How Can We Choose Just One?

When we tell people that we were fulltime RVers, one question they frequently ask us is what is our favorite place in the country. That’s like asking a parent which child is their favorite.

We have so many “favorites” that I could never choose just one. One winter Terry and I made our first visit to the Texas Gulf Coast, and fell in love with the area around Fulton/Rockport and Port Aransas. We returned several times and always enjoyed it.

We lived in Arizona for most of our adult lives, and the desert has a certain beauty that delights us. Until you have watched an Arizona sunset, seen a sky filled with more stars than you could ever count, and been serenaded by coyotes as you fall asleep in the desert, you have not really lived.

We spent many summers on the Pacific Northwest coast, a wonderland of forest, rock, and water that we could never get enough of. From the tip of Washington’s Olympic Peninsula to the mouth of the Columbia River, and further south to the wonders of the Oregon coast, we love every inch of it.

We returned several times to Morro Bay, California, where we honeymooned 23 years ago and relived our memories as we strolled along the Embarcadero, drank in the salt air, and enjoyed the views of the rock monolith that dominates the bay.

You can see a thousand photographs of Mount Rushmore, but you still cannot comprehend the size of those sculptures until you see them in person. Visit South Dakota’s Black Hills once, and I guarantee that you will return again.

And there are plenty of wonderful places in the Midwest and further east. The little river towns along the Mississippi River in Missouri have mostly fallen on hard economic times but they have a charm that we remember fondly. We’ll never forget driving along the back roads of the Ozarks one spring when the dogwoods were in bloom and we passed mile after mile of scenes that took our breath away.

We love the architecture of the East, with those magnificent old buildings that were built back in the days when craftsmen put part of their heart and soul into every project. Give me a 150 year old structure over the fanciest new glass and steel building anytime.

I’ll always remember walking Boston’s Freedom Trail, touring the museums of Washington, D.C., and watching the Atlantic’s waves crashing over the rocks at Thunder Hole in Maine’s Acadia National Park.

The South has its own beauty and personality. We love the mountains of Tennessee, the swamps of Florida, and the beaches along the Gulf Coast from Panama City, Florida to Gulfport, Mississippi.

Did I mention New Orleans? Hurricanes and hard times will never keep the Crescent City down, and we have spent many happy hours listening to jazz in the French Quarter. But let’s not forget the sparkling waters of Grand Traverse Bay in Michigan, or the wild Upper Peninsula. Or the grand old towns along the Ohio River. Or the magnificent Hudson River Valley. Or the bluebonnets blooming along the roadsides in the Texas Hill Country. The list goes on and on.

There are so many places we have fallen in love with and can’t wait to get back to again. Still, if we do, what about those other places we have yet to discover? When will we have time for them? Choose just one “favorite” place? It can’t be done!

Thought For The Day – The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.