Category Archives: road trip

Road Trip Like Duncan (and Charlie)

I likes me some road trips. Shocker, I know. And of course, dogs make everything better in my opinion, so road tripping with Charlie is pretty awesome indeed! Since 2017, I’ve taken four major road trips, totaling over 22,000 miles (36,800 km). Three of those were with Charlie. I think by now I’ve got a good handle on the tools needed for a great road trip, so I thought I’d share some of those. I’ll say up front that none of these are affiliate links; I’m not making any money off of these, they’re just things I found incredibly useful.

Websites and Apps

Trip Planning

Furkot is always my first stop when planning a road trip. I just use the mapping and timing functions, but there’s a lot of other functions for finding points of interest, lodging, food, etc. The interface is a bit fiddly, but once you get the hang of it it’s not too bad. I especially like that, once you nail down your final route, you can tell where you will be at what time. That’s useful for planning stops, meals, etc. (Despite the name, there is no connection to furry fandom that I am aware of!)

Tripit is extremely for gathering all of your travel documentation in one place, like hotel reservations, event tickets, etc. I tend to dump everything in there and then forget it during the trip, but it’s nice to know that if you need that info it’s available at your fingertips.

AirBnb isn’t for everyone, and it takes a lot of time to read through the listings and find the perfect rental. I’ve found that it’s great for finding dog-friendly lodging in the places that I like to be. I’ve stayed at 12 different AirBnbs over the years and have had pretty good luck overall.

Google Keep is a simple and free notetaking app that I use for things like grocery lists and to-do lists, was well as jotting down info for reference that I don’t want to lose. I like it because I can enter info on the web and it’s available on any device. The checklist function (and being able to cross things off once checked) is very helpful, and it’s why I use it to create my packing lists.

Once we’re on the road

iExit is pretty handy. With location services, it detects what highway your are on and what direction you are traveling. It then lists upcoming exits, along with food, gas, and lodging (you can configure what categories it shows). I believe it’s tied in with Yelp so it has links to reviews as well. This has been really handy when I’ve been in the middle of nowhere and looking for a bite to eat or how far it is to the next rest area. (Available on iOS and Android)

Gasbuddy is invaluable for finding the closest gas stations and the prices at each one. The info is maybe 80-90% accurate since it is user-generated, but it’s better than nothing. It can be used either on the web or their app. I prefer the web because it sucks somewhat less personal data!

Handy items to pack

OK, now we’re on the road. Sometimes I will drive several days back to back with an overnight stop between. At this point I have a routine: I drop my bag on the bed, set up my CPAP, put out my toiletries, and set up my chargers.

For a toiletry bag, I’ve been very happy with my LL Bean toiletry organizer that I bought in 2017. I’ve taken it on dozens of trips, not just road trips but also to Alaska and Europe. It holds just what I need and a bit more, and it’s been quite rugged.

I cannot recommend having a multi-outlet charger highly enough. I’m using this one these days that has two 100W USB-C outlets, one 20W USC-B, and one 18W USB-A. This is perfect for charging my iPhone, iPad, Airpods, and Apple Watch all at the same time. It’s damn handy to have one thing to plug in that covers everything.

The BERGENES phone stand from Ikea is a crazy simple thing that I came across at an AirBnb I stayed at in Albuquerque. It’s great because I never rely on hotel clocks, but I can set my iPhone in there (even in its case!) and see the time (and notifications, if I want). Not bad for something that’s only $3!

I bought this headlamp to have at home for walking the dogs in the dark, but realized it’s a great thing to carry while traveling too. It’s handy to have just in case something goes wrong with the car in the dark or wherever I’m staying loses power. I carry it and a set of rechargable batteries and charger so it’s always ready when I need it.

The last two items are things that I just keep in the car unless needed.

A plastic milk crate is very handy to help corral small items in one place as you’re driving. I keep mine in the footwell of the passenger seat when on a trip, and I usually keep some snacks there, a roll of paper towel and carpet cleaner (just in case), my commuter coffee cup, and a few other items.

I started carrying 25-foot extension cord and outlet strip after one too many nights at a hotel where the closest outlet was across the room. Even if I just want to plug in my CPAP and charger, is it too much to ask to have an outlet by the bed? Apparently so!

