# New mindset



## Ynot (Aug 26, 2014)

Wow, I just got back from a three week cross country tour of the south west. Over 7200 miles in a little less than 3 weeks!. Traveled thru Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada to California. On the way back I hit Arkansas as well as all the other states. 
I saw so much! There is nothing quite like spending 8 to 10 hours a day for 4 1/2 days traveling at 80 MPH to get a perspective about how big some of the west is. Prairies, mountains, high plateaus, higher mountains, valleys, more mountains, arid deserts, fertile valleys, coastal ranges, the sea coast, red wood forests, farms and orchards that stretch for miles! 
It rained everyday! The road thru Death Valley had water flowing over it!
Nothing outs your problems into perspective like seeing the world. Most of the stuff that I saw took millions of years to create and will be here millions of years after I am gone. To any and all of you struggling with your own issues - take flight. Go see the world! You will be glad that you did.


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## Hope Shimmers (Jul 10, 2015)

Ynot said:


> Wow, I just got back from a three week cross country tour of the south west. Over 7200 miles in a little less than 3 weeks!. Traveled thru Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada to California. On the way back I hit Arkansas as well as all the other states.
> I saw so much! There is nothing quite like spending 8 to 10 hours a day for 4 1/2 days traveling at 80 MPH to get a perspective about how big some of the west is. Prairies, mountains, high plateaus, higher mountains, valleys, more mountains, arid deserts, fertile valleys, coastal ranges, the sea coast, red wood forests, farms and orchards that stretch for miles!
> It rained everyday! The road thru Death Valley had water flowing over it!
> Nothing outs your problems into perspective like seeing the world. Most of the stuff that I saw took millions of years to create and will be here millions of years after I am gone. To any and all of you struggling with your own issues - take flight. Go see the world! You will be glad that you did.


That sounds great!

Sometimes I think a trip like that puts things into huge perspective with the rest of the world.

Did you just drive, or did you do some sightseeing/hiking in some of these areas?


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## Ynot (Aug 26, 2014)

I drove out and back with a friend who was born in San Jose area. Left on Tuesday morning and drove to Springfield MO. Visited the Bass Pro Shop there and had dinner in the rest. The BPS in Springfield is their largest. It was pretty cool. Then we drove to Albuquerque. Went to Old Albuquerque. Along the way to Kingman we stopped at Petrified Forest and the look out in Texas, near the Palo Duro canyon. From there we went north to Hoover Dam and did the tour, cruised thru Vegas (no stop) and went thru Death Valley. It rained all the way thru Death Valley, which was very cool. One of the washes actually was flowing over the road. After Death Valley we drove up thru the Palaminta Mountains and Valley which is just desolate waste land. The mountains were scary as hell! Switchback after switchback up 7500 feet with no guardrails. Then we drove down along the east side of the Sierra Nevada Mts back down to Barstow. From there we headed over the Tehachipi Pass towards Bakersfield and then up thru the Central Valley before crossing over the Coastal range to San Jose.

From San Jose we took day trips to Silicone Valley, Callistoga (Napa Valley), Carmel (Pacific Coast Highway), Big Basin (redwoods) and San Francisco (Golden Gate Bridge). Plus we toured around the San Jose area, where my friend had been a cop many years ago.

When we left we headed south and then east to Needles. From Needles, we dropped further south along the California border thru the Mojave desert before crossing over the Colorado river into Arizona. Passed thru Phoenix and Tuscon and kept going east thru New Mexico into Texas. In Texas we hit El Paso, and then made it to San Antonio, where we visited the Alamo. Then we headed back thru Austin, Dallas, Texarkana, Little Rock and Memphis. The last leg of our trip took us thru Nashville, Louisville, Cincinatti and back to Columbus, Ohio where it all started.
We really didn't stop a lot, but I saw so much and experienced so much. So many impressions of people and places. My mind was overstimulated I was having trouble sleeping most of the time out and since I got back. I finally slept for a bout ten hours last night.


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## Tillaan (Nov 24, 2016)

One of the things I have always loved is that moment when your driving and you leave town. Just as you pass the edge of town and are on the open highway on the way to somewhere else. Never gets old. The feeling is always there for me. Even with kids in the back seat being a pain I still love that first part of any road trip.

Of course my vacation history is limited to one when it comes to flying but the experience was the same. Feeling of freedom, escape from the normal but in a plane that happens on takeoff and is even better.

I like your idea, I'm making it a point to go somewhere this year.


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## SunCMars (Feb 29, 2016)

One of my all time favorite places is Death Valley. We have stayed in Furnace Creek a few times.

One time on a road trip through Death Valley our rental car started to overheat. Gee, I wonder why. Yes, it was in July!! We had already drank most of our water.

I turned the AC off and ran the heater to help cool the radiator down. Windows open of course. Everyone was getting awfully hot.

This dropped the temp down a bit until I got to one of the large water storage tanks that they place every twenty miles or so for emergencies. 

We had to wait for the radiator to cool down enough so that I could crack open the radiator cap and add more water.

I took the wife and kids with me about 100 feet off the road while we waited. 

We set up four beach chairs and a big beach umbrella that we bought earlier.

I asked them softly, "What do you hear?" Everyone said they heard nothing. Exactly, I said. You can hear nothing. Wow, what a strange sensation that was.

After a while, you can hear your own heartbeat, it is so quiet.


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## Emerging Buddhist (Apr 7, 2016)

Tillaan said:


> One of the things I have always loved is that moment when your driving and you leave town. Just as you pass the edge of town and are on the open highway on the way to somewhere else. Never gets old.


This is especially true on a motorcycle... 

My BMW has 125,000 miles of just this experience...


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## Ynot (Aug 26, 2014)

Emerging Buddhist said:


> This is especially true on a motorcycle...
> 
> My BMW has 125,000 miles of just this experience...


I have heard it said that the wind is the best therapist. I guess that would work whether you are sitting or tooling down the road at 80MPH


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