Travel Blog Biography

Road Trippin' USA Style

There have been instances in the last few months when I have questioned my grasp on the realities of life.

At a time when most of my friends are working hard to stay employed, to pay off their mortgages and generally get ahead I have decided my immediate future is in exactly the opposite direction.

And so I find myself putting all my possessions in storage, turning down some interesting consulting projects and eating in to a fair chunk of my life savings... all to spend the next five months living out of a suitcase and driving across the U.S.A.

But any time I doubt my grasp on things I just tell someone what I am off to do... and I watch their reaction.

Chances are that if they are male, and aged somewhere between 30 and 60 they get a wistful look.

Their eyes cloud over a little, they stop fidgeting and go very still.

It's clear that images of long, open, shimmering roads, smoky blues joints and small town diners are playing across their now half closed eyes.

They are images from just about every movie, TV show and many of the books they have grown up with.

They are images that are undoubtedly romanticised but deeply vivid and alluring.

Somewhere, a rift of Blues or maybe Country music starts up in their heads and they look at me with undisguised empathy.

A few of them even look inspired.

One or two, including my personal banker have dropped unsubtle hints that if asked them to come along for the ride, they would walk across hot coals to be there!

So after nearly 20 years of single-minded focus on my career in Marketing and General Management, I am changing direction and feeding a dream a lot of us clearly share.

In my newly acquired deep red, mid 90's Pick Up truck I am hitting the road!

I want to discover for myself what the U.S.of A. is like once you leave the biggest cities behind.

I want to find out whether small town America is surviving these turbulent times, and how they view the world today.

I want to drink perc coffee and eat my eggs sunny side up in a roadside diner, and listen to blues in a New Orleans bar.

Starting in Seattle I will travel zig-zag fashion from sea to shining sea and from the northern most states to the deep-south, ending my travels with some R+R in the Florida Keys.

So if you want to be reminded of a road trip from your youth, or it's an itch you have yet to scratch, check out my weekly blog here at Yahoo Xtra, as I go discover what's happening in America today.