Finally, not an item but an idea: I realized that the best approach on road trips is to have a big suitcase for all of your clothes but also a smaller bag for one or two nights, so you don’t have to carry everything everywhere you go. Dirty clothes go back into the suitcase (I usually segregate from clean clothes with plastic bags), and when I get somewhere that there are laundry facilities I just pull out the whole suitcase and I’m good to go.

Traveling with Charlie

Road tripping with a dog brings some special considerations . These items are great not just for road trips but for everyday use as well.

Let’s start with the basics: A great dog leash. This double-handle 4-foot leash is outstanding because it not only provides greater control when I need it (perfect for city situations, or going to the vet) but also the D-ring at the top handle is perfect for hanging some useful accessories.

One of those accessories is a poop bag dispenser. I like this one, but there’s plenty of options. I also recommend these bags. Buying in bulk isn’t too expensive, and these have worked well over the last 8 years.

The other fantastic accessory is something that is simple and cheap, but so great to have: A poop bag holder. The rubber connector to the leash eventually gives out after about a year but at $2 each, who cares? These things are a godsend on dog walks, particularly with two dogs.

Let’s focus more on the travel aspects now.

First and foremost, GET A HARNESS. A dog musher I respect a lot had a very sobering thought: What do you call an unsecured dog in a car accident? A projectile. That’s bad for your dog and it’s bad for you. I’ve seen a couple of harness that  pass safety tests, but the one that I like is the Kurgo True-Fit harness. It has a heavy-duty carabiner that attaches to the seat belts and keeps the dog in one place and secure.

Speaking of carabiners, I recommend picking up a couple of lighter-weight ones and carrying them with your leash. If you need to secure your dog while you’re out, you can either use the carabiner to clip the leash to a railing or something, or if nothing of an appropriate diameter is available you can loop the leash around a post and secure it to itself with the carabiner.

Water is always super-important when on a trip. There are lots of fancy watering systems that you can buy, but I keep it simple. I have a foldable fabric water bowl that is no longer available, but any collapsible bowl will do. For carrying water, I just go to the grocery store and buy a 1-gallon jug of drinking water. I buy bottles that come with a handle so you can roll up the water bowl and tuck it through the handle (or clip a carabiner to the handle) for easy carrying. Refill the bottles from the tap as often as you like! The only downside is that eventually the water bottle handles break, but they’re good for at least 4-6 months in my experience.

Now you know how to travel like Charlie and me. I hope this is helpful, and that you get to go and enjoy your own travels as well!

Charlie Goes to the Pacific Northwest: The Wrap-Up

Statistics

(No relation)
  • Length of Trip: 29 days
  • Days of Long-Distance Driving: 11
  • Distance Driven: 5,463 miles (9,105 km)

Once again, my 2020 Subaru Outback was a champion road trip vehicle. I always had enough space, and then some. The polyurethane upholstery is great for traveling with dogs, too! By the end of the trip my total mileage was 42,161 – not too bad for a four-year-old car!

  • Nights in Hotels: 14
  • Nights in AirBnBs: 13
  • Nights staying with friends: 2

Wow, that was a lot of hotels! Fortunately, the majority of them were paid for with points. Overall my experiences with hotels were pretty good this trip, all of them being very dog-friendly. My AirBnBs were nice, with comfortable beds and all of the necessary amenities. I did learn some things about what to look for in future stays, though. Only a few nights staying at friends, though I am picky enough about where I sleep (and the additional logistics of Charlie) that was probably for the best.

  • Breweries Visited: 55
  • Beers Checked In: 172

So many flights of beer! I wound up at a few more taprooms this trip (as opposed to just breweries) and so wound up trying a lot of beers from local breweries I didn’t have time to visit (useful when in Portland!). As noted previously, brewery-hopping is really enjoyable on these trips because so many of them are dog-friendly. Having Charlie with me can often act as a great catalyst to meeting people and chatting. It’s a great way to reduce the social isolation of travel.

Lessons Learned:

  • Charlie is not a city dog.

I think that Charlie’s eyesight, which used to be “maybe shadows in bright light,” has gotten markedly worse this year. In addition to the woeful lack of greenery for him to feel under his paws, the smells and noise of city sidewalks were overwhelming enough to slow him down so much that I spent a lot of time half-carrying him in his harness to move along. Related:

  • Charlie is not a good urban dweller in general.

