Analyzer
Master Member
endless long straight highways....
In June of 2021 I volunteered to drive my wife's friend across country from Philadelphia PA to Phoenix Arizona. Around 2334 miles (3772). They were moving out there and had animals as well and they did not want to fly or did not want to make the trip alone for safety reasons
Basically I would drive, then when we got to Phoenix, we would part ways and I would fly home and she would continue on for a few hours more to her final destination. I took advantage of being out there and booked a hotel for a few nights so I could drive up to the Grand Canyon before flying out
It took us over four days of driving 8 to 10 hours a day, staying at some hotel over night (separate rooms of course)
However for me the time went by kind of quickly as I spent so much time looking at all the scenery along the way.
The mountains in Virginia and Tennessee were really cool but the scenery in New Mexico, Northern Texas and Arizona was stunning. And as you mention the feeling of vastness was overwhelming
Some ranches in Texas and New Mexico were so big you could be driving on the highway for 10 to 20 minutes and still be on the same property
Parts of Texas we so flat and open with nothing there that it was like looking out on the ocean where you can see the curvature of the earth, except it was land. I remember watching a sunset there and since there was nothing blocking the horizon you could actually see the shadow of the Earth rising opposite the sun setting
I would wind up making the same trip again twice more!
First in reverse direction in Jan of 2021 to help bring here and the animals back home for a visit with her mom, and then did it once more in Feb of 2022 to take her back out there again
Going back out violent storms had us take alternate routes so I got to see states and things I did not before. That time we took a route than went through Roswell New Mexico, the infamous UFO capitol
Something else new on the way was the rolling Flint Hills of Kansas. What seemed like an endless wave of hills with flowing grass nothing else in site for long periods of time
I was also surprised to find New Mexico had very mountainous and forested areas, I had always thought of it as a flat desert, but running right down the middle s like an oasis
Though I think my favorite place is Arizona. I had just about every terrain type and climate. On one of the trips I remember it being Sunny and 60° F in Phoenix, and driving up to Flagstaff and in that span of the 2.5 hour or so drive it went from desert like, to lush mountainous forest covered in snow and being below freezing
As someone who has lived in or close to a city all my life, some of the places along the way were so remote and out there it was overwhelming how vast and lonely things could be. Definitely makes you feel small
at any rate, enough rambling on...
I looked up Mackinac Michigan It does look like a really incredible place. Maybe one day I will make it there
