ABOUT THIS JOURNAL

Over the course of twenty-eight days, Lauren and I drove over mountains, between lakes and across deserts through blizzards, rain and fog. We visited well-known landmarks and out-of-the-way places most people have never heard of. Everywhere we went, we kept a daily journal of our travels. Some days were busier than others and we often had to play catch-up with the journal, but we made sure to keep detailed notes of our daily experiences and impressions. Much of what is contained in this on-line journal is culled from the many pages that Lauren and I wrote from the road.

I have provided a plethora of information about the places we visited. I have avoided the dull standards of most travel articles that tell you where the hotels are and how many golf courses you can expect to find. In an effort to best convey our own experiences, I have instead attempted to merely tell the stories behind the places we went. When deciding how much to delve into any one area, I went purely based on what moved Lauren and me the most. Scattered throughout the journal are relevant links and plenty of pictures to click on.

(NOTE: Unless otherwise noted, all pictures featured in these pages are ones that were actually taken on our road trip. We had a film camera as well as a digital camera, and while certain pictures have been touched up for color and brightness, none of what you see was shot professionally.)

I have also interspersed little travel hints and tidbits that we learned as the trip went on, tips on how to approach a road trip. Everything from packing the car to dealing with economy hotels, as well as thoughts on how to be a true "road-tripper" and not merely an "interstate tourist." Overall, this journal is intended to be an inspiration to road-trippers and wannabe's everywhere. It is intended to encourage you to embrace the wanderlust inside, to just pack up and GO and not let anybody talk you out of it. Lauren and I are by no means seasoned travelers and we did it... and she was seven months pregnant.

Apart from the overriding goal of seeing America from the small roads and "forgetting the interstate" as well as searching for the elusive Thelma & Louise version of "Backroad, America", we also had three sub-goals for this trip.

1) Talk to as many local people and patronize as many local establishments as possible. We wanted to find out if we were all exactly the same no matter where we lived, the way the big corporations and media giants would like us to believe, or if everywhere you went, the people and the lifestyle were new and unique.

2) Buy as many shotglasses as possible. I began collecting shotglasses from the places I'd visited back on my first road trip. Before leaving on this trip, I'd collected over thirty. I was looking to increase my collection by at least fifty percent.

3) Keep a graffiti log. I wanted to see how creative the vandals were in different areas of the country. Were they wittier from one state to the next or did they all simply fall back on "F--- YOU"?

As of December 17, 2006 the web version of the Road Trip is complete. You can read the full story on each day, or if you've only got a few minutes, you can opt for the abridged versions of each week. For those who can only take so much screen time, I have provided links to printer friendly pages to help save your eyes.

For optimal viewing, I suggest using Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox and setting your text size to "medium". And even then, I apologize if the formatting looks screwed up from time to time. I'm a writer, not a web designer people! Click on pictures to open a larger version in a new window.

So enjoy the trip and if you read something you like or don't understand, have a question or comment about any of the places I've mentioned, are a local and want to tell me I'm right on the money or way off base - whatever your reasons, feel free to drop me a line.

HAMMER DOWN!