Our AirBnB in Seattle was a 4th-floor apartment, which…wasn’t great. Before we got fully settled in, he had a few accidents (easily cleaned up at least), and mornings were always a dash down the elevator to the exterior door so he could pee. At least he got good at holding it in until we were *just* outside. On the bright side, elevator rides don’t bother him!

  • Trendy neighborhoods are great to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.

My AirBnBs in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle and RiNo in Denver had a lot of interesting things within walking distance, but the prices were also sky-high. In the future I could see myself sticking more to the suburbs and venturing into city neighborhoods selectively, even if parking can be a pain in the butt.

  • A Hyatt Place is a Hyatt Place is a Hyatt Place.

With some notable exceptions (Saint Paul, Minnesota, and Knoxville, Tennessee) all of the Hyatt Places that I’ve stayed at have the same layout, the same furnishings, and the same (mediocre) breakfast buffet. I’m not sure they’re a good value for the money, but if you’re staying on World of Hyatt points they’re a great deal.

  • The best parts of these trips are finding neat cities that you never would have expected.

On this trip I learned that Spokane, Washington and Astoria, Oregon were really interesting places! I hope I get a chance to explore them more in the future.

  • Mountains soothe my soul.

Driving parallel to the mountains between Denver and Boulder, watching the sunset over the Front Range was absolutely stunning. I want to live somewhere where I can see that every day. And I will…someday.

As always, though, the biggest takeaway is a reminder: Life is short. You should take what time you can to enjoy the things that make you happy. I love travel, I love spending time with Charlie, and I love being able to do the two together. I can’t wait to see where out travels will take us in 2025!

I hope that you are able to do the things you love as well, dear reader, and find your own happiness.

I’ll close with some of my favorite photos from the trip. As always, thanks for reading!

Charlie Goes to the Pacific Northwest: Part 3, Ballard

Having explored around the suburbs of Seattle, it was time for our heroes to venture into the city! Our destination was the neighborhood of Ballard. Ballard is on the north side of Seattle and is full of interesting hipster restaurants and bars and interesting shops. It’s a very walkable area, which is a big reason I chose it. It was to be my home for the next five days.

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Charlie Goes to the Pacific Northwest: Part 2, Seattle Suburbs

Did you ever start a blog project, promising to post every day, and then you…didn’t? No? Just me? Ah well.

One reason I wasn’t too worried about it is that over the past couple of months I have taken the time to go back to the 2017 Great Western Road Trip, the Maritimes Trip in 2022, and the road trip to the Southwest in 2023 and collapsed the daily blog entries into more-digestible chunks, so you’re only reading 4-5 entries and not 20+ entries. (Also, going back and fixing the photos that were posted to social media sites so they were locally-hosted was kind of a pain!)

So anyway, let’s see about getting back on track! I’ve tried to break the trip into logical parts from here:

  • This Part: Seattle Suburbs
  • Part 3: Ballard, Seattle
  • Part 4: Portland and the trip to Denver
  • Part 5: A week and a half in Denver, then home

I know these get kind of long, though I love having them to return to in the future. If you prefer to skim through just for the photos, that’s OK too!

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Charlie Goes to the Pacific Northwest, Part 1

Sometimes you have great plans and everything comes together, and sometimes those plans fall through. We’ll put these blog entries in the latter category 🙂 It’s been a long couple of days of longer-than-usual driving legs and that has left me pretty tired by the end of the day and not up for blog entries. Anyway! Enough excuses.

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Charlie Goes to the Pacific Northwest! (2024 Summer Road Trip)

It’s time for the 2024 Summer Road Trip: Charlie Goes to the Pacific Northwest! These trips have been wonderful, and I’m very excited for this year’s edition. To recap past trips:

This year, shown in the blue line on the map, Charlie and I will be on the road for four weeks to the Pacific Northwest and to Denver! I had so much fun last year, and traveling with Charlie is always very enjoyable. Solo road trips can be an incredibly isolating experience, and I find having a cute and friendly dog along helps to break the ice. I’ve gotten into so many great random conversations with people that were started from people wanting to say hello to Charlie.

