I received a very nice note from a blog reader a couple of days ago:

Dear Rich and Eleanor,

Two years ago my husband said to me, “I’m going to make “Tour of America” our home page” on our new iMac computer”…and for two years your website, with all of your wonderful pictures and stories, has entered our home each day. Over the course of these past two years I have thought many, many times about writing to you because I have lived the life that you are providing for your daughter and I
just want to tell you that it is a WONDERFUL life, but I know that you already know that!

In 1970, when I was ten and my brother was six my mother and father bought a brand new 1970 Overlander in Jackson Center, Ohio. My parents decision to buy that Airstream was not only the beginning of the most incredible family adventure, but the beginning of a bond that would bring us together time and time again after we grew up. My mother and father were both art teachers and we traveled in that Airstream every summer for three months at a time until my brother and I went away to college. We went across the country eighteen times and my brother and I had a childhood that was so rich that we have spent most of our own lives trying to recreate similar experiences for our own families.

Today, my parents still have our old 1970 Airstream. My mom and dad have kept her up meticulously constantly updating her through the years. My brother, his wife, and his three children have their own Airstream, a 1972 Land Yacht, that they have completely rebuilt over the years. My husband, my two children, and I have a 1964 that we have restored and continue to work on. We vacation at least once or twice a year all together with our three Airstreams…our own little caravan!

Yet, the one thing that haunts me the most is, how do I provide an experience that I was so fortunate to have, for my own children? Sure, we have taken that week long or two week long road trip with our airstream and had a wonderful time, but I’m talking about that sense of time, of wandering across the US, rockhounding at Topaz Mountain, being invited to a Hopi Snake Dance, watching eskimos dry fish in Kotzebue, flying in a bush plane, walking under a bald eagles nest, canoeing in Prince William Sound, bicycling the Hawaiian islands, or driving around at dusk looking for wildlife. These are just a few of the things that I remember.

I have spoken many times with the now-grown children of Airstreaming families. Always they rave about the experience and tell me how formative it was. Universally they wish to give their children the same experience. Hearing these stories has helped us know that what we are doing for Emma is good for her as well as us. It also reminds me that we have not completed the experience.   There’s much more to learn, and see, and do.

I’m also very warmed (on this blustery cool Tucson day) by the knowledge that the blog has enriched the lives of thousands of people.   I know there are many who read it daily but never write in, and that’s OK, but when I do hear from someone who has been reading the blog for a while I really appreciate it.   It makes the effort of writing every day really worthwhile.

That’s why I published this letter tonight.   This blog is not just about the travel experience we are having, but the enjoyment of being able to share it all with you.   Thanks to everyone who reads this.