I’m just shy of three months on the road. I’ve been traveling the US in the Airstream Interstate Sprinter 24GT for eleven weeks as of yesterday. It would be easy to call the experience “life changing” or “the experience of a lifetime” or any of the other overly used descriptions and never come close to what it’s like.

I continually meet people who are curious about what I’m doing and want to see the inside of the van. They always say the same thing, that it’s their dream to just take off and see the world. Some want to head to the mountains or find a corner in the desert. I was looking to better understand what this country is all about. I feel so lucky to have this experience.

I can say this with certainty. The media and film industry and script writers everywhere are lazy, they stereotype and do more to foster divide than what exists in the US, all to make a buck. You get away from the big cities, and their political influences, and you see an entirely different country. You don’t have to look hard either. The bad stuff is minuscule. The good stuff, it’s everywhere.

I meet remarkable, kind, warm people every day on this adventure. I’ve rarely come across a stereotype of any sort and when I do, it’s always colorful. What I see most often are decent people helping each other. I see it so often, I know it’s the norm, not even close to the exception.

The experience is shaping me. For one, I reconnected with why decency has always been a measuring stick of character, and why I’ve placed such a high value on it for as long as I have. I had no idea Seattle was as dark as it was until I left the place and discovered an entirely different attitude. What happened to Seattle? I wrote about it on Quora on March 31, 2018, so my opinion was nothing new. It was why I wanted to see the US. Was Seattle the norm? I’m happy to report, no!

At first, I thought it was just me, supporting an anecdotal point of view, until I sat at a stoplight and noticed how many cars in Branson, Missouri had more than one person in each car. I thought about that one observation for a long time. Draw your own conclusions, but I’m guessing people here like being with, and doing things with other people. There is no bus service, but maybe, just maybe they don’t need one.

A guy in heavily modified Class B called out to me in a parking lot from his driver’s seat. He saw my Sprinter and had a lot of technical questions as I was walking by to a grocery store. We chatted for about twenty minutes about PepWave and other communications modems. He was former military from the hat he was wearing and very chatty. Later I saw him in the parking lot at Branson Landing in his wheelchair along with others that all seemed to be traveling together. He’s doing the same thing I’m doing, exploring the US.

The people of the Midwest are made fun of a lot in media. They are called a long list of names, yet when you get out and explore, really explore, you’d have to be blind to miss how remarkable this place really is. It’s a shame so many people are unwilling to risk that their point of view may not be as accurate as they think. Mine is also changing, and hopefully with a stronger sense of what’s here.