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1. This is a driver’s country. The roads we have driven have been, in general, superbly maintained, achingly scenic more often than not, and generally, largely devoid of traffic. We have had exactly two traffic holdups since our first overnight leg from maine. The first due to bison rubber-necking in yellowstone, which is quaint enough that it shouldn’t count, and some Sunday night weekender traffic yesterday coming into madison. I have not taken for granted that we chose to drive a vehicle, that while certainly not a sports car, is a heck of a lot more enjoyable to drive than a sluggish, loping RV or a truck hauling a large travel trailer. Sure there have been a couple nights where the RVers had a better night sleep, but that is no big thing in the end.
2. This trip has been like a trip around a large, lavish buffet table. You’re hungry, the food is splendid, you need to take a walk around the table in order to figure out which sections to return to fill your plate. I’m looking forward to an opportunity to take a closer look at some of these places, someday. I can’t count the number of sights and attractions we have blown by at 70 mph that we all would have liked to visit, but just didn’t have the time. Yellowstone alone could take months to experience properly.
3. The challenge of age, activity level, family situation, and fitness. There were moments of great difficulty from time to time presented by watching people who were generally, younger, fitter, and not constrained by children, and who didn’t have a comprised knee who were embarking on much more ambitious adventures than we could hope for on this trip. Longer hikes, backpacking, biking, fishing, kayaking, boating, white water rafting, etc. – it all looked amazing, in spectacular country suited perfectly for the purpose. They were mostly much younger.
We did almost nothing that involved getting out of each other’s site. (I tried that once or twice, Maggie made it clear that such plans were not acceptable, unless for a very short period of time!). But I have no complaints about what we accomplished of course, our plans we made based on what could achieve as a unit, without an unacceptable level of misery. This trip has been designed to foster in the kids a curiosity of travel, a sense for the size of the country we live in, and an unanticipated benefit I had not considered, an excellent backdrop for their further education in history, geography, and earth sciences. I have no doubt the experience with enrich them, in at least a small way, for the rest of their lives.