Ron and Kathy's Mid Life Adventures: August 2026

Touring a Gilded-Age mansion in Newport RI

We just completed an eight-week, 8500-mile road trip around the United States. This was our sixth cross-country trip with our 20’ Airstream since 2016. Those don’t include shorter trips in the West. So, what was it like this time? What has changed? What were the highlights? What’s it like being on the road and in campgrounds?

We weren’t very enthused beforehand and thought it might be our last. We knew all too well how boring or stressful it can be getting through some stretches between Salem and the East Coast. And we always worry about accidents or breakdowns. But, even with a few minor incidents, it turned out to be a very good trip, and we may do it again.

Not straight to and from western MA this time. Some familiar,
but many new roads. And with Georgia, South Carolina, and
North Dakota we've been to all 50 states over past 49 years.

Partly what made it so good is that we traveled new routes and experienced new things. This time our goal was Savannah, GA, then north along some of the Atlantic’s barrier islands to Newport RI and the Berkshire Mountains where we co-own a home with one of our daughters. We drove down the beautiful east side of the Sierra Nevada range and then west across the South. Not a good idea in June! We just had to pay our dues and get through some big empty stretches in very hot weather as quickly as possible. How travelers survived without air conditioning as recently as 40 years ago is beyond us.

What’s Changed over the years?

We caught this just in time!

Believe it or not, the roads are better! All the construction underway in the past is completed. Of course, we still had some construction delays here and there. And we still had some very rough roads in AZ, NM, PA, IN, the New Jersey Turnpike, and IL. In fact, the titanium attachment of our bicycle rack snapped off in a very rough patch in New Mexico, necessitating a three-day layover in Fort Worth to get it repaired. And some of those roads jarred our interior doors and cabinets loose. We soon ran out of duct tape!

The traffic, especially truck traffic, is worse. In some stretches of I-40, I-20, I-80 and I-90, semi-trucks outnumbered cars four-to-one. And 25% of them were Amazon, UPS, FedEx or Walmart trucks. It wasn’t fun being wedged in with them at 70-80 mph. (We never went 80!)

Somewhere between DC and New York City

But I guess we’re used to it by now, and it didn’t bother us like it used to. And truckers are generally more courteous to us than others.

We saw fewer RVs on the road, perhaps because of gas prices and schools in session until mid-June. The public campgrounds have even bigger RVs but very few tents these days. And in the commercial RV parks where we often stayed, we noticed a high percentage of sites occupied by “full-timers,” probably due to the high cost of housing. We also noted how much more expensive campgrounds cost compared to a few years ago or in off-season. They used to be an average of $25 per night; this time $40. A couple were over $100!

A not so great stay, all to ourselves in Mobile, AL

A great stay at a city park in Sauk City, MN.
The hometown of Sinclair Lewis.

The Highlights?

We had many, too many to list. The biggest one is simply the process of doing it and our time together. We (especially me) are

The bridge on Cape Hatteras Island

scenery geeks who love watching the landscape transform almost hourly behind the windshield. Sirius Radio and two historical and three novel audio books kept us company, as did the pleasant voice of our GPS system. We would drift off to sleep at night with her frequent “Route recalculation” phrase in our ears.

We are also history geeks, so we were in a high school history teacher’s heaven at so many historical places we had only read about: Vicksburg, Selma, Montgomery, Fort Sumpter, Yorktown, and Kitty Hawk, just to name a few.

A Union ironclad ship, the Cairo in Vicksburg,
Sunk by Confederates, but raised in 1963

The new Obama and Teddy Roosevelt Presidential Centers were top in this category. More about them below.

6-week old Langston's first outing

As always, seeing friends and family is a highlight. This time was extra special because we got to see Nati and Jasmine Zavala’s their newborn, Langston, in DC. (Nati was our mentee since he was 7.) We also dropped by to visit Feruza, who is 8 months pregnant, and enjoying life in Mt. Kisco, NY. As usual, we thoroughly enjoyed spending time in the Berkshires with my brother Neal, daughter Skyler, her partner Spencer, and their friends. Good food, good Tanglewood Festival, and good times floating or paddleboarding on Little Robin Lake.

