Trip Reflections

Some Statistics:
















Days away from home: 52

Average cost: $150 per day (under what we had budgeted for our trip) see chart for breakdown.

Online friends we met face to face: 8

Miles covered: over 11,000

Oil changes: 2

States visited: 18

Camping: 1 night

National Sites visited: 20

Presidential Libraries visited: 4

Time Zones we crossed: 4

When we watch the news and read the papers, we see so much bad stuff about our world. Yet, when we traveled around the country, I saw so much goodness. It gave me lots of hope and good feelings about the world we live in.

It was so thrilling to meet my plurk/twitter friends in Kansas because it was a new experience for us. Usually my husband is very skeptical and wary about meeting new people because he has seen such meanness in his courtroom I guess. Sometimes he feels that I’m too naïve and open to strangers (don’t we worry about our children and students in the same way?) I think this introduced him to a lot of goodness that can be found on the internet. First we went to the Cosmosphere to meet HowieG who was so gracious and welcoming. He really was the catalyst for making this a great experience for us. It was really neat to be in a restaurant and having Lulubell come up and introduce herself to us because she had seen online that we were going to dinner here and wanted to come meet us. The next day we met HowieG, Joel, JerryB and Tom for lunch at this awesome BBQ place and that night, KevinH, Honeymic, Lulubell, and HuskerFan joined us for dinner too. I think it helped my husband see who I talk to on the internet each day so he could relate to what I’m talking about and who I am talking about.

I also had a digital scrapbooking friend that I’ve known online for a couple of years and we finally got to meet in person. Meg brought her children too and we all searched the Oregon tidepools for treasures. I felt so comfortable around her and her children as if I’d known them for years. We were able to go out for lunch and enjoy each other’s company. This was also another way for my husband to experience my life on the internet too.

I still can’t believe that wonderful lady in the antique store in Oregon got us a free night at a beautiful condo just because we needed it. She didn’t know us and hadn’t ever met us before but offered it to us when she heard that we were going to look for a hotel room. Nothing major bad happened on the entire trip which was a relief. Sometimes I would find myself worrying about getting sick or something happening to our car or getting in an accident but I would make myself stop anticipating the worst. While we were in Durango, our car battery was dead but a quick call to AAA had a tow truck arrive to jump us off. Since we didn’t have any other problems, all we can think is that we left something open or on that ran the battery down while we were on a train ride all day. Every time we turned on the TV and saw more news about the swine flu, I wondered if we should hurry home but we decided not to let this affect our trip.

Seeing different places and experiencing different weather was exciting too. We were in high winds that topped 18 wheelers, saw it snow, experienced a blizzard, drove through dust storms and deserts, and waited out tornado watches/warnings. We saw high elevations with huge amounts of snow that were high above our heads as well as sand dunes that were equally high. At times we were at the Pacific Ocean in Washington and Oregon and then other times we were over 14,000 feet in the Colorado Rockies. We went through all four time zones of the United States.

To see pictures about our trip on Flickr: Click HERE.