The Mother Road

Oh my word. I’ve been gone and now I’m back and here to tell you all about my travels over the past seven weeks. I was on-the-road 42 days between May 25 to July 22, literally and figuratively speaking. That’s an on-the-road percentage of 72% which is high and felt even higher.

My crazy travel season began with our trip to Walla Walla over the last weekend in May followed by five days in Seattle and then seven days discovering Utah’s mighty 5. We flew back to Seattle for three days before I flew to Minneapolis and spent four days visiting friends and family before my dad and I departed via his Corvette to Chicago and then spent the next 10 days cruising The Mother Road to Los Angeles and onward to Seattle. Once we reached Los Angeles, we pointed our compass north and drove as much of the Pacific Coast Highway as we could (large sections are closed due to landslides and fires), finally arriving in Seattle. I then spent 9 days in Seattle before Peter and I flew to London for a week and then further afield to Malta for four days where we nearly melted to death.

That’s where the travel gets very hectic.

We landed in Seattle from Malta and I was in Seattle for 10 hours before departing on a business trip for five days. All of this madness came to close on Sunday, July 22 when I landed in Seattle exhausted, relieved and sick.

In total, I visited two countries and 12 states (including Washington for the trip to Walla Walla) in a period of 59 days. I flew roughly 17,704 miles, drove 5,810 miles, biked 25 miles, and walked a million miles in London and Malta.

It was one helluva ride and I’m scared to get on the scale or even get back in the gym because it’ll reveal the damage incurred but as the kids these days say, you only live once.

I’ve completed the arduous task of organizing the 1,500 photos I took and over the course of a few days (more realistically, weeks). I’ll be jottin’ down my travel thoughts on this little blog right here to let ya’ll (or y’all) know how the trips went, what I learned, and what I’d do differently. The first installment of my Route 66 road trip is Illinois and can be found here.

Until then, I’ll leave you with this photo of my dad’s Corvette parked at the Chinook Pass (5,430 ft / 1,655 m) on the Chinook Scenic Byway which runs through Mount Rainier National Park. It’s probably the sexiest thing you’ll see all year.