Preparation

So why drop everything and just take off for several months?

Well I've always loved to travel, which certainly helps. I also like driving – it seems that when you fly - everything looks the same. You go from one airport to another, both in big cities with hotels, strip malls, gas stations and traffic. Of course, there are some differences, but pretty soon it starts to seem as though things are pretty much the same everywhere.

When I drive across the country, I start to realize (or remember) just how beautiful and rural this country still is. I also see how much variety there is from one region to another. (I’ve never done a trip as big as this, but I have done some long distance trips!)

The last few years, I’ve been working a lot to pay bills (with lots of overtime), working on estate issues (ugh), working on projects I’ve taken on (and never seem to finish). All those things will still be here when I get back, but in the meantime this trip will give me a break and help me get back in touch with where we come from.

At the same time my mother has also always liked to travel but is no longer able to undertake a trip like this on her own. She is 80 and while in generally good health, has some trouble walking and keeping her energy level up throughout the day. Her driving is increasingly limited to local trips and only during the daytime.

This trip is for and by both of us, but I’ll let her write about her own reasons for going (she is a separate author in this blog – but sometimes is a little intimidated by ‘blogging’ I think). As for myself, a little background might help set the stage:

In 1804 the United States completed the Louisiana Purchase from France. This was a huge increase in the size of this country and included a great deal of land about which little was known in Washington D.C. President Thomas Jefferson wanted to know more about this land that now constituted the larger part of America. He especially wanted to know if there was a practical land route to the Pacific Ocean across this vast expanse of unexplored land. So he commissioned the Lewis & Clark Expedition to explore the land between the Missouri River and the Pacific Ocean. Merriwether Lewis and William Clark left Pittsburgh on August 31, 1804 with 11 men. Congress appropriated $2,500 for the expedition, which became so successful, they become known as the ‘Corps of Discovery’.

Using the Lewis & Clark Expedition as an inspiration, our trip will help us ‘Rediscover America’ - not the strip malls, hotels and gas stations we have begun to believe are everywhere, but the vast and interesting country we believe is still out there. So while we’ll visit some towns and cities, we also hope to drive the scenic routes, visit parks, vista’s, grasslands and badlands, and get a sense of just how big and beautiful mother nature can really be.

In addition, I like to understand the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of things. History and geography as taught in school rarely seems to get to the heart of things. Perhaps this is because there is just so much to cover that it’s not possible to teach enough to really grasp the scope or meaning of some events. Perhaps also reading printed words in a book is just too limiting to convey the real experience of a place or event very well. Perhaps it’s just me - maybe I didn’t pay enough attention in school (I don’t think so, but I must be fair here).

However, in the past when I’ve visited places I’d learned a little about in school - the real place was often quite different and more interesting then some dry passage I’d forgotten about from some ancient textbook. Sometimes the differences are almost scary. For example, I’d heard about ‘Custer’s Last Stand’ and knew he and his Army unit had been massacred by Native Americans. It wasn’t until I visited the Little Bighorn National Battlefield (NB) that I learned the truth was quite something else: Custer mounted the surprise attack on the native encampment (not the other way around); He’d been ordered just to scout and report back; his unit was wiped out by Native American’s that were just reacting to his attack. There’s more to this story of course, but maybe even a short summary illustrates how much more (and sometimes more correct) history can be when it’s explored - not just read about!

Finally, although I’ve traveled some, there are many places I’ve heard about and wanted to visit, but never had the time to do so. I’ve always wanted to see Mount Rushmore, Gettysburg, Plymouth Rock, Kitty Hawk, Key West, Grand Canyon, the Oregon Coast etc., etc., etc.. Recently it occurred to me, at the moment I might just be able to do the whole trip now. The stars seemed to be aligned and I decided if I don’t do this now, I might never do it. I have an RV (small, older, needs some work - but serviceable). I have some time (I’m taking a few months off between jobs, why not extend it a little to fit in the trip of a lifetime?), and I had someone available to rent the house for a few months (my brother’s lease was ending and he really didn’t want to renew it.)

There are also a thousand reasons NOT to do such a wild and crazy thing, so at some point you have to just make the call - to do it or not. I made the call to take the trip.