As I was planning this year’s route, I thought about where I’ve been, and where I want to return to. I grew up in the American Southeast, spending the first 30 years of my life in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia. I’ve had quite enough of those and am looking forward to seeing new places! And while I have friends there and know many wonderful people live there, I have zero desire to visit Texas or Florida in the current political climate. This extends to much of the Southwest, to be honest.

I haven’t been in the Pacific Northwest since 2020, when I spent Christmas there in a lovely AirBnB in Capital Hill, so Seattle seems like a great destination. I haven’t been to Portland since 2017, so an extended stop there would be nice. And I always want to visit Denver – I love the heck out of that city. So with my anchor points set, it was time to lay out my itinerary.

I don’t want to dawdle along the way between Chicago and Seattle, so I’ll be driving like hell across North Dakota, Montana, and Washington to get there as quickly as possible. At the same time, I try to keep each day’s driving to around six hours to leave time to relax and maybe explore our stop for the night a bit. Likewise the sprint between Portland and Denver will be as short as possible, but hopefully I’ll get to see some nice things along the way.

As always, I will be posting near-daily updates here on my blog, as well as lots of posts to social media (Mastodon and BlueSky). As with last year, if you want easy notifications of blog entries, you can either subscribe to my Telegram channel (now with a feedback chat!) or RSS.

I hit the road on Saturday, and I just can’t wait!

Charlie Goes West: The Wrap-Up

Statistics

Length of trip: 27 days
Days of long-distance driving: 15 days
Distance driven: 5,773 miles (9,291 km)
Average Fuel Economy: 24.2 miles per gallon (10.3 km/litre)

I am so very happy with my 2020 Subaru Outback! It was the perfect road trip car. By the end of the trip the total mileage on the car was 30,336 miles.

Nights in hotels: 9
Nights in AirBnbs: 15 (AirBnbs in Flagstaff, Albuquerque, and Denver)
Nights staying with friends: 3

I was very happy with my AirBnbs, though they were all very different. Flagstaff and Albuquerque compared to a studio motel room, but Denver was actually a two-bedroom house with full kitchen. The real winner was Denver which put me in easy walking of so many great shops and restaurants.

Breweries visited: 49
Beers checked in: 148

Why breweries? I assure you I am by no means a heavy drinker, though I do enjoy a good beer. I have found the brewery-hopping is a nice thing to do when traveling with Charlie because they tend to be dog-friendly, and there is a built-in social environment. I had the good fortune to have great conversations with random strangers, something that is normally kind of difficult for me to initiate. Everybody wants to talk about Charlie, though, and that’s a great introduction to other topics. (Also, how did I check in so many beers? I like flights.)

Lessons Learned

  • Back to back to back days of driving are pretty rough. You’d think I would have learned that last year!
  • Mountains lift my spirits. I saw the first hint of mountains in western South Dakota, the Black Hills, and I was actually elated. It was a great feeling.
  • Exerting yourself at 7,000+ feet above sea level takes a far greater toll than you might expect. I mean, I’m still out of shape, but I’m not THAT out of shape!
  • Mountain roads are fun. Back roads are fun. Even rocky, unpaved dirt roads are fun (when you have a car equipped for it). Interstates are boring, but when you need to get from here to there quickly, sometimes you have no choice.
  • Adaptive Cruise Control and Lane Keep Assist are a godsend on long, straight, boring highways.
  • Nevada always surprises me with the beauty to be found in even some of the most remote and desolate areas.
  • California is a nice place to visit, but I’m pretty sure I would never want to live there.
  • I knew this already, but traveling with a dog who loves to ride in the car is wonderful. You never feel alone, and always have a friend right nearby. Charlie is the best road trip buddy ever!

The final lesson learned is that although this trip wasn’t cheap and was a lot of time away from work, who knows what the future will bring? Do the things that make you happy while you can. Sure, plan for the future, but don’t forget to enjoy today, too.

I have so many wonderful memories from this trip that I will treasure for years to come. Those of you who have followed along in this blog or on social media, I hope that you were able to enjoy the trip vicariously. I also hope that you have adventures of your own in your future!

Thanks for reading.

Coming in late? You can start reading about the entire trip from the beginning: Charlie Goes West

Charlie Goes West, Day 0

I’m still scrambling trying to get everything packed, or at least staged and ready to go. It turns out when you’re going to leave home for a month, you need to give some things a little extra thought. How long will those eggs in the fridge last? Which lights should be left on? Little things like that.

