I apparently decided to become a traveler at 3 months old while flying back to the southeast U.S. to meet my paternal grandparents, covering the states of Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky. Thanks to dad's side of the family, I frequented flights to Alabama and Texas while growing up, and always with the parents. Oh, and there was that trip to Switzerland during my senior year music tour. Other than that, there wasn't much else in the way of traveling.

But then 2005 happened.

Domestic Travels

After 2 years without taking any time off from work, I banked 4 weeks of vacation, which at the time seemed incredulous to me. It seemed like an elusive pot of gold. With this much free time, I needed to go big and do something outrageous. So what did I decide? Take a road trip and visit the Lower 48 states. All at once.

The notion was exciting and frightening all at the same time. Never have I embarked outside California on my own. But this was a breakout opportunity, perhaps one that may never arise again. I spent a full year researching and planning a route and itinerary, and received advice from folks in travel community internet forums. This intensity of this trip wasn't something to take lightly, especially for inexperienced travelers. I had to make sure it was done right.

Then it was time. In the Summer of 2005 I convinced two friends to tag along, and together we achieved my personal goal of visiting the Lower 48 within 4 weeks, albeit a few hiccups along the way. The trip itself was a lifetime experience, although incompatibilities with my companions revealed themselves, with an unfortunate fallout. I thought it best to find other travel companions from then on.

I didn't have to look much farther than my parents, who themselves traveled around in the past. In the Fall 2006 we took our first family road trip covering the western half of the United States, and soon fell into an annual groove of seeing various regions of the US, revisiting states from trips past. While it gets harder to stick to an annual routine these days, we always manage to go somewhere once in a while.

I managed to visit Alaska in 2013 and Hawaii in 2017, making a grand total of all 50 states. With that milestone out of the way, I can focus on US territories (Puerto Rico, Guam, Mariana Islands, etc.) before expanding.

All our domestic road trip experiences are detailed at Roadtrip Central.

Traveling Abroad

I've been to the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Ontario, but will need to step in the rest before I can mark that country off my list. On the flip side, even though I live 100 miles from the border, I've never been to Mexico, although that may be achieved with a mission trip in the future.

My foreign travel goals are the UK, Italy, Japan, Australia/New Zealand, the Nordic countries, and if I can ever afford it, Antarctica. I don't have any definite time table on these places, just whenever time and money allows.