, paying a brief visit to one of my oldest friends along the way, and returned to Chicago just in time to celebrate the 4th of July with a totally unique fireworks viewing experience from the Chicago river.
Note: I’m still catching up on our weekly road trip re-caps! This one covers June 28 – July 5.
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You can get an overview of our trip each week here on the blog, but we’re posting more frequent updates of our cross-country U.S. road trip on Facebook and Instagram.
States Visited This Week
- North Dakota
- Minnesota
- Wisconsin*
- Illinois
*just passing through
States Visited in Previous Weeks
- Week One: California, Nevada, Arizona
- Week Two: Arizona, New Mexico, Texas
- Week Three: Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri
- Week Four – Six: Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota
- Week Seven: Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, Alberta (Canada)
Total States Visited So Far: 19
California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota
Stops/Landmarks
- Theodore Roosevelt National Park, ND
- Minneapolis, MN
- Chicago, IL
Highlights
- Visiting with one of my old friends from middle school (and her new puppy) on our way through Minneapolis
- Prairie dogs galore in Theodore Roosevelt National Park
- Kayaking through downtown Chicago at night on the 4th of July
Notes and Insights
- Theodore Roosevelt National Park is the best place for prairie dog watching we’ve ever seen!
- It’s impossible to look attractive when capturing the blowing dandelion photo.
- If you ever have the opportunity to kayak through a city, DO IT! It’s an experience unlike any other!
Photos
All photos were taken by Ian and Diana with the Sony a7 II (Ian’s camera), Sony RX100 III (Diana’s camera — review here) and our smartphones.
Week 9-12 Preview
- Settling in to our month-long road trip “break” in Chicago
- Getting creative with jewelry making and leather camera strap crafts
- Whirlyball
- Homemade beer brewing with my twin brother
- Visiting Ian’s parents at the Osh Kosh air show in Wisconsin
- Playing DOTA (a video game) probably a little too much…
I hope you enjoyed this U.S. road trip re-cap! In case you missed them, check out our other weekly recaps from our road trip. Have you road-tripped to any of these U.S. locations? Tell us about your trips in the comments.
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Haha I was in chicago for the fourth of july too!
Awesome recap! It’s amazing the variety of places you’ve visited in such a short time. And those are some amazing photos!
Thanks, Jordan! These recaps sure are a lot of work, but I think it’ll be really nice to look back on them several years from now to re-visit all the cool things we did! And I’ve only got like 25 more to go, haha. 🙂