I still need to get Nora’s food and medications all packed up. The dog sitter loves Nora, which helps. They have a small dog and a couple of young children, and Nora gets along quite well with all of them. She spent the night with them last weekend and they got the Full Nora Experience, which means she got into their snack stash and ate an entire bag of Fritos and a bag of Brownie Brittle. They need to work on understanding her “tells” as well. When Nora comes and sits in front of you and stares at you, she isn’t saying “Oh, please pet me.” She is saying “Hey dummy, I need to pee. Let me out.” They had to deal with a couple of accidents because of that, but seemed quiet OK with it. In talking with them, they have a lot of experience with dogs way more troublesome than Nora, so I think she’ll be just fine there.

Nora stares into the camera as a hand from offscreen scratches her chin.

So anyway, I have four weeks of travel ahead of me, starting right after I drop Nora off tomorrow morning:

The first week and a half is going to be fun, but a little tiring. As I have learned from past road trips, the daily routine of driving someplace new, stay at a hotel, then pack up and drive to the next place can be wearing. I’m glad I’ve got some AirBnB’s lined up in Flagstaff, Albuquerque, and Denver. That will give me time to recharge a bit, work remotely, and do some laundry!

Tomorrow, I hit the road!

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).

Maritimes Road Trip, Part 2

Day 5: Ottawa, Ontario to Quebec City

I woke up entirely too early, but I decided to take advantage of this and get on the road. I took Charlie for walk in Byward Market, which was just getting started for the day, and got to take a picture of him in front of the famous Ottawa sign, which is usually mobbed by tourists.

Continue reading →

Maritimes Road Trip, Part 1

Day 1: Home to Livonia, Michigan

 This started off well enough, at least. I had the car packed up and ready on time, and drove up to Chad’s place to drop off Nora. It was raining pretty steadily and I found that after applying the sealant to the windshield the wipers were chattering with every pass. I conferred with Piper, and he confirmed my suspicion: they needed to be replaced. Fortunately there was an Autozone just up the road in Kenosha, but after a brief detour and installation of new wipers, Charlie and I were good to go!

Continue reading →

Maritimes Road Trip, Day 0

Everything is packed and ready to go into the car in the morning. Charlie’s food, medications, bowls, and various accessories are ready to go. Nora’s food and medications are packed and ready to drop off with Chad, who is a wonderful friend who will be taking good care of Nora while I’m gone.

Here’s what the next three weeks look like:

This is looking like it’ll be over 4,000 miles. It’s a lot, but I’m really looking forward to it. Seeing new parts of the world is always exciting anyway, and I’ve never explored Quebec or the Maritimes before. I’m also looking forward to meeting up with great friends along the way, and hopefully meeting some new friends too!

I’ll be blowing up my Twitter along the way, and I am hoping to post daily updated here as well. Stay tuned!

A map of the Great Lakes and Eastern Canada showing a round-trip route from Chicago, Illinois to Halifax, Nova Scotia

On the Road Again: Maritimes Road Trip 2022!

It’s been five years since my last road trip, which means this year’s trip is long overdue! The general idea is to hit the road for three weeks, traveling to Halifax, Nova Scotia and back. And this time I won’t be going alone! I will have Charlie as my co-pilot.

Charlie, a RedMerle Border Collie
Charlie can be my navigator. Sure, he’s blind, but what could possibly go wrong?

The general plan is to stop every couple of days and work from my hotel room. In my current position I can’t just disappear for three weeks, so this seems like a reasonable balance. Plotting things out, I realize I’m probably still driving too much on too many days, but on the flip side I have worked hard to keep all driving legs to five hours or less. All of my hotels are booked, so the itinerary is set:

  • Ann Arbor, Michigan
  • Toronto, Ontario
  • Ottawa, Ontario
  • Québec City, Québec
  • Rivière-du-Loup, Québec
  • Moncton, New Brunswick
  • Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia
  • Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • Lubec, Maine
  • Boston, Massachusetts
  • Binghampton, New York
  • Cleveland, Ohio

A bit of a whirlwind tour even taking 19 days, but I’m really looking forward to it! I’m glad I will have Charlie with me, since he helps with a couple of things. First and foremost his company will be welcome. Having him along means that I will almost always be eating in an outdoor environment (Remember Covid? Yeah, it’s still around.) Finally, everyone wants to stop and say hello and pet Charlie (and he loves it). This provides needed social interaction, since I tend to be rather introverted when traveling alone, and not very good at striking up conversations with strangers. It helps that Charlie adores riding in the car, too!

