Wanderung 3

Rocky Mountain Ramble

May - July 2003

Epilog

What did we learn from this trip? Some lessons, like “tent zippers don’t last forever” were pretty mundane. We’ll definitely need a new tent unless we buy a RV in the meantime, and we have already started looking at them. We figure our truck can pull a lightweight RV that could be up to about 25 feet long, so we are looking for either a 5th wheel or trailer of that size and in our price range. If your curious how that worked out, see Wanderung 4.

Other lessons, like “the arid southwest is really dry and hot” might be obvious to anyone who lives there. But the degree of desert conditions across such a wide swath of territory was somewhat surprising to us. Being used to trees, bushes, and grass that grow all on their own, I just couldn’t imagine what it would be like to live in that kind of climate. But I expect that there is a beauty in the appreciation of sun, sand, and sagebrush that develop in the folks that live here.

Still other lessons are quite serious. The National Parks, for example, seem like they are being gradually privatized. Real Rangers are much harder to find than they were 30 years ago and that trend will probably continue. We saw evidence of long-deferred maintenance, abandonment, or deterioration at each park we visited. The ongoing privatization of the campgrounds may ultimately change the parks from being inexpensive and open to all to being exclusive experiences that are sold to the highest bidder. It would probably be more honest, but politically unacceptable, to just sell them off and be done with it, but I don’t expect that will happen anytime soon. But I would certainly recommend that if you want to see these magnificent natural treasures of the U.S., don’t put it off too long.

State and local parks vary a great deal on their quality. For the most part, we enjoyed staying in the state parks but some were less pleasant than others. We found that we seemed to need to take an occasional “hotel break” to get really clean and sleep in a comfortable bed. Folks made of sterner stuff can probably do without this, but for us to keep traveling over a span of two months it felt necessary to indulge ourselves once in a while.

Having a reliable vehicle was a real boon. We were often way out in the boondocks and sometimes on unpaved roads that made us thankful for 4-wheel drive. However, to be honest I think any normal car with 2-wheel drive could have traveled all the roads we did if the driver would carefully compensate for the more limited traction. But it was so nice to not have to worry about breaking down in the middle of nowhere like we did on our first trip west after I left the Army. There is a time of life where you don’t mind taking risks, especially when you are young. But I guess I’m in a time of life where I certainly will avoid unnecessary risks, thank you very much, altho my definition of “unnecessary” might be a bit different than most normal folks. In my view necessary risks include driving motorcycles on winding roads, flying small aircraft over mountain ranges, and things like that.

The big lesson for us was that we could still take long cross-country camping trips like we did 30 years ago and have a nice time at it. We certainly have less energy than we did back then, heal more slowly, and take more naps, but I think we have just as much fun seeing the country and the people. For one thing, I think we understand and appreciate things better now than we did then, probably due to more life experiences and background. For example, back then we were “pre-children” and now we are “post-children”, so we can certainly better understand what other parents are coping with! Or as Will may put it, “Although much is taken, but much abides.”, and enough abides that we can see the world, or at least the parts of it we want to.

Copyright 2004 by Robert W. Holt and Elsbeth Monika Holt
Prolog Map Epilog

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