You guys gotta be hardcore. I live only a bit over 300 miles from Rubicon and Moab and haven't convinced myself to go to either.. guess I'm not much of a jeeper..
Ehhh, don't be hard on yourself, we'll do it for you. :spin1:
But to your point:
No one got hard core over night. I was encouraged to "go west" after some campfire talk with some fellow northeasterners who had done it. Convinced my girlfriend (now my wife), to go along with the ridiculous idea that spending 3 days each way towing out and back from nj to Colorado, to be there 4 days of actual wheeling and sight seeing, was somehow a solid plan. However, neither of us had been there, let alone much west of Pennsylvania before. Had we used what I described above as the reason NOT to do it, we'd never go anywhere. My saying was, "if not now, when?". Its always easy to find a sound reason not to make a stretch.
But we did make that stretch.
And it was a border line religious experience. The crazy things we saw and did along the way, the people we met across this country, to say nothing of the wonderful people we shared camp and trails with while there, was worth all the planning, all the expense, all the silly stuff.
And perhaps you're not "there" yet, or don't feel the need. And that's ok. What I will leave you with is that for me and my wife, it was memorable enough that we are both better and happier people having done it. The things you'll see and experience, and the nice people you'll meet, it will change you in ways you can't imagine.
My 2 cents.