As with my last road trip, I will be documenting it both on Twitter and here. Keep an eye out!

Greatest Hits from the Great Western Road Trip

As you’ve seen, I took a hell of a lot of photos along the way during my trip, and I’ve only posted a fraction of what I took! Here are my favorite shots from the trip. Note that all of these were taken with an iPhone 6 and retouched using Picasa. My phone tends to dim the photos a bit and desaturate the colors, so I was able to offset that with the retouching.

These photos are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). You are free to share (copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format) and adapt (remix, transform, and build upon the material ) them.

Great Western Road Trip: Lessons Learned

And now, one final post to cap off The Great Western Road Trip. After 24 days on the road through 3 provinces and 13 states, what did I learn? Well, I learned a lot of things.

  • I need to work on my trip scheduling.
    When I laid out my itinerary my thinking was, I get into town in the afternoon/evening, I have a day in a city, and I leave the next morning. Three days, right? Wrong. I didn’t account for the distances out west. Mornings had me on the road by 7 AM and with few exceptions I arrived at my destination after 5 PM. After that much driving in a day, the idea of jumping back in the car to explore a city is unpalatable at best. Next time, I either need to limit the number of stops I make and allow better for distances between stops, or I need to take more time for the trip.
  • Renting a car was a good idea
    That was 6,400 miles I didn’t put on my 2012 Subaru Outback. I would have made the trip like a trooper, but I’d rather put all that on someone else’s car. (Rental car guy: “Wow. In all the time I’ve run this place I’ve never had someone turn in a car after putting that many miles on it!”) Side note: If you’re in the northwest Chicago suburbs, Mo at the Avis/Budget office in Lake Zurich is a fantastic guy to work with. Friendly and incredibly helpful! (Also he gave me the hookup for the satellite radio for the duration of the rental)
  • The Ford Mustang is a fun car
    Oh my goodness, yes. For mountain driving, for having to speed up quickly to pass someone, for a smooth ride, Mustangs are a blast. I don’t think I would ever own one – it’s a bit impractical for me – I sure as hell plan to rent one again if needed.
  • Convertibles are fun, up to a point
    I had visions of driving everywhere with the top down, feeling the wind around me, luxuriating in the scenery. Well, I didn’t account for the fact that after a while driving at highway speeds you can get a headache from the wind all around you. It can be difficult to hear spoken word stuff, like NPR or audiobooks. And then there’s the sun. Even so, though, I wouldn’t have traded it for the world. Driving with the top down on cool mornings, through Glacier National Park and the California mountains, along the California coast – all of these were definitely worth it.
  • Sunburns suck
    Sure, you can apply sunscreen. But you have to reapply it. And you stink of sunscreen, and so do your clothes. I got sunburned a few times early in the trip before I got better at managing things, but that was no fun.
  • Rocks to the windshield suck
    Yeah, I got hit with a rock that created cracks that traveled across the windshield. Twice. The replacement windshield and installation cost about US$500 each time. The good news is that I have full coverage via my Chase Sapphire card, with no deductible.
  • Interstates out west are far more fun to drive.
    I generally maintained a limit of speed limit + 5 mph. This made me slower than the speed demons but faster than that slowpokes, and that was just fine by me. But once you get out west, the speed limits go up, from 70 mph on rural roads in Montana to 80 mph on interstates in Nevada and Utah. That is a whole lot more fun! And yes, I did take the Mustang up to 130 mph on a long, straight section of interstate with no one around and good sight distances to see cops ahead. I could have gone faster, but at those speeds, the car has a bit of float to it and it was getting past the point where I felt safe.
  • Canadians don’t celebrate Canada Day very long
    This amused me greatly. I saw this in both Winnipeg and Regina. Canada Day (their 150th anniversary, so a really big deal) fell on a Saturday. Most people had the following Monday off. In the US, this would be cause for big 3- or 4-day festivals. What I saw was a huge to-do on Saturday, with concerts, fireworks, and big festivities. And by Sunday morning? Gone. The only thing left is some scaffolding around the stages, the rest of it all packed up and everyone has gone home. It’s admirably efficient, if nothing else.
  • There are only two bridges between Vancouver, Washington and Portland, Oregon
    Good lord, what a mess. Portland and Vancouver are separated by the Columbia River, which is huge. There are two bridges: Interstates 5 and 205. That’s it. The next closest bridges in either direction are both 40 miles away. Vancouver is a huge suburb, so you can imagine that traffic can be a nightmare. And yet, I’d still say it’s worth it.
  • I love exploring places that are new to me
    I need to go back to Glacier National Park. And Portland. And Winnipeg. And Regina. And Yosemite National Park. And Denver. I didn’t have enough time to explore these places as much as I would have liked, and I found them and the people there to be wonderful. On the bright side, I now have added to my list of future travel destinations!
  • Salads are a good thing
    Man, being on the road for three weeks is murder on how you eat. I tried to keep things light, but it wasn’t always easy and in the end I still gained 8 pounds. Too much sitting, not enough moving. I was able to find a lot of great salads along the way though, and that helped.
  • Beer is a good thing
    Antithetical to the previous observation, isn’t it? And yet I love trying new beers from different breweries. All told, I entered 60 new beers into Untappd on this trip, which include a good number of flights. A nice side-effect is that I also met a lot of really nice bartenders and brewery employees who were friendly and enjoyed chatting.
  • I need dogs in my life (Jasper, Zoey, Kiska, Nathan, and the other Zoe)
    I missed Charlie and Nora so much on this trip. I’m glad I didn’t take them with me because that would have been a level of complexity that would be quite difficult, but I sure wish I could have. Happily, I got to meet, pet, and play with my friends’ dogs: Jasper and Zoey, Kiska, Nathan, and Zoe. Wonderful pups, all!
  • Very few people in this world get me the way that Ford Shepherd does.
    We drifted apart for a while but now he is back in my life, and for this I am very grateful. Us gay Southern boys need to stick together!
  • Sometimes I need to be alone.
    My itinerary included 14 stops. In 11 of those I met up with friends, something for which I was grateful. Even so, the few stops where I didn’t meet anyone were a nice break. I needed the downtime, even though I spent 125+ hours alone by myself on the road. Sometimes socializing can be exhausting.
  • Death is an awkward subject.
    I want to stress that I am not criticizing anyone I met on this trip. I understand, I really do. For most people, Dan’s passing was an event – it is something that happened, and that was it. For those of us who knew him intimately it is a process, one that continues and will continue for quite a long time. Dan did not come up in many conversations on this trip and initially I wondered at this, but then I realized that death is something that we are just not equipped to discuss. It’s awkward, it’s depressing, and we don’t want to trigger any bad reactions. And that’s OK. I realized that the best things my friends can do for me is to just be there.

