Virginia

I rarely see people on the U.S sight talking about experiences that moved them while traveling state side. When you go to the European chat room everyone has a story. I think this is purely perspective. What has touched you when traveling across the U.S, be it an experience, a place, a person or a dish?

London

This isn't about US travel, forgive me. I was in London, just ambling around by myself one morning in a residential area when I found myself face to face with a statue of Eisenhower. It sort of surprised me that there he was on this very quiet residential sidewalk. The plaque said that he had lived in a nearby house during WWII. I was very touched to see that our president was memorialized this way.

s

Standing inside the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials in DC and looking at their grand statues and reading their words etched in the walls of the memorials - wow! Made me both proud and very humbled!

The vastness of the countryside always humbles me as well. The drive across the entire state of Kansas on I-70 which is much pooh-poohed by many always gets me. It is NOT completely flat, but rather interesting in a desolate sort of way in parts, and I try to imagine traveling over that land in a covered wagon - very humbling. I feel guilty as I speed over the land on leather seats, and air conditioning.

The first view of the rockies in the distance, traveling West to Colorado over I-70 again.

Anytime looking out over the ocean, imagining sailors 500 years ago, sailing for months at a time with no land in sight - wow - humbling!!

GatorGirl

The painted desert at sunset.......it was awesome all you could do was stand there and stare.........

Samantha

Visually, I get moved whenever I see the skyline when approaching a big city; viewing a major landmark such as the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco or the Arch in St. Louis; the beauty of Pikes Peak and the Rocky Mountains.

Kindness-wise, I'm always inspired ("moved" is probably too strong a word!) by the friendliness and helpfulness of people while my husband and I have made our many vacations across country and when needing assistance when in specific cities. No matter how many times it happens, it's always fun to have someone, after seeing our license plate, say "I'm from _____, too. What part of the state do you live in?"

dan woodlief

Driving through the NC mountains in autumn - just like a painting.

The Vietnam Memorial - especially when there are vets or Vietnamese there honoring those who faught

Civil War battlefields - It was so long ago, it seems, but whenever I (a Southerner) am walking alone along a battlefield I can't help but wonder at the courage it took to fight in those battles, and on more than one occasion I have said a few words of thanks to the Union troops who freed the slaves and brought our country back together again (if you are from the South, try to understand)

Just about anywhere (nature or in a city), out at the crack of dawn, walking around alone or almost alone with my camera.

The most moving of all - The Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. One of the few travel experiences that actually brought tears to my eyes.

Dinalydia

I grew up in the northeast. I was thrilled at my first view of:
1)Palm trees in South Georgia and Florida after a long dull drive down the east coast. I love the varieties of tropical foliage here.
2)The New Mexico landscape, driving the Turquoise Trail from Albuqurque to Santa Fe--the scrubby vista similar to that of Afghanistan--and then the beautiful mountinous road to Taos. The thousand year old Taos Pueblo.
3) Lake Union, Elliott Bay, and the beautiful waterways and mountain ranges surrounding Seattle, where I now live.
Each of these made me feel I was traveling to another country, so I am in heaven anticipating my first trip to Europe next month: 7 weeks and five countries.

Chris

Monticello (Thomas Jefferson's home) was very moving to me. It is a beautiful setting, beautifully maintained, and the tour guides are interesting and their stories moving. You feel his presence and influence.

Ellis Island was a moving experience, especially seeing the movie and then just walking and thinking about the place.

Jamestown (the original settlement, not the "show" place) was moving when you see the outlines of the original fort, the graves of those first settlers, and the foundations of the church where Pocahontas married John Rolfe.

The Vietnam Memorial, the experience and the silence, was deeply felt.

I guess I am moved by seeing the things that shaped or built this nation, feeling the presence of its people who went before us.

Suzie

Sitting on a deserted dock at sunrise on the west side of Lake Tahoe and watching the sun come up. There is a thin layer of "fog/mist" sitting just on top of the lake at that moment that makes it eerie, mysterious and so beautiful. How can nature carry on like that when so few are around to observe?

Taking the tram to the top of Mammoth Mountain in the summer and being on the top of the world. The awesome vastness of the sierras stretched out on all sides. Granite and tree as far as the eye can see. So quiet and beautiful.

Jack

****I just have to interrupt here to state that it sure is a relief, very welcome one, to see a thoughtful thread filled with thoughtful posts about something truly meaningful.

Must indicate that summer is almost over and school is to be back in session soon!!!

As for 'moving' experiences not already mentioned, I'd have to say that collectively the American indian memorials, museums and historical sites have given me a great sense of sadness and appreciation for what this country was like before it was settled by Europeans. Sadness for the way the indians were treated, appreciation for all the beauty they had 'to themselves', refusing to desecrate it.

Jeanette

For many people it is the many natural formations and parks/monuments already mentioned- and they sure are memorable. But for me, the most moving experiences have always been the ones I didn't see coming or hadn't any true perception of before I saw them. In other words, and I know that I'm not too clear- but the things that got to me the most were places off the beaten track that I hadn't read or heard about beforehand. One place was near Sedona and I'm sure it has no name. Another was when I got to go down into DEEP TUNNEL in Chicago during it's first phases (late 80's or early 90's)and saw what "man has wrought"- so to speak. All the changes man has made to nature have not been destructive ones. Now we can have a 4" per hour rain like last Thursday and instead of a disaster and its aftermath of human suffering, we have a couple of inconvenient hours instead and no cholera, typhoid etc. to follow. I'd see stone quarries before and other huge man-made projects (like dams), but I still had no conception. We honor the builders of the pyramids and the men who go to the moon, but seldom acknowledge what labor has wrought here at home.

