ROAD TRIP : WINGING IT WITH CHEWYB
Traveling and seeing new places is at the top of my list for most favorable things to do. Whenever an opportunity comes up to go on a road trip, or travel to a new city for work I'm all over it without hesitation.
So recently, I flew out to New York to film a wedding with my buddy, Marc from Moving Pictures (check them out they make amazing wedding films). The timing was perfect because my younger brother, Andy was going to be in NY around the same time and I knew he was going to be driving west to San Francisco at some point. This situation presented an awesome opportunity to make a road trip out of it and drive back with him and his squishy faced dog, Chewbacca (Chewy, ChewyB).
Our style of travel is very spontaneous; we never seem to really know where we're going, where we're going to sleep, or how long we're going to be gone for. Sounds crazy, but I love this. Our short and rushed 2 week mission out west consisted of about 5,000 miles on the road, 200 gallons of fuel, and over $80 in highway tolls. We explored Upstate New York: the Adirondack Mountains, 5 finger lakes, Watkins Glen, Letchworth, Niagara Falls, and much much more. From Niagara Falls we rallied straight to Colorado via the I-80 only stopping for gas, food, and one sunrise photo in Iowa. We drove through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, and into Colorado in a little over a day. I'm talking 7-8 hour shifts on long, boring, straight roads. We went to a handful of National Parks, ninja camped in the National Forests, acquired 3 gas station cheeseburgers on our way to Utah - for free, tried to find mining spots in Moab, got kicked out of a ghost town, had too much fun in Livermore, and eventually made it back to my home in Portland.
I love the stories and experiences you gain from traveling. It gives you a chance to take a step back and appreciate what all is out there; whether it's the current environment you're in, the different people that you meet, or the things that you learn about yourself or about your travel buddies. I'll end this with one of my favorite quotes by André Gide, "Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore".