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The No ETA Tour has essentially come to its end. Our lease on the Palm Desert condo was up at the end of March and we are heading east. There will be stops along the way and adventures to come, but travel from now on is to get someplace, not for its own sake.

Our family sabbatical thus will have spanned the seasons from August to April. Our rough itinerary changed in important respects as we went along; we spent the winter in Palm Desert, CA instead of roaming the Pacific and we have put off until another year our trip to Greece and Rome. But for all that we have had the rare opportunity to see large portions of the U.S. and Canada and to be with each other 24/7 for more than 8 months.

Here are a few lessons learned:

•Serendipitous travel worked well for us. We rarely planned our next destination; we made few advance reservations. By 4 PM most days we knew where we would stop for the night. We tried to stay several nights in each location to cut down on the packing/unpacking, and to go deep rather than wide. We valued recommendations that we heard as we went along, especially from locals. The web site Yelp proved very useful for restaurant and hotel advice.

•Our decision not to tie up capital in an RV proved to be sensible. We tent camped; we stayed in motels, inns, cottages, and a few upscale hotels; we rented a condo for several months. Financially this was probably a wash, but there was a clear gain in flexibility.

•Travel with a pet is limiting. There are increasingly fewer pet friendly hotels/motels, and many charge up to $20 per night for the privilege. The only chains that we know of that welcome dogs and don’t charge are LaQuinta Inns and Drury Inns. The AAA Tour Books are valuable for finding places to stay that take pets. We also found that several western states do not allow dogs in state parks, even in the parking lots. Furthermore, national parks do not allow dogs on trails. So Baxter spent much of his time in the car as we toured museums and gardens, and day hiked.

•Home schooling (or “road schooling’) requires a significant amount of time. Some kids might work well under a regimen that allows them to determine their own pace and time to complete a set of daily assignments. We generally adopted a more rigid system of school in the morning and adventures in the afternoon, starting each weekday at 8 AM. Sometimes it was a challenge to find a quiet spot in which to work.

•Families who travel in the U.S. for an academic year will find that the dark months of December, January, and February pose a challenge. Generally speaking there are few places in which the temperatures are warm enough to be outside each day during these months. And the short days mean that by late afternoon it is dark. Florida on the East Coast and the Southern California desert in the West are about it. Any elevation above 1,000 feet will be too cold for camping, except in an RV with heat.

•There are many places to see and much to do; there is never enough time to do everything. When the trip is over there will still be lots left for the next time.

Finally, at the end of March, the desert is in bloom. The locals say this is a great year, due to to the significant rain that fell in mid-January. It certainly is a rare treat for us New Englanders to see that cactus, of all varieties, develops such brilliant colors. Apparently the flowers will last two weeks or so and then, suddenly, all goes brown again as the desert plants tuck deep within themselves to endure the searing summer and fall.

Andrew is spending spring break this week with us in Palm Desert. With guide Dennis, who we met in Red Rock Canyon near Las Vegas in November, Andrew and Marty spent a day on the rock formations of Joshua Tree National Park. And we all went up the Palm Springs Tram to Mt. San Jacinto, still deep in snow. For a Maine family spending the winter in the Coachella Valley it was great fun to toss snowballs at each other.

San Diego is just 90 minutes from Palm Desert, across the mountains. But a world away. Whereas the Coachella Valley is a string of small cities, with national, state, and regional parks, BLM land, and agricultural areas, San Diego County is densely populated and typical Southern California sprawl. We spent a week amidst the crowded freeways, based first near “Old Town” and then north in Carlsbad. The first location gave ready access to the famed zoo, and the many attractions of Balboa Park – the Science Museum, the Museum of Man, two art museums, a Japanese garden, the Botantical Society building, and the park itself. Carlsbad put us close to the Pacific beaches, Scripps Aquarium, Torrey Pines and, of course, Legoland.

Many may think of Sonny Bono as merely the weak end of the duo with Cher. But he is remembered in these parts as a politician – mayor of Palm Springs and Congressman. We drive on Sonny Bono Avenue, when we go to the Springs, and yesterday we visited the Sonny Bono Wildlife Preserve on the shore of the Salton Sea. The Sea is a giant lake (380 square miles) that formed when part of the Colorado River was misdirected for a year and a half before the First World War. It has waxed and waned ever since while growing increasingly saline. That much water in an otherwise vast desert has naturally attracted large quantities of birds and other critters, hence the preserve. Sonny slipped in a few earmarks to try to have more water directed to the inland sea; the reclamation project now seems to be languishing and evaporation is taking its toll.

Nearby are several thermal energy generating plants and thermal mud pots. These vents steam and bubble away; it would be a fine place for a coven of witches to meet.

The Coachella Valley would be dust dry desert were it not for the geological faults that run through here. The faults cause water to percolate to the surface in spots and these oases have attracted humans and wildlife for thousands of years. Most of the original water holes are now parts of gated communities and golf courses. But Palm Canyon in the city of Palm Springs has been miraculously preserved. It is managed by the Aqua Caliente band of Cahuilla Indians who were here first. Visitors can walk on mountain trails through the original California Palms for miles with no sign of human habitation in sight.