A map of the western United States showing Duncan's route from Illinois to (in order) Iowa, South Dakota, Wyoming, Idaho, Nevada, California, Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, and back to Illinois.

Charlie Goes West! (Summer 2023 Road Trip)

I loves me a good road trip. I’ve been on a couple of great ones over the last couple of years including 2017’s Great Western Road Trip and 2022’s Drive to the Canadian Maritimes. It’s almost time to set out on a new adventure! Every adventure needs a great name, and this year it’s Charlie Goes West.

My last trip out west took me from Chicago north through the Prairie Provinces then down the Pacific Coast from Portland to San Francisco, then a straight shot back east on I-80 then I-70. That was fun, but I missed out on the Northern Plains and some of the nicest parts of the Rocky Mountains, not to mention the entire Southwest. I was also completely solo on that trip, and I learned last year how much fun it is to travel with Charlie. He may be blind, but he adores riding in the car and thrives on meeting new people.

When I started planning out this year’s trip, I thought about some things I didn’t want to miss. I’ve never been to the Badlands, and I’ve never had a chance to explore the Southwest. Also, the four states in the contiguous US that I have never set foot in are Nebraska, South Dakota, Arizona, and New Mexico. It’s time to fix that! For extra fun, I didn’t want to retrace any of my 2017 route if it could be avoided. All of these pieces came together into this year’s route, which is around 5,200 miles as planned:

A map of the western United States showing Duncan's planned route.

(Map generated by Furkot, an extremely handy road trip planner!)

I have the luxury of a good amount of vacation time and the ability to work remotely most of the time. That’s why after 2017’s two-week trip and 2022’s three-week trip, this trip is going to be a full four weeks. Because I’m working from the road occasionally, I’ll only be using eleven vacation days. While I didn’t know many people out in the Maritimes last year, this time around I’ll be passing by many friends along the way. I’m looking forward to some fun times ahead!

I hit the road on Saturday morning, 12 August, and I can’t wait! I’ll be posting updates here on my blog, as well as on my Mastodon account (which should get notifications of blog updates as well).