Get Ready
By definition, roadtrips are a journey by vehicle for pleasure. The pleasure part is what motivates us to plan such a journey. It’s exciting to see something new, step back in time in a historical place, discover iconic or amazing scenery, and of course, snapping that perfect picture. We pack the cooler, playlists, podcasts, maps, suitcases, cameras, and all our reservations and hit the road. Memories here we come!
Roadtrip Reality
The middle of any roadtrip is the best. We’ve arrived at THE destination. We can relax. We can see something new and possibly exciting; maybe we can even experience something new such as a zip line, snow shoes, the local cuisine. Eventually, we’ve seen what we came to see and it’s time to turn around. The return trip home is, frankly, a drag.
All the anticipation of something new and exciting is now fulfilled. The final stretch is tiring and you don’t really want to drive anymore. Hopefully, you’ve made it through the middle stretch without complications such as weather, accidents, navigation failures, vehicle failures, broken bones, bug bites or food poisoning. Although, a good sob story makes for a more dramatic story, in the moment it obviously can be stressful, miserable, expensive and again a drag. Now, having your ideal roadtrip has been cut down by reality.
All the above are my personal experiences over many, many roadtrips. Even so, I’ve built my retirement as a perpetual roadtrip. Why? The excitement leading up to a new place and experience is very real and will trump the letdowns and setbacks every time.
There’s both a mental energy and a physical energy to moving around that’s invigorating for both us and our pup, Mr. Cooper. Energy that’ll keep us all a little bit younger, healthier and maybe more interesting.
No Expectations
What is best? Roadtrips that have no schedule and no expectations are best. Our retired life is our current life which is on the road. We crafted this perpetual roadtrip as a way to get out and see and do. I’m still in awe over how much life, nature, history is around us that I never new existed. Or maybe I was so wrapped up in career, parenting, daily living that I didn’t care? Now, with no expectations we continue to collect experience after experience.
Roads Traveled
This roadtrip has placed me on pavement, gravel and dirt roads all ending up somewhere new.
For 4 years now, we have traveled many roads and many miles in the United States; mostly the western side of our country.
Our first year of traveling around was fast paced. We were destination and deadline driven. I suspect we still had not completed shedded our working life behaviors. A few years in and now, we treat our travels as a simple, leisurely relocation of our the tiny home on wheels.
I prepare each leg by looking at weather, routes, trails using various resources. Pick a general area. Then scour satellite maps, camping reviews and even state DOT sites as needed to understand our parking options, road conditions, wind and temperature, attractions, supply and fuel areas. This process has become much easier. Even for a 1 week vacation roadtrip with hotel stays, I’d still be doing much the same prep work.
Of course, today we travel in the custom camper and we prefer to get off pavement even if it’s to go off grid for a few days. Sometimes we actually go to the sand!
Along the way we visit parks, sites, museum, little towns, trails and overlooks. Sometimes we even visit people!
Memories
All these traveled roads have built a network of memories I will cherish forever. My photo libraries, this blog and our YouTube channel document it all. Someday, I’ll stop documenting.
At some point I’m sure I’ll need to get off this roadtrip. I can rest and revisit my memories of this journey.
About the Photo Challenge
A weekly themed photo challenge hosted by Terri. Check out her Blog and come back and visit for more SundayStills and traveling posts!
More Sunday Still Posts
Thanks for visiting our travel blog and I hope you enjoyed finding the #SundayStills Challenge. You can join the weekly challenge by visiting our hosts blog Second Wind Leisure. Terri’s amazing post for this week is What a Long Strange #Roadtrip It Has Been.
If you enjoy personal travel stories and especially camping, follow this blog by entering your email below. You can also follow us on Instagram @WorkingOnExploring or @Maximus.4×4.camper, and subscribe to our WorkingOnExploring YouTube Channel on for our build and trip clips. Good luck on your own exploring and we’ll see you from the road somewhere soon!
Follow WorkingOnExploring travels and ongoing #SundayStills photo Challenge Posts
Delivered directly to your email inbox.
Working on Exploring 
Love your map and I love your photos and how you go about planning and enjoying your roadtrips. So fun.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Kirstin! The map is a fun tool to record and then look back on where we’ve been and see how much more there is to go see.
LikeLike
Hi again, quick question…how did you place your map on your blog post? I created a map but can’t figure out how to add in a post.
LikeLike
Hi Terri – the mymaps embed doesn’t always work well for me so I either do a static screen shot and load as an image but the interactive ones are more interesting. In my maps “menu” (triple dots) there’s an option to embed on a web page. That’ll give you the code to copy. Then in WP, I switch from block mode to code and find the paragraph I want before the map, paste the code and then exit code mode. I may not have the exact wording down for menu/commands so let me know if you need more detail. I’ve had trouble using the WP “embed” block and found this method worked consistently so far.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I will give that a try, thank you!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Truly amazing road trips you have taken Cheryl! Everything you discussed is all true for any of us who have taken a longer road trip. In our case, we drove a different and “new-to-us” way home rather than back up HWY 95 through central Oregon (talk about boring). I get to share more about that next week. Love that pic of Padre Island, a place I want to visit during late winter (amazing windsurfing and board sports). BTW, I love that map and plan to create my own!! Fun!
LikeLiked by 1 person