5 Lessons We've Learned in Two Months of Travel

Today is November 7, 2017.  We left Utah on Thurs. Aug. 31 and have been on the road for 68 days - 2 months and a week.  Wow!  It's flown!  But at the same time, we've seen so many things and been so many places that I feel like I've lived several life times!

We've gone around 8,800 miles and have driven through 24 states!

Here are some of the things we've learned along the way:

#1 - Canvas tents don't like humidity and condensation

During our first month on the road we were taking our time getting from Utah to the East Coast.  We planned to visit family along the way and camp a lot.  We bought a wonderful spring-bar style, 10 man canvas tent.  It was easy to put up and easy to take down.  It fit the 6 of us perfectly and we loved camping.  Then we got to Ohio.  Our first night in Ohio was clear and beautiful.  We woke up
the next morning and our tent was soaked!  Had it rained in the night, I wondered?  Nope.  The canvas tent had just absorbed humidity and condensation from the air.  We were still cozy and dry inside, but the canvas was soaked!  It took direct sunlight until 2:00 in the afternoon for it to dry out enough for us to pack.

Our goal with camping was to have an inexpensive way to sleep and then get up early the next day, pack out and get back on the road.  A tent that takes more than half the day to dry wasn't going to let that happen because if you know anything about canvas tents, you know that they have to be completely dry or they mildew when you pack them.

After only 3 nights of camping, we had to quit.  We were only moving into more humid areas and we didn't have time to let our tent dry out.  Bummer!  We adjusted and stayed in hotels instead.  But we're still packing around a tent, sleeping bags, blankets, pillows and air mattresses that we don't use any more.

#2 - States in the Northeast have toll roads

We started hitting toll roads around Pennsylvania.  Almost every interstate
freeway is a toll road in the northeast.  No biggie, a dollar or two here and there wasn't bad and it keeps the roads in good condition.  But after a few weeks of slowing down and paying our toll at a toll booth, we realized that an EZ Pass would have been much easier.

I was introduced to EZ Passes when my sister moved to Cambridge, MA.  She has one and can zip right through toll areas and she's billed for the toll.  So I  knew that an EZ Pass would help us in Massachusetts.  What I didn't know was that all of the states use EZ Pass.  If we'd bought the EZ Pass before we left, it would have saved us quite a bit of time stopping and paying cash at the toll booths.

You can use the EZ Pass in all of the following states: Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia and West Virginia.

Here is their website if you want to check it out before traveling in the Northeast.  EZ Pass

What was the most expensive toll we've paid so far?  The New Jersey Turnpike.  We drove on it for about 2 hours from New York City to the Pennsylvania state line near Philadelphia.  It cost us $29.45!!!

#3 - Ranger Presentations in National Parks are the Bomb!

If you can time it right, try to listen to presentations by the park rangers in National Parks.  We were able to do that twice, at Mt. Rushmore and at the Wright Brothers in Kitty Hawk, NC, and it made all the difference in what we experienced at the National Parks.

It's one thing to briefly read the brochure and look at a monument, but when someone tells you a story of what happened there and why it's important to them and to America, it's amazing!  You get all kinds of details that you'd never get in a brochure and the rangers LOVE what they do and are excited to share it with others.

At Mt. Rushmore we heard the ranger in the Sculptor's Studio and learned so much about how the presidents were sculpted.  She explained things I never would have understood if I'd just been looking about the museum and trying to figure it out myself.

In Kitty Hawk, the ranger did an inspiring 40 minute presentation on why what the Wright Brothers did there changed the world forever.  He passionately reviewed what happened there on that momentous day of the first flight and told us that that day represents the death of impossibility.  Nothing would ever truly be seen as impossible again because man had learned to fly that day.  I'll never look at the Wright Brothers the same again.

Without the rangers our experiences would not have been the same.  We will always try to attend ranger presentations from now on.

#4 - Hotels often have rooms that will sleep 6 people if you look for them

Once we had to give up camping and stay in hotels we were trying to do it as inexpensively and conveniently as possible.   With 6 people we don't fit in a regular room with 2 beds.  So we would get 2 rooms, one for the boys and one for the girls.  Occasionally we would happen up on a room that would sleep all of us.  We finally realized that there were plenty of rooms for 6 if we looked hard enough.  Usually it was a suite with 2 beds and a sleeper sofa.  Not ideal, but for one night, totally doable.

Most of the large chains have the family suite rooms.  We would typically pay $70-$80 a night each for 2 rooms.  But once we started looking for suites, we could find them and sleep all 6 of us in the same room for around $120-$130.    Not a huge savings, but a savings.  And it was much more convenient to all be in the same room instead of having to go back and forth multiple times at night and in the morning when you realize that the toothpaste is in one room and your tooth brush is in the other.

#5 - I really do LOVE the ocean

After spending some time near the ocean, I have realized that I do really love the ocean as much as I thought I would.  I've never spent a lot of time there and thought that after a while I would get used to it or even get tired of it.  But neither has happened for me.  Hearing the waves and seeing the endless stretch of water still makes my heart happy and is every bit as healing and grounding for me as it was the first time.  I really need an ocean in my life for the rest of my life!

***Bonus lesson - Bug spray gets permanent marker out of clothes

With a 9 year old boy, you don't even need to ask why I know this!  But yes, it really does work.  Spray the bug spray all over the Sharpie mark and blot the Sharpie right out of the cloth with a paper towel.  Then wash like normal.   Abracadabra!  Good as new!