travel across America

Hope to get this happening next summer. Have bought a book explaining all about Amerian train travel and hope to go coast to coast.

I will have done this by January 2012 .
Plan ;
+ Go for approx. 3 weeks during gap year .
+ Book through gap year program .

<3 x .

ROAD TRIP!
Just GO and see it all.

My finances have allowed for little travel in my life, but there is plenty of time for road trips and new places to discovered. I would like to travel all across the country, visiting the most historic and significant places. I thoroughly enjoy history so I think this would be a lot of fun, especially if I had someone special by side.

Schedule:

but it was great fun – a couple of months flying from here to there on an unlimited flight pass with Delta (back in the days when they were available), some places I only stayed a few hours (like Vegas), other places I stayed longer, even hired a car in Arizona and spent a while driving around Arizona and Utah.

there is this for those that live here. There is this for those that don’t.

Honestly, there is no more salubrious way of getting to see this country, both for the environment and your soul. I did it neary 3 years ago, it was wonderful. To see the continuity of landscape, and gradual change from area to area out the window. Most trains have a “viewing” car that has huge windows and comfy seats, and a bar. You meet tons of people, and its nice to hear all the different accents and stories. Especially on the cross-country trains.

One drawback is its not quite as free form as inter-railing across Europe. You actually have to plan your route, and make sure that you have the reservations in your hand when you board. Also, some of the lines only go one every two days. And! Because the tracks arent maintained as well as they should, there are lots of delays.

We should encourage our train system, and show that there is a market out there. Now that we are near the point of peak oil, we should really start thinking about conserving what we got…

it’s very possible i may do this in may, thanks to the green tortoise! www.greentortoise.com

I spent six weeks travelling around the country with my fiancee Amanda. Here are some pictures we took along the way.

We’re going to do it again someday.

In summer 2002 I moved from Honolulu, where I had spent the past six years, back to my hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. A number of circumstances conspired to make this an attractive move (really), but I knew that for my sanity to stay intact, I had to make an adventure out of the transition. Since I had to get my car from the west coast anyway and had some savings set aside, I devised a long and leisurely route that took me from Seattle to Cleveland in seven weeks.

I flew into Vancouver; took a ferry to Victoria, where I spent Canada Day; took a ferry over to Port Angeles, where friends picked me up; and stayed with those friends across Puget Sound from Seattle until my car arrived. They were wonderful hosts, and we went sea kayaking and did a lot of hiking, including some on the Olympic Peninsula and some in the Cascades. We took a trip to Portland and to Mt. St. Helens, and a zillion little spots along the way.

From there, I traveled down the entire U.S. west coast from Aberdeen, Washington, to San Diego, California via Highways 101 and 1 over the course of the next two weeks, with just over a week of that spent at a summer workshop at Stanford University.

From California, I went through Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, Santa Fe, and Amarillo to Ft. Worth, where I started angling northeast through Arkansas, Tennessee, and Kentucky on the way to Ohio.

Along the way I stayed about half the time with friends and family and the rest of the time in motels. I very consciously made and effort to NOT try to see everything I could along the way, but instead pick one thing a day to try to aim for and spend some time experiencing. I think the trip was richer for that decision, and certainly less pressure-filled. Some of my best experiences were simply sitting in a cafe or restaurant and soaking in the soul of the place.

I hadn’t seen much of the southwest before, just Houston and Las Vegas, and hadn’t seen any of the Pacific Northwest. The vastness and diversity of this country can’t adequately be put into words. If you have the opportunity, go. It was an experience I will always cherish.

If you care to read more detail about the trip and/or see pictures, visit the archives of my webpage here:
July 2002August 2002