I also am the very most moved in the very heartland of America. Corn/wheat as far as you can see, and you can see what looks like it will go on forever. One time in Iowa we could see the line of a rainstorm advancing through the corn. Nights are even better with the wide, wide horizon- and a trillion stars like an immense bowl above your head.

milk

I was "moved" after eating at a greasy spoon diner in Texas. In fact, I was "moved" all the way into Oklahoma as well.

Virginia

Oh don't be so cynical Jack I am not sure I would be sensitive to travel at all if I had not gone to college. Thanks everyone I just wanted us all to remember the beauty that surrounds us in our travel and I guess to just plain be mindful of the specialness of travel that happens each and every place we go.

I suppose this belongs on the "travel lessons Post". Ok now I am moved a little at the thought of all your experiences. I suppose the post that spoke of the Kansas corn fields expressed what I was first thinking when I made this post. I think when your mind is awake to the special qualities in each environment you are more astounded by what others identify as ordinary.

I love exotic destinations and travel abroad annually but I know I am going to look very clearly at those corn fields in Kansas next time.

Virginia

Oh Jeannette I am stuck in NYC anymore stories about stars?

dan woodlief

Ah, Virginia, that is what I get from photography, so I know what you mean. Light moves me, and I never quite saw it before I started carrying a camera everywhere. I see it in the reflections of pools and glass buildings, I see it in the backlight that sets autumn leaves afire, I see it in the rim of light around my daughter's hair during a glorious day at the beach or in the backyard, and I see it as it comes up or goes down to cast its warm glow upon the landscape. Some of the most moving light I have seen when traveling: A rainbow we chased on Maui, the afternoon sun shimmering on the Gateway Arch, sunrise on the Blue Ridge Parkway, reflections in the Vietnam Memorial, sunset at the Lincoln Memorial, a backlit tree at Duke Gardens in Durham, NC, and sunset from the Eiffel Tower (had to throw that one in). Also found some glorious light during late and early photo shoots at Gettysburg - all alone on Cemetery Ridge with nothing but cannons, monuments, and a lone American flag someone had planted near the wall. If you have had the privilege of seeing such light, you would see why I say photography is very sensual. www.oneeyed.homestead.com

Greg

Walking along the Charles river in Cambridge Mass. in January early in the morning with a light snow falling and not another soul in sight (I live in Fla. so this was quite unique). The first glimpse of the Rocky mountains and the view from anywhere in Crested Butte Col.

Jeanette

Star stories! How about my most favorite thing in the world- to swim across a smallish spring fed Midwestern lake on a cloudless night in late summer. Back stroke- the best part- so brashly beautiful with so many pin points and clusters that you forget to check your directional bearings and get detoured by their patterns into someones seaweed patch. I see the bear, but how did they think that was a man's belt? Side stroke- at the water's edge you can't tell where the huge bowl of stars ends and the clusters of lightening bugs begin, unless you tread water for awhile and gauge the treeline and shorestones- which ironically with my old eyes are becoming more cleared edged by the year. And at the same time the fish and plants that come close to check me out are fuzzy blurrs when not so long ago they were clearly bass or pike. My turtle friends look the same as always- round. Free style- moon sitting over in the far cove now is making it easy to go straight, just have to keep it's shimmer in the water on my left so that when I raise my left arm and breathe I can break it up into 20 little reflections instead of one big one. Can't wait. One more week until Michigan, can you tell?

Love the big city too, but wish all office warriors in the city canyons could get a swim like this once in awhile.

John

A few years ago I had the good fortune to drive some British friends, in their first visit to the US, from Chicago to Seattle. We mainly stuck to I-90 although we detoured down to Yellowstone for a couple of days.

Although they had traveled around Europe quite a bit and are reasonably sophisticated people, they were unprepared for the scale of the US (who is?) and by the landscape and cultural differences that we take for granted. As much as they were impressed by the Great Plains or the Black Hills (or some really aggressive elk at Yellowstone) it was the variety of people that amazed them the most. They found that one can change countries every few blocks in Chicago, much more vividly than even in London (they’re not Londoners). You Chicagoans know the drill – you’re driving down the street and all the shops have Spanish signs, then you go under the el and now you’re in a Polish neighborhood, then another landmark and it’s African American or Italian and on and on. They were knocked out by our diversity, warts and all. It only got more noticeable in Wyoming or Montana, where after miles and miles you’ll have a big Indian reservation then drive into Butte or Anaconda and everyone’s Serb or Croat, really unexpected in the “old west” as they’d seen it on TV or at the movies. And the Asian cultures all mingling together in Seattle, well, that was a revelation.

I am always moved by the first sight I see of the Lincoln Memorial and the Capitol in DC, or the Golden Gate Bridge (which has to be seen from the Pacific side on a boat to take on its most awesome presence.) But the thing that moved them the most on the drive, and which always moves me more than any other sight in the country (I’ve seen it only a couple of times but it’s a wowser) goes like this: You’re driving west on I-90 in the middle of South Dakota, and you go up a slight hill, and at the crest you see the Missouri River for the first time. Its width at this point may be because of dams downstream, but you can’t see them from the interstate, and so it looks like an inland ocean. It literally struck my friends speechless.

I had foreseen this moment (being a melodramatic fool anyway), and when they got back in the car to continue down to the water, I put on a cassette with “Shenandoah” playing, and we all cried, all the way ‘cross the wide Missouri.

Jeanette

Wow! Never did go that way overpassing the Missouri, only the Mississippi. Now next time I drive out West, I'm going to steal your idea. Many years ago I went west on the train with my distant German relatives who spoke no English and all my uncle said from Chicago to the first show of mountains was "Gott".

reporter

Will we be reading some of the answers to this question in the travel section of any particular newspaper this or next Sunday?