Visiting a sculpture garden at Edith Wharton's
estate on the 4th of July

The Obama Presidential Center (“Library”)

The Obama Presidential Center! What can we say, other than that it surpassed our expectations and left us feeling happy, but also wistful for an era of hope with presidential decency and dignity gone by. The architecture was stunning and much better in person than in photos. Chicago is a city of in-your-face big architecture, so in that sense the statement it makes fits right in. The inside was even better with stunning artwork and 6 of the 8 stories filled with the history of the Obama era. (Two stories are their personal and work spaces).

The lettering at the top is an excerpt
from the speech Obama made at the
60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday
in Selma, AL

Like the five other presidential centers we have visited, it put the former president into a good light. But unlike the other centers, it was more about the future and political change than it was about the past. Also, unlike the others, it was highly interactive, relying on dynamic graphics and footage. The prevailing mood of the visitors (mostly from Chicago) was joyful. Of all the places we have been, we never had to wait 30 minutes to get into the museum store to buy swag, or to be photographed in front of a sculpture.

Just some of the amazing art inside

Having fun being co-presidents

We stumbled upon tickets by luck. It’s sold out until January; but the library, commons, sky view, park, community garden, gymnasium and playground are free and already well-used. It seemed like half of South Chicago was there for a fun Sunday afternoon. I made a public post about our visit with a few photos on Facebook. Most (95%) comments and reactions were positive, but I still can't believe the vitriol, racist, and hateful comments and memes from people I don't know.

The Teddy Roosevelt Presidential Center

Amazing views, lots of wildlife, and no crowds

After our visit to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin in the beautiful dells of Wisconsin west of Madison, we pressed on through the end of the heat dome in North Dakota to the new Teddy Roosevelt Presidential Center and the surrounding national park named after him. The TR National Park gave us the beauty of the Grand Canyon and the animals of Yellowstone, but without all the crowds.

The TR Presidential Center was stunning, and quite a contrast from the Obama Center. We loved how it blended into the landscape and took advantage of it at the same time.

Visitors can enjoy the view on top of the sod roof,
large enough to park two 747s

Because TR has been dead for over 100 years, this center offered perspective and objectivity on TR’s life and presidency. It focused much more on his pre-and post-presidential life. It was even more interactive than the Obama Center. Seeing an AI photo of yourself as TR in different stages of his life or asking him questions and getting AI generated answers from him at his oval office were novel and fun.

The entry lobby. They used pressed
stone, to replicate the geological
formations at the TR National Park.

Whereas the mood in the Obama center was joyful and political, the mood here was downright fun and inspirational. It encouraged visitors to be their best selves and make the world better. It is definitely worth the visit! Interesting connection between the two centers: TR was a prolific writer, and the mockup of the Obama oval office contained many of his books.

Home Sweet Home!

North America, east to west, north to south is huge, varied, and beautiful. We come back with more appreciation for this great land, the First Nation tribes that initially lived in it, the pioneers who settled it, and the people who inhabit it today. No matter where we were, people were friendly, regardless of what their bumper stickers said.

We’ve been home for two weeks now, and it feels great! Our life at home is such a contrast to the life we lived in a world of five-lane urban freeways, lonely two-lane roads, truck stops, semis, endless horizons and traffic jams, small towns, large cities, campgrounds, and dump stations. We didn’t realize it at the time, but in our air-conditioned cocoon with a good sound system buffeted by rough roads or crosswinds, we were almost always in a state of decision making and concerned about mechanical issues, safety, road conditions, wind, hills, route changes, the weather, and where we’ll sleep next. But that’s the allure, and that’s what made it an adventure we’ll always treasure. As the saying goes, it’s the journey that counts. But with some of the destinations we experienced, we got the best of both worlds.