Road Trip USA – Part 9 – Reflections

“Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.” -Gustave Flaubert

It started with a crazy idea. To pack up the jeep and spend a few months on the road, being vagabonds, exploring the country, visiting family and friends, having adventures and making memories. A crazy idea – turned into an epic journey – one we’ll never forget.

Total # of Days : 54

Miles: 8402

States: TN, KY, IN, WI, MN, SD, WY, MT, ID, WA, OR, CA, AZ, NM, TX, LA, MS, AL, GA, TN

In my 8 previous journal entries, I did give a few specific recommendations for restaurants, things to do, and places to stay throughout our route. In this post, I just want to share a few general suggestions, some practical, others humorous, and also some of our personal insights and reflections.

Helpful Tips and Tricks We Learned Along the Way

• Keep an extra bottle of windshield washer fluid with you at all times. Even if you wash your windshield every time you stop for gas, (which you will) it will not be enough. Our country is filled with large, squishy bugs who will insist on playing chicken with your windshield, and they will lose in a glorious, guts-splattering fashion. Upon our arrival at Crater Lake, the jeep looked like a battered veteran returning from a paintball war.
  So – add windshield washer fluid to the packing list.
• Download your map/directions to your phone, and/or have an old-school paper map as a back-up. (Rand McNally, anyone?) If you are sticking to the main interstates, you’ll be fine, but if you wander off the beaten path at all, there are vast swaths of land- miles and miles- where cell service is non-existent. Your phone will go into SOS mode, and your GPS will have no idea where in the world you are, particularly in Wyoming, Montana, Oregon, northern California, the California desert, and parts of Texas. How did the pioneers travel the country with horses and covered wagons, navigating by sun and stars?? These thoughts are humbling.
• If you need to get gas or use the restroom, do it when you can. Don’t count on “Oh, we’ll just wait til the next exit…” That next exit may not be for 50 miles or more. Again, our country is big. We are small. Some of our bladders are small. You get the point.
• Pick a souvenir. Whether it’s a coffee mug, or a kitchen towel, or a magnet, or a sticker, or a coaster, pick up the same trinket from each attraction or destination. I didn’t have this idea until 3/4 of the way through the trip, and we currently have an odd assortment of souvenirs. Not a bad thing, but still, it would have been cool to have a more curated collection of similar items from all over the country.
  (Barry suggested early on we should pick up coasters from each stop, but I didn’t think we’d be able to find them. I was wrong. Now we’re probably going to buy them from Amazon. Shhhhh! Don’t tell anyone!)
  

Barry’s Notes

I did a mini-interview with Barry to get his perspective, and to see what some of his takeaways were from this trip.

• “Lean into the crazy ideas of your spouse. Trust them.” (I’m not making that up! He really said that! 😂) “This is not something I would have ever thought to do, but I’m so thankful for the time spent with our family, and the chance to enjoy this incredible country.”
• “Talk to strangers, and take the advice of the locals. One of our airbnb hosts gave us tips on how to get the most out of Yellowstone in a day. Others gave us restaurant recommendations. A couple in a coffee shop in Wyoming suggested a different road than we’d planned, and we enjoyed beautiful views and historic sites like Medicine Wheel because of it. A new friend told us the best place to view the Golden Gate Bridge. An old-timer in a remote mountain cafe gave us menu suggestions, and the food was so good we bought extra to have a picnic lunch in the redwoods.”
• “Trust God and enjoy the journey. Let go of your worries and don’t let fear of the future block your path. I think this is especially important because I was interviewing for jobs the entire trip. It felt risky at times, but if you’re going to choose this adventure, embrace it enthusiastically. Be all in. Approaching it half-heartedly will only cause you to miss out on some of the joy set before you.”

A Few Last Words

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.
So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor.
Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
-Mark Twain

“What was your favorite place or thing you did?”

Nearly everyone has asked this since we’ve been back, and I don’t really have an answer. The unexpectedly beautiful state of South Dakota? The rainbow-bright Grand Prismatic Spring? Crater Lake with its sapphire waters? Driving though a giant redwood? Wine tasting under the California sun? Sipping my morning coffee on a bluff overlooking the Pacific? Laying on top of a picnic table in the middle of the midnight desert, gazing at the Milky Way? Or the hours spent in a rough-and-tumble Jeep with my favorite person, talking, singing, laughing, listening to podcasts and learning Italian? How on earth could I pick a favorite thing??
In a way this trip reminded me of a cruise; we stopped in places long enough to get a feel for the landscape and culture – long enough to know which places we’d like to explore more thoroughly. So my response to this question goes hand-in-hand with the answer to something else I’ve been asked:

“Is there anything you’d do differently?”

The only things I’d change would have added another month to our trip, and I’m not sure that would have been feasible! I could have spent at least a week in Yellowstone, and taken a few extra days to visit the Badlands and see the Laura Ingalls Wilder village in South Dakota. I would have stayed an extra week in Seattle to visit the city and take the ferry to the peninsula where we used to live. I would have loved an extra day in wine country, and maybe enjoyed a few beach days in Malibu or Santa Monica. I could have taken an extra day or two in Texas to visit Magnolia Market in Waco and maybe go to a Texas A&M football game.
I certainly don’t regret any of the decisions we made – while our time frame had no limits, our resources certainly did! Now I have a list of places I hope to visit again, and that is never a bad thing!

We’ve been back in Chattanooga for almost a month now, staying with friends and still on the job hunt. Our vagabond summer turned to autumn, the pages of the calendar falling like leaves, and the holidays quickly approaching. This trip was such a gift – not only to behold extraordinary scenery and appreciate some of our nation’s history, but also to witness the bonds that connect us all. From the sprawling cities of Chicago and Los Angeles to the smallest towns of only a few hundred souls, we met individuals whose stories defied stereotypes. And the usual divisions—race, gender, politics, income—fell away. Because in those face-to-face moments, you glimpse a truth that rarely makes headlines. Kindness. Generosity. Humor. Strangers sharing meals, stories, laughter, hugs. You see the connection and unity that truly defines us, the American spirit we assume is of a bygone era. It is still out there – stronger than ever, woven into everyday moments across the country.
You just might have to turn off the news to find it.

Thanks for tagging along with us on this cross-country tour! If nothing else, I hope you are inspired to pursue your own crazy ideas, take a chance on what the future might hold for you, and cherish the beauty that surrounds you every day.

“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have
if only we seek them with our eyes open.”
-Jawaharal Nehru

Til next time, shine bright friends!
~Dawn 🌻