On The Go Again

I’m starting this travel blog because as I sit here and type, my head keeps turning toward the window wishing I was “out there” – somewhere, anywhere – just traveling and sightseeing as my family has done for a lifetime.

I really believe that I come from a band of gypsies – I know my parents are at least. It all started when I was young, when my mom and I would roam the back roads of wherever we were living, just to see what was “up the road” or “around the bend” as she would say.

When she remarried when I was nine, my life would become an adventure in our own back yard or at least within a 100-mile radius of where we lived. My stepfather, who was a logger in Northern California, had a habit of throwing an old mattress in the back of our pickup truck and we would take off on some isolated, semblance of a road to just “see where it would take us.” Many times we would wind up at “crick” to fish and eat our tailgate lunch.

Mom never forgot the essentials for outdoor dining. Whenever I heard her lower the tailgate on the pickup, which served as our makeshift table, we knew we were in for a treat -- or least some sustenance. The meal was always the same -- a couple pieces of bologna, smashed flat between two pieces of white Wonder Bread, a bag of chips and a soda.

Since those early days, I’ve been roaming the back roads, side roads, city streets, bike lanes, paths or anything that looked like or served as a way to get from here to there “just to see what’s there.” Most of my friends think I’ve traveled a fair piece and I suppose I have, but the wanderlust inside me is insatiable and if I had the time and money and no more excuses, I would be on the road all the time.

So in an effort to soothe my aching, traveling heart, I will be wandering around my new abode, which is in Idaho and into Eastern Oregon where my family resides--thus, the reason for this blog. I’ll post my weekend journeys here, big and small, but probably small to most, to the places I’ve been, the people I’ve seen and things I’ve done – warts and all.

Every now and then, when I’m lucky enough to scrap up some money and time to travel to other parts of the country, I’ll be sure to give you a full report.

So here’s a taste of some upcoming adventures – as I like to call them:

End of February -- natural hot springs
Mid-March -- Las Vegas!
Early April -- Steens Mountain & Malheur National Wildlife Refuge