My first thought was all the wonderful, helpful souls we have met in our travels. We have never had a truly bad experience (other than a couple of morons who made fun of my mentally handicapped son...grrr.) But we have had innumerable people offer to help us back up, hitch up, start a campfire, raise a tent, and even share their gumbo!
My second thought is how big America really is. I had never been farther than the Mississippi River, but in 2007 we took the kids on a 6,000 mile cross-country trip. There are many memories of that trip, but one that stands out took place in the privacy of my mind. We were crossing eastern Washington through fields and fields of potatoes, carrots, onions, and soybeans. For the first time I had an understanding of what America's breadbasket really means. As we crossed South Dakota into Iowa I had a similar revelation--here are the farmers and their families who work so hard to put food on MY table.
That's a along, gushy way of saying I fell in love with the USA in a way I had never experienced before.
