Mike and Linda’s Road Trip II

The Adventure Continues in 2002

It has been almost exactly two years since we returned from our first road trip. Although we had intended to continue our travels earlier than this, several events conspired to cause a delay. An opportunity came up to travel in China for three weeks – a trip that we couldn't pass up, but used up resources. In addition to that, my father's illness and subsequent death made us rethink the importance of travel versus the need to stick around to help him. Furthermore, we decided that the "Furby" that we had as a travel companion for the first trip had some inadequacies, so we have been working on getting our new companion, Lili, ready for a big trip.

Now we think that we are ready, and so the three of us are setting off on the next stage of the journey. In 2000, we saw a lot of southern tier of the United States. Now we are preparing to see some of the Northeast. The general plan is to get to Minnesota without doing much in the way of tourism. (The Rockies and the Plains States will come on another trip.) From there, we are kind of thinking of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and along the Great Lakes through Ontario to Niagara Falls. From there, the plans are a bit nebulous, but include visits to Upstate New York, the Catskills, the Hudson River Valley, New England, and the Pennsylvania Dutch areas. The intent of this trip is to spend about six to eight weeks on the road - we thought that the three months of the first trip was a little too long.

Some of our favorite memories on the first trip include the people we encountered on the way. We got reacquainted with relatives and old friends, as well as met many interesting new friends. We are hoping that this trend continues for this trip. Also, as before, we are hoping that we are able to keep our attitudes open so that we may enjoy the surprises that come up. This is especially true since this will be the first time either of us has traveled extensively with a dog.

The purpose of these web pages is to keep our friends and relatives up to date with where we are and what we are doing and seeing. If you join this trip through these pages, we hope that you can, if only vicariously, enjoy our tour through the country as we are.

So now, all that is left is for us to load up the camper, round up the dog, and head east.