Update 59 Trip Reflection

Update 59 Trip Reflections....   February 2011

America the beautiful!  What a true and awesome statement!  During the course of this trip I was struck again and again by the beauty and diversity of our country.  I find it amazing that we have stayed one large country over the years.  To be an American living in a democracy, flaws and all, can be considered a precious gift that we often take for granted.

Learning the history of our country from a more personal view via docents defined the process more than any text could ever do. The sites we visited gave us insight to the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Civil War, WWI, WWII, Korean Conflict,Vietnam, and right up to our current wars in the Mideast.   The forts we toured helped us know more about the people involved with the development of our country. See the capitol building was more interesting than I expected.

Visiting the home of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, and Franklin Roosevelt added to that knowledge.  The extreme brilliance of some of these leaders was astounding. Of course in their time people may have considered them less than brilliant.





Derrille and I enjoy the wonders of nature.  We visited 42 National Parks (monuments, historical sites, battlefields) on this trip. I couldn't begin to count the number of state and provincial parks. The ones we enjoyed the most include:

•  Niagara Falls, NY....the warm day and cooling water as we got wet on the boat ride and on the cave walk mingled with our laughter added to the natural beauty.

• Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia.....the giant granite rocks rising to create a mountain of rock next to the sea could have held our attention for days.

• St. John, New Brunswick .....the reversing rapids and 28 foot tides of the area were mesmerizing to watch.

• Diamond Cave, KY...this small but spectacular cave was the prettiest of the ones we visited in Kentucky and Tennessee.

• The Everglades, FL....so unlike our preconceived ideas, so full of wildlife and yet very calm above the daily struggle of life for the inhabitants. Seeing about 60+ alligators was an adventure, as was watching the herons, egrets, ibis and other critters that came into our view.

 We found our lifetime National Parks passes very helpful when you get to visit those 42 parks for free.

The hikes through Watkins Glen, Cape Breton and other places created warm memories. Each state offered us special memories that can be found in the blogs and photos of those places.

The trolley rides through Chicago, Ottawa, Montreal, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Savannah and St. Augustine provided a fun way to see the city and hear about its history.

The changing of the guard at Arlington was presented with such precision and somber attention to honor all who died for our country. It's rare when the audience watches an event in absolute silence.

We have now traveled the Pacific coastline from San Diego to Alaska.  We followed the Atlantic coastline from the Canadian Maritimes down to Key West, and back to Texas along the Gulf of Mexico.  I find that I prefer the Pacific coast. I like the large rolling waves. The Atlantic coastal waters are so shallow by the beaches and without the wave action of the Pacific. In the few places where we did see bigger waves, we also saw thousands of people.

The seafood surprised me too. I do like a good lobster roll. The Stone Crab claws were delicious and I liked the alligator we had. I had some good catfish too. The Blue Crab didn't do much for my taste buds, and they are so small.  It seemed to me that much of their seafood came in sauces.  They may have a larger selection of fish, but shellfish selections seem limited. The selections on the Pacific coast are more appealing to me, but that may be just because that's home.

The goal of this Once-in-a-Lifetime trip was to visit the Canadian Maritimes, and all the eastern states I've yet to see. We planned to hit the "tourist sites" that interested us. That goal was accomplished. We have now been to 49 of our 50 states, touching 37 states on this trip alone. We went through 5 provinces which leave only Saskatchewan and Manitoba to see.  FYI: We will have driven 16,000 miles in the RV and an additional amount in the car...which at this writing is now getting a new transmission.

For those of you interested in gas prices we discovered they tend to rise where ever you are in the states. We know that Washington is high because of the taxes.  San Diego is high, because it's San Diego. The rises we witnessed between Tennessee and North Carolina may have been more nationwide than regional. Coming back across the southern states we noticed that the big truck stops along the highway were often higher than the smaller individual stations in the towns.

The trip was planned with the hope of avoiding tornadoes, snow and hurricanes. We did well there. However we did not anticipate as much frigid weather as we encountered. We were told more than once, my goodness you came at our coldest year yet! Who would have thought we needed ski parkas and mittens on the outer banks.

One of the negatives about traveling late fall is that many attractions are closed for the season. One of the positives was few crowds. The singular roads on the outer banks must be extremely vexing during the warmer weather.  We also found that we tended to skip some attraction, like Williamsburg if they appeared to look like a repeat of something we'd seen before and included a large price tag.  On a shorter trip we would go to these attractions and check out most of the local sights.  We also saw the southeast in the late fall. A spring trip would show us more beauty in the trees. Perhaps these trees that the Anhinga perches on may be greener too. Of course the alligators would be hungry too.  This trip may have been better if split between two spring seasons.  However, Derrille said we would only go back there once, and I planned it that way.

We saw many interesting things: museums, churches, boat rides, plane ride, etc. and truly enjoyed the experience.  We've been asked "What next?", and I don't have an answer.  Right now we plan to head down the Oregon coast in the fall; stay in San Diego a couple of months and then return to Sun City again next year. After that?  The middle states in our country just beyond the Mississippi River could use further exploration, but we'll see. There are also a couple of national parks in the west we haven't checked out yet.

I've collected 11 boxes of photos, so if you want to see more of a specific area. Just give us a call in May and most of June to come see them.

I've enjoyed writing the blog.  I now hope to work on my book about RVing.

Thank you for taking the time to read the blog and allowing me to share our trip with you.


Dorothy