Comments On This Years Trip

Our Winter trip lasted sixteen weeks, we covered 8,862 miles in the coach, and 3,647 miles in the Jeep as we toured the areas we stopped at.

We saw a lot of interesting places, met a lot of nice people, and traveled some of the most beautiful roads and scenic byways in this country.

When asked what we thought was the best place we have traveled, it was difficult to answer because there were so many that would fit into different categories.

An example would be Savannah Ga. as the most beautiful old city. In past trips I would have to say Utah for there National Parks which we would pick Zion and Canyonlands as the best, and if you enjoy the prairie and the old west, it would have to be Texas.

We do not enjoy traveling the highway unless we are in a hurry to get to our next destination. We'd rather take the back roads away from the big cities because those roads take us to the small towns where we get to see how a good part of the people in this country live.

The thing that surprised us the most is the level of poverty in so many of these small towns yet we found the people to be very friendly and happy. We passed through one town where there were people lined outside a soup kitchen, and as we passed these people waved and cheered at us. We were probably the first motorhome that ever traveled through their town, maybe they thought we were some rock group!

We also found that so many of the campgrounds in the south and west were populated with people living in their trailers with their BMW or Mercedes park outside. These people lost their jobs and homes but kept their high priced cars. We talked to one couple that had everything they could save packed into their van and were traveling in search of work.

Then there were the people of New Orleans. Most of us don't realize that so many of those people are still rebuilding there homes after the flood. We drove through the 9th ward and were so surprised that the people of this country are still in need of so much yet we see advertisements on TV asking us to give to the people of other countries in need. Am I missing something here??

And the one thing that Joyce and I both noticed is that the population in these poverty areas strangely seem happier and less stressed than the individuals living close to the cities and trying to hang onto their jobs.

There may be people that read this and think that I am putting down those that "Have not" but that isn't the case. The point is so much of what is going on in our country is not mentioned or shown in the news.

We live in a great country that should be taking care of it's people first before looking to the needs of others.

I guess I got off track a bit but our eyes were open to things that we knew existed but didn't realize the proportion of the problem.

Anyways.........we hope that you will all continue to join us as our travels take us to the upper portion of the States. We hope to depart in July unless fuel prices go through the roof.