We traveled through at least 15 to 20 new states and some that we hadn't been in before. We both decided that Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina and South Carolina looked about the same. What fascinated us greatly was the way the wild vines covered everything. You could drive by ravines and it looked very surreal and eerie the way they consumed everything in their path. We were told that some of those vines were at least 100 years old! It was very educating for us and we imagined that someone coming upon our civilization in the future would find this very interesting as well!
One of the most disheartening things to us is how many of our American hotel and motels are run by foreigners. It seems as if the whole quality of the industry has been lowered in that aspect. We found very few motels and hotels that had good hygiene standards or even had anyone running it that cared about the consumer staying in them. We saw rooms that were filthily and in great disrepair. When things were reported, they were fixed with shoddy workmen ship or not fixed at all. We, as consumers here in America aren't looking for perfection by all means. The regular, middle class consumers are looking for a decent, clean place to sleep while traveling. There are many older hotels and motels out there that are actually nice although they may be a little dated. We were appalled at the attitude these foreign owners took with us and other consumers. They were rude, pushy and domineering. There was no flexibility for some of us who came in late in the evening before. Some of the hotel and motel owners didn't even have ice machines or garbage cans in locations where consumers could use them. There were signs on the ice machines directing consumers to the office for ice if needed. We stayed in a few, disappointing motels along our journey and we also were privileged to stay in a few nice ones. The majority however, were poor at most and these were nationally known chains. It seemed to us if the foreign owners wanted our business that they should take a little more pride in their ownership and really try to give the consumer a pleasant lodging experience. Most of the "continental breakfasts" were just meager. The food that was offered was cheap and non-nutritional. The hours of the breakfast were usually not user friendly for those consumers that came into the hotel late the night before. It made us feel sad that persons calling themselves "Americans" would offer this type of service. Perhaps they need to review what being an American really is.
Most of the states that we visited on this fast paced trip were clean and pleasant. With exception of a few, already named individuals, all of the people we encountered were wonderful and friendly. We especially enjoyed the Southern hospitality in the lower Southern states. These folks were eager to assist and to offer interesting information about their state and city. We were fascinated with the history that presented itself to us. We learned a great deal about each state and their resources. We found a lot of geocaches on our trip. There were a lot of regular, ammo can caches and this was a nice change to the urban micro container caches that we usually get when traveling to other states. Our weather was perfect and we only had rain on one day. However, that rain storm was quite impressive as rain storms go. I was able to capture a little on my camera which was interesting at most.
All in all, I was able to dip my feet into the Gulf of Mexico while visiting Mississippi. It was pretty warm and not at all what I was expecting. I collected sand from several of the states and plan to make an interesting memory of our trip. We did lots of Geocaching and I took over 400 photographs. We visited some really interesting places, one of which was Billings Oklahoma. Although it has the same name as my city, we actually could put this little town in one corner of Billings Montana. They appeared to be struggling quite a bit with some damaged buildings. We noticed they were rebuilding them while we visited. The day we stopped, the temperature was 113 degrees! I commented to my husband that I had never been to a place that was 113 degrees before, ever in my life. I snapped a photo of the sign that recorded it so I could show to my co-workers back at work.
We will be venturing out on another trip to California sometime next year to break up the long Montana winter. It will be exciting to geocache there again. We also want to take another trip back east to finally get the elusive Delaware. So cheers for now! Freedancer
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