One of the most common questions we've gotten during this trip, aside from my "favorite" - Where are you from? (which can be answered in this old blog post), is "What's your final destination?" Ummmmm..... That's difficult because our final destination is really a return to where we started - Albuquerque. That's where we're "settled" for the moment and where we have to return on August 1st. But that's not where we're going. See the thing is this trip isn't about driving to one hyped up place and experiencing it. This trip isn't about ending up someplace fabulous. This trip is about the journey. It's about all the amazing places "in between".
For those of you who haven't seen, here is our loose "travel plan" for this summer:
We left Albuquerque on May 28th and we'll return on August 1st, but we're not going any place in particular. We're exploring areas a bit at a time. We have semi-specific time frames set out for each area, but these are mainly to ensure that we make it back to Albuquerque for the beginning of the school year. We have researched enough about each area to know some general things we want to do in each area, but that's really just a jumping off point.
You see often the best experiences are not planned and planned experience often don't live up to the expectations you have for them.
When we were in Southern Utah, one of the big things I wanted to do was visit Zion National Park because I had heard such amazing things about it. I was sure it would be amazing. The expectations in my head were already built up the experience to astounding proportions. Unfortunately due to issues with our RV (just some overheating because of the mountainous area) we were parked almost 2 hours away from the park. We did make the drive down, but we chose the wrong day, as it was 105 degrees out and the park was packed. It was also a Sunday which meant that the ranger programs (which were required for the Jr. Ranger badges) were at really weird times. All in all, we never ended up hiking at Zion, although we did play in the river. It was a bust day and we all ended up feeling a little bit dissapointed. That is until we got back to our dispersed camp site in the middle of Dixie National Forest. We hadn't planned to camp there, but it was convenient when the RV was overheating. However, that was one of the coolest camping experiences of the entire trip. Tucked away in the forest away from civilization, the ability for the kids to practice making a big campfire with their fire starter, tons of stars to look at each night, it was great. So was Bryce Canyon which was much closer to our campsite and much cooler in temperature.
A few days ago, we visited Golden Spike National Monument which was cool, and we learned a lot. It was on the plan. What wasn't on the plan was meeting a lovely mother and daughter who suggested we stop by Spiral Jetty. This huge man made earth sculpture is on the side of Salt Lake and it's amazing. It laid underwater for 30 years and has only been visible since 2002, but it was fantastic and impactful and mesmorizing. We went down and hiked around it, meeting a lovely couple from Belgium a long the way, opening us up to having a great conversation in French.
Then just today I had planned this great history lesson for my kids at the Minidoka National Historical Site. We turned up and realized there really wasn't much to see. However, a little bit later we drove across an amazing bridge over Snake River Canyon while looking for a grocery store. It was beautiful and amazing and completely unplanned, but we got out, hiked, took pictures, visited the visitor's center and enjoyed.
This trip is teaching me to focus on some universal truths that I kinda knew, but never thought about:
1.) The journey is way more fun than arriving at a destination.
2.) Expectations can turn a good experience into a bad one.
3.) The best things in life are not planned.
Since we aren't quite a third of the way through our trip, I'm sure I will learn more and more as we go and I'll be happy to share those thoughts here.
