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Previous Roadtrips > 1995-1999
Previous
Road Trips:
1995
- 1999
After
working for Parsons Brinckerhoff in Portland for four years, I was
"chomping at the bit" to get back out on the road. In the spring
of 1995, I applied for a 5-month unpaid leave from my job to take a road trip
around the U.S. I left Portland on April 1 (April Fools day) for a
counterclockwise trip that would take me through 38 states and two Canadian
provinces, covering over 20,000 miles.
During
the 1995 trip, I visited my parents, sister and three brothers, who were
scattered around the country, and also visited a lot of old friends whom I
hadn't seen in several years. In July, I spent two weeks in Colorado where
I had previously worked as a seasonal ranger in the 1980s,
assisting the ranger crew and boring them with stories about the "good ol'
days." Though my 5-month road trip was fun, it was also rushed because there were just too many
great things to see and do each
day.
A
few years later, I took a four-week vacation and drove back to visit my brother
Don and his family in Syracuse, New York. During that trip, I stopped off
in Ann Arbor, Michigan to visit my niece and stopped by the house in East
Lansing, Michigan where I grew up, which I hadn't seen in 30 years. After leaving
Syracuse, I followed the Lewis & Clark Trail along the Missouri River back
to Oregon, though was turned back at a muddy Lemhi Pass in Montana -- definitely
a case of "Daunted Courage."
Unfortunately for them, Lewis & Clark didn't have the option of taking the
Interstate freeway to Portland.
My
Road Trips: 1995 - 1999
Above
left: Wild
horses on the beach at Cumberland Island National
Seashore in Georgia. At eighteen miles long, Cumberland
Island is the largest island on the East Coast
south of Long Island, NY. This little-known area is,
I believe, the most beautiful and peaceful place on the entire
East Coast. You can get there only by passenger ferry
and reservations are recommended. A small, tranquil
campground near the beach offers a great place to
unwind... but the raccoons there are pretty clever, so watch your food!
Above
right: Black
Eagle Falls, one of the five "Great Falls" of the Missouri
River, at Great Falls, Montana. When Lewis & Clark
reached this point in 1805 during their trip west, they were
first stunned by the "sublimely grand" spectacle. Soon,
however, they became discouraged when the difficult
portage around all of the falls took nearly a month. Today,
the falls have been mostly inundated by dams and reservoirs.
Previous
Road Trips:
Road
Trips: 1980 - 1984
Road
Trips: 1985
- 1989
Road
Trips: 1990
- 1994
Road
Trips: 1995
- 1999
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