I travel to see friends and family … 95% by road. Although I have been to many “tourist traps” in several states in the past, especially when my kids were younger, I have avoided them in the past decade or so. I would rather visit people in their homes or have adventures with them (i.e. winery-hopping, skiing, jeeping, hiking, etc). I travel for adventure and to see my peeps. I don’t care if we sit at their kitchen table and look at old photos and drink coffee most of the day. Or put photo albums together. Or tour their miles of leased land in their dirty-but-comfortable dually pickups to check livestock tags and count heads. Or visit family gravesites with flowers. Or ride horses. Or take a potluck to a family party. Or ride around in their restored “vintage” cars. ETC.
Except for the (crowded) Napa/Sonoma “crush” season and certain ski holidays (MLK and Presidents Day, which I now tend to avoid, due to long lift lines), I would prefer going off the beaten path to places where animals outnumber people. I have the Rubicon Trail and the Grand Tetons/Yellowstone still at the top of my “bucket list.” :=0
As an experienced “motor-lodge queen extraordinaire,” I don’t get up to leave the next morning until I am rested as the next motel or the friend/family member I will stay with the next night don’t care when I arrive.
I have driven coast to coast several times in 3-3.5 days (SD to/from GA/FL) with another driver where we alternately slept and switched drivers, never stopping for lodging. During those years, we both worked FT and were more pressed for time. But I am too old to do that now and my eyesight is not as good at night as it once was. I now drive just 7.5 to 11 hours per day … and possibly one day per trip I drive about 13 hours.
Due to a condition I “inherited” (vertigo), I don’t do well at all with turbulence on planes, especially over the airports I would have to land in. And I have rented and borrowed many vehicles while on vacation and don’t care for them … due to the frustration of getting an unfamiliar vehicle (frequently in the dark) with no time to figure it out. I like to have my OWN vehicle with me and I want the freedom to come and go as I please … everywhere … or even completely change my plans at the drop of a hat.
Now, if we could just get rid of the east/west roving, makeshift “Homeland Security” forced vehicle immigration “checkpoints” along I-8/I-10 which delay and interrogate AMERICANS in their OWN DAMN COUNTRY, road trips would again be what they should be … the ultimate freedom.
A very tall, beautiful wall built at the int’l border should do the trick :=]
Having traveled by road thru ~20 states multiple times on multiple highways, there is so much to see in this great country of ours! You can’t see anything from an airport terminal while you are changing planes. It’s the best learning experience you will ever have or could ever give your children. For those who have never done this, you should try it sometime! It will open your eyes.
