Oh, the places you'll go...

I probably should've started a travel/insert adventurous adjective here blog a while back.  I caught the travel bug fairly young.  I believe it was on the first real road trip that I can remember.  My dad and my twin brother, Spike, and I drove from Minnesota down to Louisiana in a huge, blue Chevy Astro, playing Dire Straits 'Brothers in Arms' (Walk of Life) cassette over and over until my dad wanted to throw it out the window.  We traveled down Hwy 71, through the corn fields of Iowa, the rollings hills and beauty of the Ozarks in Missouri and Arkansas, and down the narrow roads of Louisiana where huge cypress trees are adorned with Spanish moss.  The trip was certainly an adventure, lots of ice cream, a speeding ticket that we shouldn't mention to mom, and little sleeping nest in the back of the van.  One night, we were woken up by a tapping on the window of the van, Dad had parked on the edge of a cornfield.  I think the farmer was as startled as we were...

Yep, I was hooked.


During my stint in the Navy in Virginia and in vet tech school in North Carolina, I made many trips back and forth to Minnesota.  I tried to take a different route each time.  There were also trips up to Rochester, NY to see Spike in college, and down to GA to see mom and Jim with the dogs.

In the summer of 2009, I was off again on an 8,200 mile, 10 week trip.  Along this trip I saw 13 national parks.  It was amazing, and it is now my goal to see them all.  (See post #2)

This brings me to current day.  I am planning a couple of trips this summer.  In June, I will go to the Big Island and I will see my friends McNair and Charles Rivers (siblings, not married, ha), and hopefully we will get to see the volcano.  Then in July-August, I will take a trip down to Virginia back through Ohio and up through the U.P. of Michigan.  After a short rest in Minnesota, celebrating my 10 year reunion, the family is taking a trip down to Colorado to see cousins and celebrate high school graduation.  This trip is certainly about friends and family, but with the possibility of seeing 5-7 more National Parks, I have a lot to look forward to.  That could bring me up to 18, on the list of 58.  

As with the trip of 2009, I will bring the hula girl.  Be on the lookout!


Oh! The Places You’ll Go!
by the incomparable Dr. Seuss
Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!
You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.