Introduction

Well, Dianne and I are off on another long adventure trip.  

Although most people know all the trips I have done some people new to us will be curious who we are and what similar trips we have done.  About 2000 I was diagnosed  with terminal melanoma skin Cancer.  I decided to  a do a clinical study with the National Institude of Health and Washington DC.  I was the lucky on the study and after many scans and surgeries they declared me No Evidence of Disease (NED).  As Dianne had a sabbatical from Indiana University we decided to attempt our first trip together.  The Table below lists all the trips as I remember them.

Mode of Travel Discription	From	To	With	Resulting Journal
Bicycle Ride across USA	San Diego CA	St Augustine FL	Andy My Son	Rodent’s Ride (Book)
Canoe Mississippi River	Lake Itasca	New Orleans	Dianne (my Wife)	Mississippi Howl (Book)
Hiking Appalachian Trail	Amicalola State Park GA	Baxter State Park Maine	Annie Dog with Dianne Visits	A Long Walk with a Good Dog (Ebook)
Bicycle Ride Mississippi River Road	Lake Itasca	New Orleans	David (my bother in-law) with Dianne and Andy visits	Mississippi Ride and Thoughts (blog)
Canoe Mississippi River	Noblesville IN	New Orleans	Dianne	Mississippi 3 (blog)
Bicycle  Underground Railroad Route	Sarnia to Collinwood Ont Canada	To Mobile AL	Dianne with Visit from Andy	Just Facebook posts on Dianne Account
Canoe Allegheny River	Warren PE	Marietta OH	Dianne	Facebook Posts
50cc Scooter Route 66	Noblesville IN	Los Angles CA	Dianne	Roden’s Ruckus Ride (blog)
25 ft Ranger Tug boat Great Loop	Carolina Beach NC back to Carolina Beach	New York, Across Lake Ontario, Through the Trent Canal, Great Lakes to Illinois Canal, to Mississippi, Ohio River to TennTom Canal to Mobile, across FL back to start	Dianne	Great Loop, “Just Do It”

 *Note I am not counting the short Bike trips or Summer canoe trips that lasted less than 4 weeks.  I guess we have done more than 40 of those.  Also note I am not even thinking about work travel or vacations that required others to care for us. 

 

And now we plan on following the Lewis and Clark trail from Portland back Home on 50cc Ruckus Scooters, a trip of about 2700 miles.   This route will follow the  Columbia River to the BitterRoot Mountains then down the Missouri River to the Mississippi River, then we will go cross Country on our own route to Home.  See the picture below.  

Planning took over a week of studying route maps and checking for gas stations.  After the route was planned a search for truck to drive with the scooter was more than the value of the scooter.  On reviewing cost it was decided to reverse the trip and save $3000.  This then required new cards and renaming of the blog. On this trip for sure there will no camping only hotels and restaurants.  Not sure of the quality of the hotels but they will have a bed for sure.   We selected the scooter rather than Bicycles and Hotels rather than camping as we getting old and speed and comfort is becoming more important to us.  

We selected the trip as do like to travel slowly across the country.  To be completely honest I just enjoy hanging out with Dianne in own bubble seeing stuff and not worrying about the world around us.  Some of our neighbors have suggested that we are either crazy or  are masochists.  However the scooter is really comfortable ride and interesting to ride.  

There is theory that some people have a “wanderlust gene” and maybe that is the reason we enjoy these long adventures.  Here is a link to the article.  

 

https://www.stylist.co.uk/travel/wanderlust-gene-is-it-real-drd4-7r-science-novelty-seeking-adventurous-genetic-variant-science/8431

Also here is link to the an article that provides 10 reasons to enjoy traveling.  (not sure they are they are thinking about our way of traveling)

https://www.andbeyond.com/magazine/10-reasons-to-love-travel/#:~:text=Travel%20takes%20us%20out%20of,with%20friends%20and%20loved%20ones.

As a final thought on this introduction post for the ride here is a poem I found and liked about moving on and life.  

Poem 

by Dewniverses

You are not a Tree

You are not bound

to the ground you walk on!

You have 

wings and dreams and

A heart full of 

WONDER.

So pick up your feet and go!

Spread Kindness like a Wildflower

wherever you go. Fall in love with 

life you live, and always leave people 

better than you found them.