10,612 miles. 30 states. (And the District of Columbia) 31 different beds.
We saw all of our children and all of our grandchildren. We saw Mark's parents, all of Mark's siblings and most of our nieces and nephews. That was wonderful.
We found the trip to be a few weeks too long and a few miles too long. We did pace ourselves by staying in places for long enough to recover from the driving. (Long stays - Lee, MA, Missoula, MT, San Diego, Las Cruces, NM, Atlantic Beach, FL, Charlotte, N.C. ) But, we did find the drives took a lot out of us physically. Ideally, we'd prefer drives of 4 hours a day, but that's just not possible when traversing our big country.
It was a wonderful trip. We had amazing weather with few days affected by bad weather. We had great conversations with friends, family and strangers. We ate well and had more picnics than we've ever had before. (lots of peanut butter and jelly)
We loved seeing our family members and friends, especially as the pandemic had prevented us from seeing many of them, especially David and Maura in Montana.
We saw huge disparities in relation to COVID. Some states/cities were very compliant (Portland stands out) and some were defiant about masks and distancing. (S.Dakota, Texas stand out) It is the first trip we've taken where we felt the hostility of the country's division. (Mount Rushmore stands out.) We self-tested before we met with any of our loved ones and that was reassuring.
Overall, we felt like we packed wisely and used almost everything that we packed. Next time we will try to remember to bring a night light as hotels seldom have them.
