Upcoming Road Trip

About a month from now, I'll be leaving on another extended road trip across the United States and back.  The plan is for four of us to meet up in St. Louis and drive along the route of Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean in the Astoria, Oregon area.  The return trip, which is not yet determined, will come back east on a different route.  Always return on another route and double your experiences.

One of the reasons I named this blog, The Wandering Lensman, was that desire I have to travel and the satisfaction in exploring new places.  Those places can be locally, regionally or nationally.  In any case, the desire to wander, explore, travel and discover is strong in me.

The other three guys and myself are lifelong friends.  In fact, we four have been friends since we have any memories at all.  That really makes them more like brothers than just friends.  We now get together, as a group, at least once per year, and fewer than the four of us, more than that.  Whenever we have gotten together as a full group, we have always had our significant others with us. This road trip will be the first time just the four of us have gotten together and spent time without our mates. Our get-togethers, besides being fun, also bring a lot of satisfaction, just like a family reunion.  There is a sense of home, security, familiarity safety and comfort when being with these other three guys.

I have volunteered to drive.  The others will pay for the fuel.  We will split hotel rooms and other fees equally.  A couple of years ago, my wife and I bought a minivan.  I know, I know.  No need to ridicule me.  But in my book, the minivan is the best small vehicle in which to travel.  We have found it a perfect road trip vehicle for the two of us.  We have taken several road trips, from a long weekend to over three weeks, in the minivan and it has been perfect for us.  I can sleep in it if I have an emergency, I can can carry bags of mulch or grass seed and even lay a sheet of plywood flat on the floor if necessary.  It is secure, dry and quiet, has satellite radio, air conditioning, a built in "cool box" to keep drinks cool, etc.  Best of all, on previous road trips, I have consistently gotten 28-29 miles per gallon on those trips.  I can't complain about an 8 passenger vehicle getting that kind of good fuel mileage.

I will drive from SE Virginia to the Charlottesville, VA area, pick up one of the guys. I'll spend the night at his house, then we will drive to St. Louis to meet the other two.  From there, there is no agenda, no timeline, no schedule, no priorities.  It is whatever we want to do and see and however long it takes.  Traveling like that is so freeing!

One of the guys and I did the same thing last spring when we drove from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and back via Route 66.  Same philosophy.  No agenda, no timeline, no schedule and no priorities.  That, because of the philosophy of  "whatever/wherever, whenever" made it one of the best travel experiences of my life.  If you are interested, I posted daily to this blog starting April 23, 2013.  You can read about it starting here.  I posted a daily recap of our adventures along with some images from each day's journey.  If you like traveling and road trips and Americana, I think you will enjoy it.

Well, a month out is not too early to start to prepare.  In fact, I have already started.  I have had the routine maintenance done on my vehicle.  I have bought a new road atlas and I have started my research on the Internet.  I have also decided what photography gear to take.  I will go into that in a future post, but I will tell you, it will be minimal, but at the same time, be able to cover whatever I encounter.

I look forward to sharing my road trip with you.  In the days leading up to my departure, I'll be posting some additional information.  Please come along for the ride with me.

Thanks for looking. Enjoy!

Dennis Mook

Many of my images can be found at www.dennismook.com.  Please pay it a visit.  I add new images regularly.  Thank you.


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