Miles, musings and memories
Trip Start
Jun 08, 2008
1
16
Trip End
Jun 20, 2008
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Saturday, June 21, 2008
We saw a soldier at the Milwaukee airport apparently headed home. We could only imagine how good it felt to him to be on his way home.
All in all, we put on over 1,800 miles on the rental car. We never paid more than $4.39 for a gallon of gas. Considering the horror stories we were hearing about gas prices out west, we considered ourselves lucky. You can't put a price on the beautiful scenery we saw. This is a trip everyone should make in their lifetime, regardless of the cost of gas. Scenic Hwy. 12 is a must-do!
We toured mostly in Utah, but we are still commenting about the vastness of the United States and what a beautiful country we live in. We also appreciated that we were free to roam back and forth across state lines with no check points, security or paperwork required. Thanks to men and women like the soldiers mentioned above, we do live in a free country. And what a beautiful place it is!
We can't even begin to add up the number of times we climbed in altitude, only to exclaim OMG or some such phrase at the vista before us on the other side. We never got tired of the views. The people we met spoke many languages, but were all friendly and kind. What we saw put things into perspective as far as how small our part is in the bigger picture.
Another great part of the trip was when we were able to connect with our family and friends via cell phone or email. No matter where we were, that connection to our family is what makes us complete.
As we flew over Milwaukee, we realized while the southwest is beautiful, we missed the oaks, maples and other green trees of our area. We missed the smell of the rain and the thunder and lightening of our storms. We missed, okay, I'll only say this once, the humidity. Already my skin feels better and less dry! Yes, it's a dry heat out west, but when you get over 100 degrees, heat is heat and it is hot! LOL
I have well over 1,500 pictures to remember this trip by! I only wish I could have figured out how to get some of them uploaded onto this blog to share. Maybe our next adventure I'll have it figured out. This was my first try at a blog, so I feel good just getting something down in writing for every day of travel.
It's good to travel. It's good to see the way others live. It's good to be home.
Hope you enjoyed this journey with us as much as we did!
Joan and Joe
