Last summer, I marked a significant item off my bucket list: visiting all fifty states in the United States. The last state on my list was North Dakota, which is so often the last state for people that they give you a certificate and a T-shirt if you visit it as your final state on the list.
My family marked off many of the states together, taking weeks-long road trips across the country when I was younger. We would set out in our van in a world before smart phones and GPSs (I know!) to visit all the Laura Ingalls Wilder homes from her Little House series or to see Niagara Falls or drive Route 66.
We were not plane people; we were road trip people. We didn’t set out with any reservations, which meant some interesting accommodations along the way. We would follow the map and our interests—if we saw a billboard or a brochure for a unique stop, we would go.
While I also love and recommend international travel to those able, travel in your own country is often more accessible and still offers such a wealth of experience and opportunity to learn.
Here are a few of the lessons I learned while traversing this country on great American road trips:
I learned practical life skills and flexibility.
Many times, due to my dad’s work schedule, my mom would set out with my sister, my grandmother, and me for these cross-country road trips. I quickly became the navigator. I learned to read a map, find a hotel, change a tire, and know when to call someone to help. Even though we now live in a world of smart phones, these skills translate (and are still needed if you travel out of service range!).
We saw God’s hand of protection many times when our old family van gave out. We learned to give thanks and to be flexible.
Our trips, almost without fail, would be interrupted by something—storms, car issues, sickness, and so forth. My sister and I learned early on to go with the flow. We also learned to laugh our way through the hang ups.
We also only had the outline of a plan whenever we would drive, because we wanted the opportunity to see what interested us. We loved having the flexibility to follow our curiosity.
We developed a curiosity about the world around us.
Because we drove most places, and we didn’t have a TV in our van, we spent a lot of time looking out the windows. We would stop at rest areas and get brochures for nearby attractions. We’d read books set in the places we were going to visit.
We learned that we could find answers to the questions we had—how did the people live here centuries ago? What is a “corn palace”? Where did Route 66 start and end and what kind of people drove it? What do the people in this small town do for fun?
The more we explored, the more we wanted to explore.
Our country is vast and varied and beautiful.
Driving from coast to coast allows you to see hills, deserts, plains, forests, canyons, and mountains.
My mom required us to keep journals as we traveled. So many of mine are filled with admiration and awe of the Creator because of the beauty of His creation. He could have filled this world with the same practical landscape throughout. How wonderful that He chose to give us beauty in so many ways!
Seeing the variety of landscapes also helps you grasp the variety of people who are our literal and figurative neighbors.
I had a writing professor in college who always asked us for the population of the town we grew up in. He knew the setting in which we grew up had an impact on the way we thought and wrote. When we have the opportunity to see the places our fellow Americans grew up in, to chat with them in line, and to see the things they are proud of, like museums and parks, we get to know a little more about how they think and what they value.
When we get to know our neighbors, we can find it easier to pray for them, to serve them, and to love them like Jesus.
While the majority of my travel around the United States looked like riding in the passenger seat of a big green van without the aid of technology, I kept traveling as I got older. Sometimes I flew, sometimes I used my passport to explore the wider world, but the lessons learned and memories made on those road trips cemented in me flexibility, curiosity, and wonder for the world and the people around me.
ABOUT ELIZABETH HYNDMAN
Elizabeth reads, writes, and argues about the nuances of punctuation. Officially, she’s an Editorial Project Leader at Lifeway. She managed to find a job where she uses both her English undergraduate and her seminary graduate degrees every day. Elizabeth grew up in Nashville, sips chai lattes every chance she can get, and believes everyone should have a “funny picture” pose at the ready. Follow her on Twitter or Instagram.
