BUCKET LIST: Month Three

By: MJ & PJ

North America – August 3rd to September 1st, 2018

In our third month we started near Nashville, TN, and then swept up and around the East Coast. We bounced across state lines quite a bit and ducked into Canada again, this being a reflection of the size of the states compared to those on the west coast and plains. It was clearly another busy month for us and we were in several states several times.

For a few days we parted ways – PJ and AJ returning to Colorado for some appointments, while MJ laid low and lived cheap in the forests and historical sites of the East Coast.

Our car covered 224km/day and made some fun new sounds early in the month but those sounds were benign and were scared off by a visit to a Hershey mechanic. We utilized public transport and did a lot of walking in New York as daily driving there was not an experience we sought. We did have an expense of about $200 to keep our car in a secure parking lot for 5 days to avoid driving it around.

We were able to utilize a home swap for our time in New York, but continued our private and camping dominant accommodation. New York was predictably expensive, being about $1200/5days. We bought our international flights and visas for moving on to our next region – this we were able to reduce 80% of the real flight costs by redeeming miles from our credit points.

Expenses went up in this month as we had the following to pay for: a year prescription being filled, a musical instrument, and an urgent care visit! This $1300 contributed to a well above target average for a total of $224/day, but if we took out those outliers it was $182/day. The good news was that this month we received a few refunds from house closing and over paid utilities, insurance, and tax. This added a bit to our reserves, taking the sting out of the higher expenses for this month.

Here are the places we visited in month three:

North Carolina

• Carl Sandberg House
• Sierra Nevada Brewery
• Pinball Museum
• Ashville Drum Circle
• Fish Hatchery
• Pisgah State Park
• Looking Glass Falls
• Cradle of Forestry
• Blue Ridge Parkway

Virginia

• Roanoke Big Lick Brewery
• Lovers Leap viewpoint
• Galax music store
• 83rd Old Fiddlers Convention
• Natural Bridge State Park

Pennsylvania

• Hershey Chocolate World Activities
• Hershey Gardens and Butterfly Pavilion
• Sri Venkateswara Temple

New York

• Empire State Building
• Times Square at night
• Central Park walk from north end to south end
• Guggenheim Museum
• Strawberry Fields, Alice in Wonderland, Obleisk, Bethesda Fountain and Cherry Hill Fountains
• Lego Store at Rockerfeller Center
• Interpid Sea, Air & Space Museum
• The MET
• 5th Ave
• 9/11 Memorial – Ground Zero
• Liberty Island and Statue of Liberty
• Ellis Island
• Wall St Charging Bull and Fearless Girl
• New York Stock Exchange
• Federal Hall
• Grand Central Station
• High Line Park
• SATC Tour
• Magnolia Bakery

New Jersey

• Hoboken
• Carlos Bake Shop (Cake Boss!)

CANADA (Ontario)

• Niagara Falls
• Journey behind falls
• Hornblower boat tour
• Whirlpool Rapids
• Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple and Sarira Stupa
• Ripley’s Believe it or Not
• Niagara Brewery and Sweet Jesus Ice-creamery

Pennsylvania

• Pittburgh Bicycle Heaven Museum

Colorado (appointments and friends)

Virginia

• George Washington National Forest

Maryland

• Paw Paw Tunnel
• Antietam National Historic Area

West Virginia

• Harper’s Ferry National Historic Area

Maryland

• Baltimore
• Camden Yards Tour
• Inner Harbor area
• Orioles Game (vs NY Yankees)
• Fort McHenry National Historic Area
• Urgent Care visit
• C+O Towpath and Locks
• Potomac Great Falls

Virginia

• Arlington National Cemetary
• Tomb of Unknown Soldier
• JFK Memorial

Washington D.C.

• Smithsonian American History Museum
• Washington Monument
• U.S. Capitol
• National Mall
• Lincoln Memorial
• Vietnam War Memorial
• Korean War Memorial
• WWII Memorials
• International Spy Museum
• Holocaust Museum
• Air and Space Msueum
• Union Station
• D.C. Night tour with Iwo Jima US Marine Corp Memorial
• Einstein Statue
• White House and visitor center
• U.S. Navy Memorial
• Trump International Hotel foyer
• Newsuem
• Jefferson Memorial

Virginia

• South Street Brewery
• Shenandoah National Park and Dark Hollow Falls hike
• Blue Mountains Brewery