Additional thoughts

While international travel certainly is sexy, frankly, traveling in the US holds a certain appeal. The US has a first class highway system that is well-marked and has many well-appointed rest stops. When rest stops are not available, there are plenty of fast food restaurants and truck stops for use. There are 59 national parks which are part of 401 units (including US monuments) that are included in the jursidiction of the National Park System. They are great to go to, unless of course the government is in shutdown, which it was during our trip. The smart phone makes traveling so much easier, although obtaining maps and guide books from AAA was instrumental in planning and effecting our trip. While the Google-maps application was fairly reliable, it was good to be able to look at a map to reconfirm directions. The guide books help in finding hotels and give information about various attractions. There are great websites to give detail input about attractions and restaurants. While we focused on going to hotel chains to ensure consistency in our night stays, when it came to restaurants, we wanted to sample the local cuisine. We used the smart phone applications to find the best restaurants in the area we were in. We were never disappointed. While our trip was a little bit like the movie, "If its Tuesday, it must be Belgium," with us running from town to town, for us it was a good sampler of the south. We did get to go to Crystal Bridges Museum, The Clinton Library, Graceland, and The Grand Ole Opry, while offering us the opportunity to see family in Texas and Florida. I think that in the future we will probably focus on a smaller geographical area as during our trip we hit 11 states including New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. That is 20% of the country (yeah I am analytical). One thing that our travels did show us is that most cities have started to look alike. Similar malls and people are very similar. Obviously in the south, the homes are older and their economics and the Civil War have had a significant affect on their culture. It seems that while we live in the very transient west, the people of the south have many areas where they tend to stay in the same communities and seem to have more extended families. In Natchez, MS for example, it seemed like a lot of folks were related to each other and everyone seemed to know everyone. We feel blessed to know a few of our neighbors here in Mesa, which is 180 degrees from what we found in Natchez. We live in a great country where we are free to travel and have very few limits on us. Every once in awhile we have a chance to realize it. Thanks to all that helped us during our trip including Eric, Lindsey and Sydney, Stuart and Jane, Janet and Ralph and Marty in providing us a place to stay or keeping an eye on our place during our absence. Gary and Felice