Look at the Travel Blog page you are on. On the Top Right is something like a table of contents. This is the Navigation Bar - it lets you select what you want to see.

Entry's: Each time we post something new, it will be saved as an "Entry" (as in Page in a Journal). The navigation bar lets you find entries by "Categories" or older ones in "Archive".

Category: This web site requires that we use travelpoint's Categories. We will try to fit our entries into categories that make sense. If we forget to categorize an entry it will show up as Uncategorized (we will try to avoid doing this). Pre-trip info will be saved as "Preparation", day to day travel entries will probably be saved as "Family Travel". Eventually, I'll try to write entries about specific places or topics only and will categorize them differently, such as "Events" or something appropriate.

Main Page: This is the default view when you first come into this web site. This shows the most recent Entry on top and also the next four most recent entries. To open a single entry, find it on the Navigation bar on the right and click. To show the entries by a particular author (Mom or I), click on the Author you want to see on the Navigation Bar.

Comments: You must be a member of Travellerspoint to post comments, but membership is free and it is very easy to join. To join Travellerspoint, go to:

http://www.travellerspoint.com/

To post a comment, you must also be on a single Entry (not be on the main page). To open an entry to comment on it, just select it on the Navigation Bar. When you are finished, you can go back to the main page by clicking on the "Main Page" option at the top of the navigation bar.

Subscribe: You do NOT need to Subscribe to this site to use it. If you subscribe to the site, you will get an email every time a new Entry is posted. (Nice for some folks, a pain for others).

Photos:

Thumbnails: If you see a small picture and want to enlarge it, just click on it. This will also show you any descriptive information I've typed in for the photo.

Other Pictures: Not all pictures will have thumbnails. If you click on a picture and nothing happens, then that's all you get.

We might also have photo's uploaded that haven't been linked to a blog Entry yet. If you want to see all photo's (without reading through the Blog Entries), select an Author, then in the Navigation Bar, select "More Photo's..."

Video: These will probably all be posted on YouTube just to save space on this site. You can watch them here however. There are not a lot of video's, but you will find a few from time to time.

How I'm Updating Entries: During the trip, I've been having a hard time keeping the blog up to date, especially since we don't always have high speed internet available. I will try to write at least a short blog entry on as current a basis as possible (but without photo's). The title for these will say "(Placeholder)". Later when I have time to add photo's (and/or write a more complete entry), I will change the title to say "(Photo's Added)", so you will know which ones have been updated.

If the title doesn't have any (descriptors), then it probably has all the photo's and video's (if any) from the first time I posted it. The descriptors: (Placeholder), (Photo's Added), or (Video Added) are just to let you know if the blog entry has been changed after I initially posted it (or will need to be changed later in the case of "Placeholder").

We still have several weeks left before we start the "trip". Some things need to be cleaned and repaired on the RV. This is me cleaning the edges for the front of the RV:

Of course, deciding what we need to take and finding room for it all.

I've picked rosemary and chives to dry for taking.

Some of you may remember my little old RV (20years ago) It was much smaller, but although I was alone, I had a lot of fun.

Hope to have fun this time too.

About The Trip:

My mother and I plan to circumnavigate the lower 48 states in the USA beginning September 1, 2007.

phylisej: Mom's blog ID, you can find her entries by selecting this Author. Mom just turned 80 so is a brave soul to take this on with me (to say nothing about the internet blogging!)

jl98584: My blog ID. (You can also find out more about either Author by clicking on us in the Navigation Bar on the right)

Here is where we're starting from: Shelton, Washington, USA. It's about 45 miles NW of Olympia or 85 miles SW of Seattle.

We plan to head east first, driving across the north, and spend about a month in NE (in fall), then south along the eastern seaboard to Key West, then west across the south (during Winter of course) to San Diego area, then up the western coast back to WA.

We're using a 1991 21' Winnebago Warrier. Cozy, but should be fun... The total trip should take about 8 months.

We now have lots of work to do to prepare the RV (got to stop some leaks, repair things, etc.), pack and plan the trip. We will add more to this blog on a regular basis, subject to internet availability.