We traveled a total of 8030 miles in 24 days, and I took 4,459 photos for 168GB!

We saw rain on the first day and the last day, and very little in between.  We had one very windy day in Washington, and we saw lots of smoke – way too much – in Oregon.  Otherwise the weather was very pleasant, not too hot, not too cold.

We live in a beautiful country.  There is something for everyone, and the scenery changes by the hour.  Except perhaps in Kansas, where it changes a bit more slowly.

It’s interesting how you can tell when you have entered a new state.  It’s not an immediate change, but if you took a picture before and another after about an hour, you can tell.

People ain’t staying home!  The roadways and motels are all pretty full, especially the interstate highways.

In most places, people were well behaved, doing all the disease prevention stuff and generally staying away from each other.  Hotels have used Covid as an excuse to not clean your room or provide breakfast, but as long as we can get coffee that is perfectly OK with us.  Chain hotel breakfasts are usually not that good anyway (except sometimes the waffles!).

We have generally been avoiding “chain” restaurants for several years.  But a few times, due mostly to convenience and location, we found ourselves at a few chain restaurants – Red Lobster, Outback and Rafferty’s to name a few.  They were OK and we didn’t get sick or die!  We still avoid “fast food” except to pee.

Mostly with eating out is that you just need to think about where you are.  For example, don’t try to order fish in Nebraska or Montana – they know beef and pork.  In Washington or Oregon?  Chinook salmon in Washington is amazing, plus they have freshwater walleye and trout – no problemo.  In Montana?  No fish.

Carrying our own food and having most breakfasts and many lunches on the road saved us time and money, and by avoiding all those restaurant meals we each gained less than 3 pounds, a miracle for us.

We saw lots and lots of RVs and travel trailers of all sizes, shapes, speeds and apparent driver ability.  It’s a little scary that people who can’t pull their Buick into a parking place straight are now driving tour bus-sized behemoths.

It’s interesting that in many cases the larger the motor home or trailer, the more crap that was hanging off the back or on top or in a vehicle being towed behind.  Boats, 4-wheelers, golf carts, motorcycles, bicycles, etc.  I guess people are trying to prove that you can take it with you after all.  How about just taking less stuff?  Hauling all that crap around is not my idea of getting away from it all.  But I guess that’s not the point.

Despite all the RVs on the road, all across the country we saw dozens of sales lots with hundreds of units sitting unsold. Plus many more storage centers with units sitting in storage.  Who has that kind of money to just let stuff sit around?

We saw nothing to convince us to buy an RV.  Or to get a dog.

As is often the case, the famous places (which we avoided) are packed with people while the less famous places are empty. We were literally the only visitors we saw at Fort Larned National Monument and George Washington Carver National Monument – both in Kansas, which might explain something.

Thank goodness for US Highways.  No trucks, virtually no cities, lots of passing lanes and 65-75 mph speed limits.  We use them whenever we can.

I don’t know what they’re hauling, but there are many more trucks on the road than I ever remember in previous travels, especially on the main interstates between major cities.  Between the trucks and the RVs that can’t or won’t maintain the speed limit, driving the highways can be nerve-wracking.  But we managed!

An informal poll of people willing to put up political signs gives a decided edge to the incumbent.  No conclusions can be made of this data, as the margin of error of this poll is +/- 50%

It’s amazing how much better things seem when you stay away from the news!