The Road Trip - Epilogue...

You know, this road trip really was the journey of a lifetime.

I won't lie: I can't sit idle for too long. I have to move. I need to go. I want to travel. This road trip was the result of my daughter Jessy and I not being able to return to Europe for her birthday. We were going to go to Portugal last year, but Covid-19 simply made that impossible. We were going to go this year, and I was even going to spring for first class travel, but there were still too many travel restrictions in Europe, and Portugal in particular, to make it a viable option.

So I hit the road.

One day in February I decided I wanted to drive the longest road in America: US-20, from Newport, Oregon to Boston, Massachusetts. But it would take some work to get there. An entire adventure unfolded on the road before me before I ever even got to the west coast. I use the word "epic" to describe this trip because, really, it's the only word that fits.

Suffice it to say, a trip like this doesn't come cheap. While it's still cheaper than first class airfare and accommodations to Portugal, the receipts do start to add up over a while. My total cost for fuel was just over $1,000 and, for that, I squeezed 11,126 miles out of the Malibu:

 

Also, food, souvenirs, and the various other sundry things you buy along the way can put your wallet on a diet real fast.

But the one cost that always seems to be the greatest when traveling is lodging. Six weeks of hotels would've been prohibitive, especially with two of us traveling from Oregon. To this end, I have to thank some folks who were beyond kind in opening their homes to me on the way west, and to both me and Jess while coming east:

Kenny & Karen Koumjian - Billerica, Massachusetts

Mike & Tamara Gladstone - Rochester, New York

Ron and Gwen Sommer - Wooster, Ohio

Chris Rausch - Missoula, Montana

Mark & Deborah Acerenza - Frederick, Maryland

I cannot overstate how much we appreciated the kind hospitality shown to us. From a place to lay our heads to filling our stomachs with amazing meals, those folks are a very big part of why I was able to tackle this type of trip, and they'll forever have my undying gratitude.

It's probably not surprising, given my "travelin' jones", that people have already started asking where I'm going next. Well, I can't really say. I'd like to say Europe, but there's just no way to know. 

I'll let you know when I get that figured out...