Be a Traveler, Not a Tourist

I was writing my annual Christmas letter just before Thanksgiving when I realized just how much traveling Terry and I did this year. Some of it was by air (NJ to California for Xmas 2004, Terry by air to Nashville for conference) but most was by truck, usually hauling the travel trailer. Since much of our travel involved getting from one place to another as quickly as possible, we found ourselves on the interstates. I was reminded of the following from Charles Kuralt:

Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything. ~On the Road With Charles Kuralt

The interstates have a rather blah appearance. Get plopped down on one anywhere in the country and you’d have a hard time telling where you are. In the developed areas you are usually looking at shopping malls, office parks or industrial centers. In rural areas the interstates bypass all the small towns so you’re looking at fields of crops or range in the area between the Appalachians and the Rockies and either forest corridors or sound barriers in the rest of the country. You really don’t see much of America.

Of course when you fly, it is even worse. Not only do you not see America by flying over it, you don’t even get a real feel for its size and open spaces. At least when you drive across country you begin to get a sense of just how big this country is. From NYC to San Francisco will take you 4, maybe 5, hours to fly but 4 days to drive. To go from the Canadian border to the Rio Grande will take you 3 days to drive. (This is assuming you drive no more than an 8 to 10 hour day at 75 miles an hour, stop only for meals and do no sightseeing. At that rate, it takes you nearly a full day just to drive east to west across Montana!)

We travel too often with a destination in mind forgetting the saying goes: no matter where you go, there you are. By that I mean that we should spend time looking around us as we travel instead of just being concerned with passing through. Stop and search out the small towns. Find out what makes the people tick. Look for the unusual attractions and not just those that are heavily advertised. Be a traveler and not just a tourist as per this quote:

The traveler was active; he went strenuously in search of people, of adventure, of experience. The tourist is passive; he expects interesting things to happen to him. He goes "sight-seeing." ~Daniel J. Boorstin

When next we hit the road, I will be trying to avoid the destination fixation and stay off the red lines on the map. Of course, with a 27-foot trailer, I’ll have to spend time on the larger blue roads or risk not being able to navigate the road at all.

A Brief History of the Interstate Highway System
A Brief History of the US Highway System
Highway History from the US DOT


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