Accretionary Wedge #27- Important geological experience you've had

Hi Lockwood,
  Here's my Accretionary Wedge submission again.  If it too long feel free to edit to size or whatever. Work with me to get something that is acceptable.  I want to be involved with the AW too even though I'm not a blogger.  I thought you didn't have to be a blogger to summit stuff.  I was very disappointed not to see mine included and I hope it was do to your technical difficulties and not something else. To make sure you get this I'll also send it to you via facebook. 

Hi Lockwood,
 Here's my response to the Accretionary Wedge call: "What is the most important geological experience you've had?"


  In 1965, when I was 10, my mom loaded up my siblings and I and we took a trip across the country to Portland, Oregon where there we met up with my dad who was at a meeting at the time.  I'll never forget that trip.  We left from Cleveland, Ohio and drove along Lake Erie, I was amazed a lake could be so big.  I then remember seeing, Chicago, Sioux Falls, a dinosaur park, Mount Rushmore, The Bad Lands, Pikes Peak and the Continental divide, Yellowstone National Park, Old Faithful, The Grand Teton's, the Snake River, Salt Lake city and the Salt Lake, The Columbia River Gorge, Mt St. Helen, The giant Redwoods,  San Francisco, The Golden Gate bridge, Yosemite, Sequio, Death Valley, San Diego and the San Diego zoo, Las Vegas, The Hoover Dam & Lake Mead, The Grand Canyon, Meteor Crater, Mesa Verde and the cliff dwellers, some caves and caverns, St Louis and the Arch,  and The Mississippi River. (I might have gotten these is the wrong order because it was so long ago.) 
  The main thing I remembered about that trip was mom bought a national park pass and she was determined to get her moneys worth from it.  She made it a point to see as many National parks as possible during that trip. 
 I also remember that she started to pick up cobble size rocks from every place we visited that she thought was significant and represented the area.  She was doing it so we would have keep-sakes of the trip and to make a rock garden at home.  She made it my job to put the rocks in paper bags and say were it came from. She gave me the maps to figure out where we were. I quickly became good at reading maps and directing us to our next location. It started to be a pain keeping up with the bags because the bags started to rip so I started to label the bags with gray rock, tan rock, etc. so I would know what rock went with what bag. I started to realize how different all the rocks were and became fascinated with rocks.At each new location I eagerly help search for the rock that we would take with us. That trip started my love of geology.
  When we took that trip there were fewer interstate roads and we took a lot of the lesser traveled roads.  What I really liked about that was it gave us time to really see things as we were traveling through the different areas.  I know the trip took weeks to do but I really think everyone should travel across the country at least once in a car on non-interstate roads.