We are going to take this opportunity to remind ourselves that we still have to finish our "best of" posts and reflect upon our amazing time.  Thanks again to everyone who helped us out as we went along!

I am going to investigate the possibility of showing these photos at galleries in the area, a daunting possibility.

At 1:30 p.m. I met with Christine from Area, an emerging travel website.  We had initially met at the New York Times Travel Show and took the opportunity to sit down and discuss how we may be able to help each other.  We talked for about 90 minutes and I felt that things were quite productive and positive.  It seems to me that if Julia and I can pinpoint specific stories, towns or activities that would best lend themselves to Area’s market and format, we should have no trouble contributing in one way or another.

I’d love to go into more detail, but it’s already after 4 a.m. and I could use some sleep.

We haven’t forgotten about our “best of” posts, either!

We did have a little time to explore the travel show as well.  Julia especially loved seeing the penguins and sloth at the Busch Gardens / Sea World booth and the Cayman Islands booth brought back memories of when her family used to visit every year.

We weren’t able to spend as much time at the show today as we would have liked because we had to catch the 7:07 p.m. train back to Darien, but we are glad we were able to attend the show and it was a productive experience for both of us.

Be sure to keep checking in with our new blog for other stories and photos and keep checking back here for our “best of” post(s) which should be coming as soon as we finish re-reading every single post from the trip.

Here are a few photos from today.  Click “there’s more to this” to see them all.

A penguin at the Busch Gardens / Sea World booth.

A girl practicing for her performance.

A performer waiting.

Semi-creepy duet.

A bearded dragon.  I have one of these and I can confirm that they are awesome.

A culinary display.  I particularly liked the mirror above the stove.

At 11:30 a.m., I listened to a 90-minute talk by Reid Bramblett, the creator of ReidsGuides.com.  He discussed the basics of maintaining a travel website to a group comprised mostly of members of the Society of American Travel Writers.  He was scheduled to speak again at 2 p.m., so I spent some time cruising the show grounds.  Things were still being set up for the public opening tomorrow, but I did have the chance to photograph the ribbon cutting ceremony at 2 p.m.  As soon as the ribbon was cut, I hurried back to Reid’s seminar on more advanced website theory.  The crowd was smaller this time around, but just as engaged.  After he wrapped up his talk at 3:30 p.m. or so, I spent a few minutes speaking with him and a few other people from SATW or other organizations before making my way back out onto the show floor.

I did get to talk with a few organizations on the show floor as well, but most of the people I will want to talk to won’t be at the event until tomorrow, so Julia and I will be sure to go back.  I haven’t shown the portfolios to anyone at the show yet, but there should be an opportunity or two to show them off tomorrow.

Meanwhile, here are a few photos from the show today.

The ribbon cutting.

An ethnic display at the show.

A sloth at one of the booths.

Our interview went very well.  We were on the air on Monday, February 18th from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., during which time we discussed the basics of our trip.  An hour seems like a long time to talk about something, but we could probably blab about our experiences for a whole day without running out of material.  Instead of writing out a story about the interview, I will simply post the interview in MP3 format.

Click here to download our interview on the UConn radio station, 91.7 WHUS (54 minutes, 10.38 megabytes).

Please note that the recording begins five minutes into the interview.  We want to thank WHUS for having us on the air, it was a lot of fun.

Now, we are working on our “best of” post(s), which should be up in a few days.  We are being very thorough, reading every post to make sure we don’t miss a thing, so be patient and keep checking in.  Also keep an eye out for our experiences at the New York Times Travel Show on Leap Year weekend!

Here are some photos from the studio!

Julia in the studio.

“Deirdre,” our interviewer.

I will post the interview on here after we’ve been on!

Also, we would like to know what your favorite photos have been from our trip.  Please look through the posts or my SmugMug and comment with your favorite photos (be sure to say what the photo is of and what day it was from).  We would really appreciate it!

First of all, we are going to be interviewed on the UConn radio station, 91.7 WHUS!  We will be in the studio and on the air next Monday, February 18th, at 1 p.m.  You can listen online at the WHUS website and feel free to call in and ask us questions!

