Glad to hear of your trip this summer. Look forward to hearing more about it!
I can't tell you how many times my wife and I get in our car after visiting other folks and comment that we're so lucky we get to do things "OUR WAY"! Isn't freedom a beautiful thing!!! You run your family, and I'll run mine.
We don't have a lot of travel experience. YET! But we do know that our trips have all turned out great. We've done them with differing philosophies, and they always work out great.
There are so many variables to the question. Age, work, mood, everyone on the same page, comfort of vehicle, and on and on...
Pushing hard on a trip is somehow tied into the level of adventure that we feel. In some sadistic way, we savor the things we work harder for. We did 3 days of 600 miles last year to get out and the same coming home. Doing it that way gave us all the advantages of more time in the places we wanted to be, but it also gave a unique sense of distance.
Many or most of you will think that makes no sense, but there's the beauty thing I was talking about earlier...you can do it the way you want.
We most often chose to hump it to our fullest ability to see what we want. We would not keep our trips local. We'd wear ourselves out and recuperate afterwards. It's just how we roll. :)