Out of all of this the best lesson that I learned, though, is that I have SO MANY wonderful friends. To all of you who were able to join me even for a few hours on this trip, thank you so much. You brought home that for all that I have lost, I am never alone. I cannot begin to express my gratitude for this. Thanks to Kellic, Cyn, Mwako, Charles, Lego, Plonq, Atara, Lydia, Andrew, Wolfish, Silver, Tiggs, Thallanor, Tina, Thumper, Hegdish, Drake, Ford, Brophey, Karwood, Partran, Luagha, Baja, Didge, Tyco, Tango, Rooth, Whiteyfawks, Orthrus, Adjacent, Rama, and K. I cannot wait to see you all again sometime soon!

For all that I thought my skills at meeting new people have gotten rusty, it was a nice surprise to be proven wrong. It was great to meet Chris, Jason, Kalypso, Beancat, River Pup, some of the great BLFC staff, and Iberian. Part of the joy of making a trip like this is making new friends, and I was fortunate to do so.

Also, thank you to everyone who followed along on this trip, on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, or Dreamwidth. Your comments and kind words have kept me company even if you couldn’t join me on the road.

During this trip I posted a song for each day, which a good friend collected into a Spotify playlist and an Apple Music playlist. These reflected my moods, my feelings about the trip, the landscape, and the people I met as I drove. I leave you with one last song, then: “No One Is Alone” from Into the Woods.

