From Columbia, Missouri, he set out to circumnavigate mainland USA by driving on the back roads. He outfitted his van to function as a camper. He drove out to the coast of North Carolina. Then he cut across to Louisiana, through Texas, on to New Mexico, then Utah and onto California. He hit the coast in Oregon, past Washington state, drove onto Montana. He traveled through Minnesota, crossed one of the Great Lakes, entered Canada briefly, cut through New England and moved down the coast until New Jersey before he turned west ward to go back to Missouri.
To read his experiences, I was half jealous and half in awe. I am such a "scaredy cat" that I would never gather up sufficient courage to do something like this! While reading about his hazardous drive up and down the continental divide in the Rockies, I was sweating and had to keep reminding myself that he is like a cat with nine lives or else he would not have survived to write the book.
It is obvious that he must have seen lots of beautiful sights going along the off beaten tracks. But I supposed he is a people person, what he enjoyed most were all types of people he met and talked to. I think of the back wood folks who generously shared whatever little they have with him. Generally, people in the south are friendlier and more ready to yarn with a stranger. Northerners are by nature quieter and more taciturn.
He went fishing with fishermen in New England. He met a bunch of folks who hang-glide and came up with almost five pages of a first hand account of listening to the experts who put their lives on the line each time they jump. He flew with a pilot to see the Snake River from the air. Such a long drive brought him to many small towns and many interesting people.
In the few years I was in the States, I have only visited a handful of places. Reading his detailed account of what he saw and felt in his journey, I almost feel like I see those places I probably will never have a chance to visit through his eyes.
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