Road Trips

[DuckforcoveR]

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Legit or not, what's the best trip you've taken, OR the best trip you can imagine taking? Not opposed to air travel stories, but curious to hear from true wanderers and be inspired. 
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Your question is an interesting one to ponder indeed.  Some of the very best "trips" start out as ones you never expected to become what they ultimately did.  Equally, some of the most disappointing ones started out as the ones you had the highest hopes for. Yet others start out as what seem like a 'trip' and turn into a "journey of a lifetime", ones so life-changing you can't put your finger on a specific moment which was good or bad, but when looked at as a whole were life altering in ways which are almost indescribable.

For me, my most notable trip began on December 7th, 1995.  As much as I didn't want to admit it, life would never be the same after that day.  Even the "day" itself turned out to be surreal, lasting more than 38 hours.  On the morning of 8 December 1995 I awoke to a loud banging on a glass sliding window near my bed.  As I pulled the curtain aside in the darkened room I was greeted by a large adult male Macaque monkey on the balcony angrily trying to open the door, and a large yellow parrot in a nearby tree.  I knew, right in that moment, my life would never be the same.  I was both scared and oddly alive in a way I never had been before.

It would be two years before I would set my foot back in what I had previously called "home" back in Colorado.  I had returned in order to travel to Michigan just long enough to celebrate my parents 50th Wedding Anniversary.  And without even as much as a 24 hour bloc of relaxation, I was back on an airplane headed to the other side of the planet.

That "trip", if you could even call it that, contained every emotion I think a human being is capable of experiencing in a lifetime.  And, I was forever changed as a result.

I couldn't agree more if I tried. EVERY TRIP I've tried planning to a T has somehow let me down. I've had road trips to California with every hotel, rest stop, and restaurant planned in advance. One "took too long at the wayside" later and I'm crabby in the car that we missed the steak happy hour in Amarillo. 

The last 5 years or so I just use technology more and planning less. We drive until I can't stay awake and just look for hotels, motels, or campgrounds in the area. Much better!

But I'm very jealous that all my escapades are in the US only. Monkeys and Parrots would be enough for me to forget this all in a heartbeat.