UPDATE 18 NOV 2006: Check here for more on our trip to Tightwad.

So my roadtrip buddy -- Darf-man -- decides he's gonna pack up and move to middle-of-nowhere Australia. I've had friends threaten to do such a thing. With Darf, I had no doubt he'd eventually be living down-under. Note the anti-kangaroo defenses on the front of the car. Cool.
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He once threatened to drive cross-country just to see the biggest ball of twine in Minnesota. Of course, a few weeks later we were riding around Darwin, Minnesota looking for that ball of string. The best road trips always start with some crazy goal in mind, like opening a checking account in the Tightwad Bank. |
| There was a time a few years back when another buddy and I hopped in my $100 car and headed for White Sands. My buddy wanted to "see the desert" and we had nothing else going on that week. [note to self: Never drive across Texas again. Ever.] So we left Maryland in the able Sable and headed for Memphis, then Arkansas, then Oklahoma and Route 66, then the Cadillac Ranch, on to the resting place of Billy the Kid, and finally White Sands. Most of the time, we really didn't know where we were headed. We were never lost, although a few times we weren't sure of where we were. We might have had a clue of our immediate destination, but beyond that we couldn't even guess. And the places we ended up on the way back from New Mexico... how on earth did we end up riding around in the swamps near Breau Bridge, Louisiana or looking for the cenotaph of some dead guitarist near Itta Bena, Mississipi? On a side note, to this day I am positive we had a 30-second conversation with Donald "Duck" Dunn in some small town in Mississippi. |
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So now that I live here in Alaska, the idea of the roadtrip has changed. Some of the unusual attractions, such as the Train to Nowhere, exist beyond the end of the road. I did manage to drive up to the Arctic Circle with a buddy last summer, but I just don't know where I'll head this year. So far, the only thing I can come up with is a short cruise along the Denali Highway. As I brainstorm some more, I'll post my thoughts. In the meantime, a private pilot's license is looking like a good idea. |




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