Agreed, people should never be apologetic for a detailed post!

What a wonderful post! Thanks for sharing. I really enjoyed the bit about the natural born story teller on the Metro. I kind of feel hopeful when I hear things like that, because people feel kind of cold these days in the sense that they're always buried in their phones.

I went on a Western trip a few years back, but time was limited. We went all the way from the East coast to the West coast and back in around three weeks. I remember in the Badlands, we encountered a family that allowed their (bratty) children to run around on the rocks. Needless to say, we were pretty outraged and told them off. They just laughed and kept on doing what they were doing. It's sad to see that some people have such little respect for their national treasures.

Be sure to really adventure out while in Seattle. It's an absolutely fascinating city.

Yeah, I think RP's money raising kind of shows that it really doesn't make too huge of a turnout on votes. And to be honest, I don't think I ever heard the same kind of support for RP as Bernie is currently having.

I think the main thing that really appealed to me was being able to see photo stories on subs like /r/hiking and /r/travel. I don't think I've ever felt welcome to join in conversations because most things resulted in some fairly rude responses or little to no recognition. I think that's the best thing about this sit is that it's just discussion and not much more.

Thanks for the warm welcome! ^_^ Keep doing what you do.

I'm sure Voat will expand like crazy now that they have the publicity. The reddit "uprising" will be what makes or breaks them, in my opinion.

I can see what you mean by how daunting this website can be. It's kind of a mix between Tumblr and Reddit, but so far I'm really enjoying it. Everyone really seems to be reasonable and welcoming so far. Reddit has kind of been losing it's excitement for me anyways, and I never really felt welcome or comfortable posting there. Like matjam said, most of the people that are in it for pointless points (heh) can go to Voat.