Carousels and Curiosity

Travel, road trips, and little known sights along the way in Oregon and beyond.

3,365 Miles to Boston: The Blog Posts

  • Exploring Oregon’s Quirky Treasures on Mother’s Day

    Carousel Horses, Chocolates, and Hairballs As empty nesters with no family nearby, Mother’s Day looks a little different than it did a few years ago when my girls were little. Because of that, instead of the usual brunch or breakfast in bed, we head out for the weekend to see the often-overlooked parts of Oregon.…

  • 3,365 Miles to Boston

    Starting in Newport, Oregon, US Highway 20 is America’s longest road. It crosses through coastal rainforests, rugged mountains, high deserts, skirts the Great Lakes, and travels through small towns and big cities until it ends in Kenmore Square, Boston, Massachusetts. My husband and I will be making this journey on his 2021 Harley Davidson Road…

  • Passenger Princess Log, Day 1: Newport to Burns

    3,365 Miles to Boston Riding gear on, selfie stick in the saddle bag, we parked at Don Davis Memorial Park near the sand and stood there trying to get just the right angle. Spoiler alert, we did not. Our first picture had a photobomber, the next two were of my thumb, so we smiled like…

  • Passenger Princess Log, Day 2: Burns, Oregon to Mountain Home, Idaho

    3,060 Miles to Boston Lessons were learned from Day 1. I picked up a couple of paperback books at a used bookstore and found a phone lanyard. I was ready! Propped up against my husbands back and held tightly against the wind is “Garden Spells” by Sarah Addison Allen Some things are worth turning around…

  • Passenger Princess Log, Day 3: Mountain Home to St. Anthony, Idaho

    2,810 Miles to Boston I messed up.  I have planned and taken tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of road trip miles, so I usually have the process down to a science. Before every trip, I build a Google folder with a spreadsheet detailing hotels, mileage, possible restaurants, estimated costs, must-see stops, and maybe-see stops.…

  • Passenger Princess Log, Day 4: St. Anthony, Idaho to Worldand, Wyoming

    2,477 Miles to Boston This morning was hard.  I had a Zoom meeting at 10:00, so we left the hotel at 7:00 with plans to be at Old Faithful in time for me to get set up and ready. That wasn’t in the cards.  The line of cars waiting to enter the park stretched all…

  • Passenger Princess Log, Day 5: Worland, Wyoming to Valentine, Nebraska

    1,541 Miles to Boston There were no must-see stops today, only happy little accidents.  The morning was cold, but the sky was blue, so we hit the road.  We drove through Hot Springs State Park in Thermopolis, down Wind River Canyon, on a chronological journey through 2.5 billion years of geologic history in just twenty…

  • Passenger Princess Log, Day 6: Valentine, Nebraska to Sac City, Iowa

    1,650 Miles to Boston Panda Express has it dialed in Nebraska and Iowa are too often dismissed as flyover states, but those who skip them miss some of the country’s most fascinating stories.  The highlight of today was rinos. Not the kind munching hay at a zoo; these rhinos were twelve million years older. I…

  • Passenger Princess Log, Day 7: Sac City, Iowa to Elgin, Illinois

    1,250 Miles to Boston Today is our 24th wedding anniversary. It only seemed fitting that our first stop of the day was to see Albert, the world’s largest bull, in Audubon, Iowa. He was one of the first sites I insisted my husband visit the very first time I brought him home to meet my…

  • Passenger Princess Log, Day 8: Elgin, Illinois to Port Clinton, Ohio

    1,150 Miles to Boston So my math has been way off. I guess that is what I get for using hotel internet and trying to do copy and paste. I think it is fixed now.  We left the hotel at seven in the morning, convinced we’d have plenty of time to explore the islands of…

  • Passenger Princess Log, Day 9: Port Clinton, Ohio to Buffalo, New York

    715 Miles to Boston Since we didn’t have time to tour the islands of Lake Erie last night, we got up early and explored. It’s a little strange seeing lighthouses and waves and not scanning the shoreline for whales, but while Lake Erie may look like the ocean, around here perch and walleye are the…

  • Passenger Princess Log, Day 10: Buffalo to Albany, New York

    465 Miles to Boston We technically cheated today.  Yes, Highway 20 is still the goal, and we got back on, but on a once in a lifetime trip, we have to do once in a lifetime things. When Niagara Falls and the world’s greatest carousel museum are only a few miles away, you don’t keep…

  • Passenger Princess Log, Day 11: Boston

    0 Miles to Boston and beyond… We rolled into Boston just in time to have bangers and mash and an English cider for lunch; the traffic was easy, and the crowds were thin, but we were there for a good time, not for a long time. Off we went. Sunburned (him more than me), tired,…

  • Passenger Princess Log, Day 12: The 4th of July

    I have no idea what mile we are on, other than the number is high 🙂 We knew that this 4th of July would not be celebrated with parades and fireworks, and somehow that feels appropriate. This trip has been the perfect celebration of America. We have seen her from coast to coast, and for…

  • Passenger Princess Log, Day 13, North Bay, Ontario to Munising, Michigan

    An even higher number of miles. I think somewhere around 5,500 🙂 Today was an experiment. We left the hotel without a plan, a reservation, or even a set destination. We knew the direction to head and the approximate number of hours we wanted to ride; the rest was left to chance. Chance turned out…

  • Passenger Princess Log, Day 14, Munising, Michigan to Bemidji, Minnesota

    A search for the world’s largest and a close call Every trip comes with a food bucket list. This one included poutine, pierogies, fish and chips, Old Dutch ketchup potato chips, pork tenderloin sandwiches, and the one item I had been searching for since we crossed into Michigan: a pasty. Bucket list food We would…

  • Passenger Princess Log, Day 15, 16, and 17: Bemidji, Minnesota to Ontario, Oregon

    The push home Every road trip has a point where adventure gives way to the journey home. We had reached ours. The detours were behind us, the hotels for the next two days were booked, and the days ahead would be about making miles. That doesn’t mean that there wouldn’t be time to sneak in…

  • Passenger Princess Log, Day 18: Home

    By the numbers: 

  • Discovering Bigfoot in Boring, Oregon

    The North American Bigfoot Center Boring, Oregon is anything but boring; in fact, the town motto is “The most exciting place to live.” Well, I don’t know about that, but I do know that as a Bigfoot enthusiast, it’s a top destination. Don’t be fooled by the nondescript exterior; the interior is packed to the…

  • Why Tumalo Dam is a Must-See for History Buffs

    I’ll admit it. I don’t usually put dams on my itinerary, but a dam with no water? That is worth a stop.  A short drive from Bend is a relic of the early days of reclamation in Oregon. Farmers needed land, so water was drained; land needed water, and irrigation transformed desert into productive farmland.…

  • Beyond the Breweries-A One-Day Road Trip Itinerary Around Bend, Oregon

    Bend is known for its mountains and breweries, and I love both, but venture just outside and a little off the beaten path, and you’ll discover abandoned dams, volcanic caves, folk art, giant trees, and one of the best museums in Oregon. This one-day road trip takes you away from the ordinary to see sights…