JSFM35X:
Any idea of what type of tree or shrub they may have come from and how long they were on your paint?
I assume your vehicle on this road trip was protected with some type of Last-Step Product (LSP). like a coating, sealant, or wax.
What ever the LSP was obviously did not protect the finish, hence my first question.
My guess was some type of pine or evergreen, but I am guessing without seeing pics or knowing for sure. Pine sap/pitch, depending on the type of pine it comes from, can cause etching of clear coat quite quickly, especially if you have a dark colored paint hue that is prone to acting like a solar heating panel in the sun and will cause a chemical reaction in this heat, combined with the pine sap that etches the clear-coat rather deeply, depending on the size of the sap drop and the amount of heat generated by the sun and your vehicle panel. Unfortunately, while this may explain WHY the etching occurred, it does NOT resolve your problem of how to remove or at least mitigate its appearance in your clear coat.
Personally, I think Older`s suggestion that you have done what you could to the best of your abilities with what you have on hand for detailing to "fix and correct" this etching and just living with the results is pretty good advise. I do not think that wet-sanding those areas is a viable next step, either, but I may be wrong. Depends on how good your wet-sanding abilities are and your assessment of how bad or deep the etching is in your clear-coat and/or paint . Not what you wanted to hear, but when the etching damage is this sever, nothing short of a repaint is going to "fix" it.
For what is is worth, here is my list of natural contaminants that cause vehicle clear-coat/paint etching:
1a) White or Red Pine sap
1b) White or Red Cedar sap
1c) Springtime Cottonwood yellow leaf buds. VERY sticky and very stain-causing.
2) Grasshopper bug guts
3a) Seagull bird dropping. Absolutely the WORST, especially if they have been eating dead fish!
3b) Goose bird droppings
3b) Robin bird droppings, especially if they have been eating pin or choke tree berries
4) Vigilante-thrown chicken egg splatter
5) Human vomit, especially after eating spicy hot foods and drinking alcoholic beverages (not exactly "natural")
