Following the October 2012 debacle of having my truck stolen, I spent the nastiest weather winter ever in the Pacific Northwest. Eager to get away from that, I hit the road last April 1st and spent two months slogging my way through blizzards, winds and hail storms on US 20 from the Oregon coast to New York.
What I thought was going to be a brief detour to Pennsylvania turned out to be a seven month campaign, and it was winter again before I could get out of there. I never got back up to US 20 to finish the route to Boston, so I’ll have to find a way to do those miles on some future expedition.
This past new year, I repositioned to Maryland where I have enjoyed three months of work with an old colleague and friend, despite it being another pretty miserable winter.
If you add it all up, I’ve had barely two months of exploration in the past eighteen months, and those were more of a hardship tour than a proper expedition. You can imagine that’s not a ratio I’m happy with. Speaking of Happy, she and I have been together for over a year now, and she has definitely been a consistent bright spot in an otherwise dim era.
Looking forward, it’s time to get moving again! The first of next week I will hit the road south to the North Carolina shore, where I will begin a long western trek on US 70. Here’s the basic map:
I will make a very brief detour to Atlanta (for a couple of fun events that I’ll tell you about later) then continue on US 70 through Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and well into Arizona. I’ve now driven four of the northernmost coast to coast routes (2, 20, 30 and 50) so it will be a fun change to be a bit south. I’m also hoping, frankly, that the weather will be better!
Although US 70 doesn’t go all the way to the west coast, it will qualify as an end-to-end road trip for me. When I reach its end in Arizona, I plan to turn north and drive US 95 border-to-border from Mexico to Canada. Here is that basic map:
From the end of 95 at the Canadian border, it’s a nice little drive across the North Cascades to the Pacific Northwest, where I hope to arrive sometime this summer. I’ve got some things that need doing in the Seattle area, and some pretty cool prospects for fun in the Puget Sound region.
That’s my plan, insofar as I have one. Happy and I hope you will ride along with us. If you live anywhere along the route or have suggestions of things for us to see or do, please let us know. Otherwise, as we always say… Stay tuned!
