Six Observations on Another Cross-Country Road Trip, 2023 Version

Outside the Gettysburg Museum

 We're back now from our 4th cross-country road trip since 2016.  This one was shorter: 6,993 miles and 33 days.  And it was the first time we drove straight home without any layovers, taking nine full days of driving.

Each time we have taken a different route: across Canada, through the South, or upper Midwest.  This time we took a lower Midwest route which enabled us to bicycle a couple segments of the Katy Trail, a rails-to-trails path through central Missouri. It also gave us the opportunity to tour the Eisenhower and Truman presidential museums/libraries, Mark Twain's home, and Gettysburg, which also had Eisenhower's farm and retirement home. Somehow, we dodged the heat, floods, most of the wildfire smoke--except in Gettysburg and South Dakota.

Part way through our trip I published a blog with photos about the Eisenhower Museum and one about the Riding the Katy Trail.

The Eisenhower Museum

At a trailhead of the Kathy Trail, a State Park
that is 240 miles long and 100 feet wide

Our ultimate destination was daughter Skyler's home in northwest MA in the Berkshire mountains. This was the highlight of our trip. What made it so fun is all of her friends, plus daughter Feruza from New York and Nati and Jasmine Zavala from Washington DC.  And the food!  The photo link below reflects remarkable restraint in not including photos of all that we ate or drank. Besides eating , playing on the lake, and hiking, we saw James Taylor and heard the Boston Symphony at the Tanglewood festival.

The Becket estate and fun house

Hanging out on Little Robin Lake, Becket MA

At the James Taylor concert before the rain

One of several group-cooked meals

Adult Garden Games

I was going to wax eloquently about the whole experience.  But I reviewed previous posts and concluded that they conveyed many of our thoughts about what it's like to drive across the US and back.  The links to some are at the bottom, and I encourage you to read them. If nothing else, the photos say a lot.

But I have a few observations and takeaways from this trip: 

First, camping is sociable again!  The contrast between this trip and our 2020 and 2021 camping was hard to miss.  People now talk to one another in stores, gas stations, truck stops, and especially in the campgrounds.  It felt so good to connect with strangers and watch kids play in the campground playgrounds.

We passed this in heavy winds in the Columbia
Gorge.  It caught up with us in Idaho the next day.

Second, there are many more and larger RV's.  People are camping again, and living large on the road. We speculate that this was pent up demand from Covid restrictions and the supply chain issues of 2021. Some of the people we visited with now live in their 5th-wheels or motorhomes by choice full time, but some by necessity.

Third, there are many more wind turbines.  They are no longer just in the West, but all the way to the East Coast.  That also made for some tense moments passing the big rigs carrying the towers and blades. And speaking of wind, this year it seemed like we were constantly battling crosswinds, headwinds, and gusts.   

Fourth, there is more traffic, especially trucks.  People are back on the road again.  With 80 mph speed limits in some states, trucks passing us--especially in windy conditions--were good reasons to grip the wheel firmly.

Lunch stop with the Big Dogs

Fifth:  roads are better and under construction.  Difficult construction zones we passed through in 2021 are now smooth as glass.  But more than the last three trips combined, we spent many miles in construction zones.  On a 487-mile drive to Gettysburg, we encountered a 25-mile one-lane construction zone up and down the curvyAllegheny mountain roads.

Sixth:  America is BIG and beautiful, and--inspite of our divineness,  its people are still  friendly. I said this in the previous posts (linked below) but it is worth repeating.  Although we completely missed the desert Southwest this time, the contrasts are what make it so beautiful and interesting.  We loved watching the landscape transition behind the windshield within hours or days.

Downtown Welcome, MN in the distance

We kept losing track to time and
place, so we used this white
board in the trailer.

As always, it feels good to be home reconnecting with friends and enjoying the comforts of home.  And it feels great to not be behind the wheel or in an overly-cozy trailer.  But I'm sure that within a week or two, we'll get the itch to hit the road and go camping again.

Here is the link to our curated photos, more or less in chronological order. 

And if you're interested in our comments from other trips, here are four more posts with photos.  They were more expansive and better said than in this post:

Reflections on a Cross-Country Road Trip from 2016

The Vast Midwest from 2019

Six Weeks and 8,800 Miles, Back to Eden! from 2019

Only 2500 Miles to Go from 2021

"What We Can, While We Can; What We Could While We Could."