Sometimes people leave you.
Halfway through the wood…
But no one is alone.

 

Great Western Road Trip, Day 0

(Hereafter Great Western Road Trip is abbreviated GWRT)

Today’s Song: Ready To Go, by Republica

Current Location: Volo, Illinois

Everything is packed up, the dogs are with Grandma, the rental car has been procured, and now the reality is setting in: This is really going to happen. I mean, I planned for it but I always suspected some circumstance would force me to put things off.

I have a long trip ahead of me: approximately 8,000 miles in 24 days. My route will take me from Chicago in the upper Midwest to the Canadian Prairie Provinces, over the Rocky Mountains, down the Pacific coast, and then back to Chicago. Along the way I’ll be seeing dozens of friends Dan and I have made through the years, and hopefully making new friends as well.

Why am I doing this? Dan and I had planned to take a two-week Caribbean cruise in April 2017. When he passed away suddenly all of that got cancelled. Now that I had the vacation time and the funds we’d set aside for that available, I kicked around the question of what to do with those for a few weeks. I have always loved road trips, but in the last decade or so they have simply not been possible due to some of Dan’s health issues. So first off this was a way to cross a long road trip like this off my bucket list.

Although we had a wonderful and well-attended memorial for Dan a few weeks ago, many of our dearest friends were unable to join us. I hope to bring the memory of Dan to them, to celebrate his life and to share a toast to an extraordinary man.

What am I hoping to get out of this trip? I know that hopes and what actually happens are two different things but I hope that this trip serves as a reset button, a demarcation point of My Life Before and My Life After. It’s hard to admit it, but it may also mark where “Tom and Dan” ended and where “Just Tom” started (again). In the 100+ hours of driving planned, there’s going to be a lot of time to think and to work things out in my head. Whether this produces anything constructive is anyone’s guess, though.

Throughout the trip I will be posting my experiences to Twitter. I also hope to post a summary of each day here as well, perhaps providing more context for the tweets and additional photos and memories. Way back in the dawn of time (2002, to be exact), I started blogging on LiveJournal. All of those entries are archived here on this site fortunately, since LiveJournal is now a terrible place. I found that I enjoy going back over old posts that talk about what I did where and with whom. This will be a place to keep the memories of this trip in one place. I also hope to have a theme song for each day, as posted above. This will reflect my mood for the day, my location, or a general feeling I get as I drive across the countryside.

See you all tomorrow, when I hit the road for St. Paul, Minnesota!

Counting Down

In a little over two and a half weeks I will be packing up the (rental) car and hitting the road for a three-week solo road trip across the western US and Canada. Major stops will include Minneapolis, Winnipeg, Regina, Calgary, Glacier National Park, Portland, San Francisco, Denver, Kansas City, and St. Louis (the full route is here). Oh, and the rental car will be a Mustang convertible, because hey – go big or go home!

I can’t begin to say how much I’m looking forward to this. I have always loved long road trips and wanted to make an extended trip like this. Due to various health issues Dan simply wasn’t able to do it, so the dream waited. Now, in part tribute, in part reset button, in part just getting out and living a little, I’m making it happen. We were supposed to do a two-week cruise earlier this spring which we had to cancel with Dan’s initial spinal surgery. This gives me both the funds and the vacation time to take this trip. Plus, Dan’s mom is sweet enough to watch the dogs for those three weeks for me. The fact that she adores them doesn’t hurt!

There’s a lot to do between now and then, though. This weekend we’re taking over a hotel near O’Hare Airport and throwing a memorial/celebration of life/wake to remember Dan and all of the good that he brought into the world. Then there’s a party some friends are throwing next week, as well as the Chicago Pride Parade. Side note about that – For the past several years, Dan organized the Siemens Corp. group’s appearance in the Chicago Pride Parade. This year, one of his co-workers contacted me and asked if I would march with them again, in Dan’s memory. Damn, that’s so sweet.

On June 29 I pick up the rental car, and early on June 30 I hit the road! I will be taking lots of pictures and probably posting like mad to social media, and posting day-by-day wrap-ups to my blog as well [which have now been condensed into three posts]. I have archives of my years and years on LiveJournal (all archived as part of my person blog); I’ve realized that I really like being able to go back and read about past vacations and experiences.

This is gonna be great!