Also, we will be attending the New York Times Travel Show on Leap Year weekend.  We are looking forward to documenting our experiences there and also hoping to meet people from throughout the travel world.  In particular, we are looking forward to a seminar on travel writing, but I’m sure we will be overwhelmed by hundreds of booths and travel professionals.  Hopefully, we will be able to learn a lot from the experience and also walk away with contacts and ideas that will help us in the future.

If things go well there, we may consider other travel shows in the future.  There are two massive travel writers conventions in San Francisco later this summer that would be great to attend, especially since we are hoping to publish our story.  The first is the Ultimate Travel Writer’s Workshop and the second is the Book Passage Travel Writers & Photographers Conference.  These are just ideas for now, but if things work out, they could be good resources for us.

We left West Suffield, CT on July 16, 2007. Our 1993 Chevrolet Suburban had 217,325.7 miles on it when we left – it has 239,093.4 miles on it now. We have visited 35 states and 23 National Parks. The Suburban has needed four new tires, a new fan belt, a new clutch rotor, a new water pump, a new alternator and a bunch of other bits of maintenance. Data has eaten 844 cups of dog food. We’ve nearly hit a bear, an owl, a few cars, three elk, a handful of deer, about a dozen horses and about 600 rabbits. Data swam in three Great Lakes and two oceans. We woke up, ate, posted and went to bed 211 times.

There are hundreds of ways to put numbers to our trip, and there is some merit and intrigue to that perspective. It’s the stuff between the numbers, however, that really made this trip what it was.

Our friends and family were extremely generous to us at every turn, and for that we owe them our thanks. Our parents have offered us their complete support and love, without which we may never have left Connecticut. By providing us with comfortable beds or floor space or even just a new voice at the dinner table, the people with whom we met along the way have been a big part of our trip. More than that, their stories have become part of our story.

We have encountered all sorts of other people over the last seven months, as well. From dog parks to Death Valley, strangers have given us restaurant recommendations and new perspectives. Though I would like to think Julia and I were both sociable people before this trip, the fact that we were surrounded by new faces nearly every day has helped us learn not to take other people for granted. Everyone we’ve met has had something to say and we appreciate that.

We set out to see America, and it didn’t disappoint. Before we left, we could scarcely imagine the variety of things we would see. Sure, we could read about the places we planned to visit, but seeing wonders like Badlands National Park in person is a completely different experience. Beyond that, we realized that we live in a country where cities of millions can coexist with towns of dozens. These days, when people think of America, it often has a negative connotation thanks largely to recent political blunders. Fundamentally, this country is truly great, a fact I may not have appreciated seven months ago.

Data has been the best possible companion to us on this trip. Before we left, we knew we would never cease to be amazed by him and we were right. We would swoon without fail every time his lips flapped in the wind as his head hung from the window. We could barely contain our pleasure every night as he would snore, grunt, growl and twitch in his sleep. No matter what may have gone wrong in the day, the sight of Data curled up in some contortionist position on the back seat would always bring a smile to our faces. We’ve tried to see much of our trip through Data’s eyes – even speculating as to exactly what must go through his mind at any given time. He’s been able to see and smell more in his short life than most dogs will experience in a lifetime, yet he still has the spirit of a puppy. It’s difficult to tell whether Data is better off for being on this trip or we are better off for Data’s company. Ultimately, all that matters is that the three of us took this journey together and each of us benefited the others.

Which, of course, brings me to Julia. For the last seven months I have had the privilege of spending nearly every minute of every day with my best friend. I cannot imagine this trip without her. Every day that passes leaves me feeling as though I know her better than I had the day before. We’ve been all across America and seen more than we ever imagined, but none of it compares with what we’ve seen in each other. At the risk of sounding corny, this trip has cemented in my mind the fact that she is undoubtedly the love of my life.

This should have been the easiest post for me to write on this entire trip, but it has been the most difficult. There are so many ways to recount this experience, but none seem to truly do it justice. There is still more to be said. Over the next few days, we will put together posts detailing our most and least favorite places and experiences across the country. We will also begin a new blog, which will be located at blog.brettmickelson.com (it is still under development, but should be up and running soon).

It’s easy to be forlorn by the conclusion of our trip, but the more I think about it, the less it bothers me. As I type this, Data is snoring on the ground and Julia is laying next to me and I realize – for us, the trip has just begun.