It’s TIME for my USA road trip

I’ve been talking about it for years, and have been actually planning it for the past few months. The time is finally here! In about one hour is the official start of my 4-5 month trip around the United States – it will take me through over 30 states with a brief touch in Mexico, and a brilliant couple of weeks of touring western Canada. I’ve always wanted to go out west and to see all that Arizona and California have to offer, and while I’ve been to Los Angeles a couple of times, but other than a day trip to Joshua Tree National Park, I’ve missed out on everything else the western USA has to offer. I’ve been home visiting family since November, since I was overseas, traveling abroad for the better part of 8-9 months – and I’m beyond ready to head out again!

Throughout most of my trips, I go alone, because solitude and travel offer a beautiful peace, where it makes it possible to be changed and molded by the experiences you have – plus, most of my friends don’t quite relate to the lifestyle I lead. Except for one. My best friend Matt Powell, of 24+ years – which is actually rather amazing in the world, nowadays, as we’re both only in our late 20’s – has decided that he needs to change his life, and so he believes that this opportunity could offer him the sort of mental changes and life experiences that could help him advance further in his life, than he has been able to by staying put in our old hometown. I’m fully supportive of him coming along, and am actually really quite glad. It’s difficult to travel for a long period of time, in completely new places, and be all alone, the entire time – sure, you can meet new people and other travelers, but they typically go as quick as they come. For example, upon last year’s travels of 8-9 months, that I mentioned earlier, the hardest part wasn’t the actual travel, it wasn’t the different languages, and it wasn’t because of a feeling of becoming homesick; it was because I was fighting a profound feeling of chronic loneliness.

So, with that said, I think his addition to the trip will transform my travel experiences in a whole different way. I’m used to being alone. I’ve been lost in the world, in an unfamiliar place, surrounded by strangers who don’t speak the same language, and I was perfectly fine. I’ve talked about it plenty of times before on the blog here; I’ve even been quoted saying, “Travel is about cutting all ties and ditching all preconceived judgements, and getting truly lost – because only then can you find yourself.” But now that I’ve been through that, where I’ve found myself, I believe having a travel companion will now open the door to a lot of new experiences and things that I had skipped out on while traveling before, because it was just me, by myself, but now, it will be entirely different.

Anyway, throughout the trip, I will be keeping a daily log on the blog, as well as updating frequently on Twitter (@eyeandpen) and on Instagram (@eyeandpen). Plus, I’ll be offering more personal updates to my email list followers (you can sign up for this on the right side of this page, or on the front page of the site). So, please keep up with my updates, photographs, and articles – it means the world to me!

I thought about listing off every single, little, tiny thing that we will be getting up to throughout the trip, but to be honest, while we do have a very long, and comprehensive list of over 1,000 items that we wish to see and do, we have decided to go at our own pace, moving from place to place as we see fit. We will likely stay a day here and there, then a week in other places. We’ve talked over the organics of the trip, and how this travel style will help us achieve the life goals that we both have set for ourselves. Part of the beauty of this trip is that we will both be looking out for each other, as we both have set goals that the other will help and support, and provide accountability. Both of us want to eat better each day, get in better shape, find enlightenment and to grow within ourselves, with the experiences of our travels. Also, if I were to list off everything we have planned, where’s the surprise and fun in that for you? :-)

One of the other great aspects of joining up with Matt for this trip is that he is also a filmmaker, so with his expertise and my background of filmmaking and visual arts, we are aiming to release several internet television shows that will feature a lot of our antics and what all we get up along the trip, but we will also be interviewing other people, and talking about how the trip has been transforming us. In the future, you can find more information on our up-and-coming video production site: Neauxmad (www.neauxmad.com – pronounced ‘nomad’).

Here is an updated map showcasing some of the more major stops; however, there are hundreds of stops that are not shown within this map, because Google Maps doesn’t allow you to do infinity stops. And just so you know, we will be leaving from our hometown of Columbus, Ohio and will begin by heading south toward Florida.

Routing map, thanks to Google (Custom) Maps.

Thank you so much for being a reader of Eye & Pen, for without you, I could not do what I do, and I would not be who I am today! I hope you will enjoy following our trek across the USA, and will find inspiration and guidance for your own life as well – or if nothing else, hopefully you will at least be entertained with our stories, my photography, and Matt’s videography work.

(Main photo by walkinguphills via Flickr)