On the Homestretch

01 Apr 2025

For our last stop we hit New Smyrna Beach, Florida before driving back up the coast. We visited a bunch of places we loved around town and were able to be in town for Dave's 33rd birthday, Sara's brother.

Our first stop of course had to be Breakers!

Unfortunately, we got caught by the drawbridge on the way.

Later that week we got together with the Cristine, Aron, Rachel, and Michael from the local running club to watch a Maryland Terrapins vs Florida Gators game during March Madness.

On Friday, everyone had flown in for Dave's Epic Bike and Bar 2025 so we went to Hollerbach's in Sanford, FL after we picked them up from the airport. They had live music! Moreover, we got Das Boot, which is a 2-liter boot of beer that you pass around the table until it's gone.

Saturday was the big day, Dave's Epic Bike and Bar 2025! 33 people joined Dave as we rode around town to different bars to celebrate his birthday. His mom even got shirts made special for the event. Happy Birthday Dave!

From there, it was time to pack up on Sunday, and drive home. Across the 22 states we drove through, we kept seeing crossing signs warning us about the wildlife we might see. Of course, there's the "black deer jumping" basically everywhere we went.

But as we traveled, we kept finding more and more unique crossing signs! So here's the collection we made on the trip.

But we've kept driving and at long last, welcome to Maryland!

We've finally made it home! In total, we traveled 10,622 miles in our car, with another 100 or so in a rental car in Hawaii. That's a daily mileage of 134 miles. We traveled 5,104 miles to and from Hawaii. And due to the auto-train booking snafu, we sadly clocked no train miles on this trip.

We were traveling for a total of 80 days. Of that, we managed to stay with friends or family for almost half of it at 35 days. Hotels we stayed at for 29 days, and camping just 16 days. Looking back, we probably would have camped an extra 5 days toward the beginning of the trip if we didn't have such extreme cold weather for the season.

For destinations, we visited 18 national parks, 3 state parks, and 4 other Department of the Interior parks. We also visited just as many zoos and aquariums as we did underground cave systems. We made it to:

  • Mammoth Cave, KY
  • Monterey Bay Aquarium, CA
  • San Diego Zoo, CA
  • Desert Museum, AZ
  • Carlsbad Caverns, NM
  • Cave Without a Name, TX
  • Cascade Caverns, TX
  • Audobon Zoo, LA

This trip has been wonderful, but we're very happy to finally be home. This was a once in a lifetime experience, and we have been so fortunate to be able to go. If you ever get the chance to visit any of the parks or tour the country, you should definitely do it. Safe travels!