It was a week and a half after I returned from my 70/7000 trip and I will always remember how sunny that morning was. I walked into the office of my elementary school and saw my colleagues silently huddled around a TV. The images of the burning World Trade Towers were surreal but our feelings …
Category: 70 days, 7000 miles
70/7000 Back Home, Reading My Journal
Labor Day Weekend 2001 Strange to be home. The rooms are spread out with many steps between things but I will get used to it again. I called my son and daughter, relatives, and friends. Unpacked, did some laundry, picked up my mail and went through it. Then I went off to school to set …
70/7000 Putting on Some Miles and My Last Night
Days 63-68 August 27-September 1, 2001 Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Ontario. Putting on the miles to get home before school started, I didn't set up camp each night but slept in the van. I used a chair by a campfire in the evenings and made coffee each morning on my vintage Bernzomatic stove. Down to the …
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70/7000 Reflections in My Cabana
Days 61 and 62 August 25&26, 2001 Put on some miles today, stopped at a campground, and put up my "cabana" (an open sided tent). I love my cabana. In storms I cover it with a very large sheet of blue plastic and it becomes a waterproof shelter, dark and cozy like a cave. I lit …
70/7000 Flying Insects, Thin Tent Walls, A Flood, and A Bag of Jewels
Day 61 August 25, 2001 I stayed in a campsite in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Two unsettling things happened there. First, the whole campground was filled with all types of flying insects. I asked if this was the norm and the people in charge just shrugged their shoulders. Forest fires were popping up all over …
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70/7000 A Bar in a Church and a Grizzly Bear
Days 57-60 August 21-24, 2001 Heading home but still taking in the sights. I took this picture of The Mint Bar built inside a church in Sundance, Montana. Ironic? Amazing? Amusing? "The Wild West" is quite the place! I stopped at the Cabela's Store in Billings, stood under a stuffed grizzly bear, and learned that …
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70/7000 An Anguished Transition- Heading Home
Days 55 and 56 August 19 & 20, 2001 Stopping to camp in High River, Alberta for few days and realizing I'm getting anxious about going home. I had learned so much about myself on this trip. Would it stick after I got back to the real world? When I get back to my teaching …
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70/7000 The Columbia Icefields and The Continental Divide
Days 51, 52, 53 August 15, 16 & 17, 2001 The first thing I did when I woke up in my van in the parking lot in Jasper, Alberta, was to walk over to the gas station restroom. Thankfully no one had locked it. I then drove to a quick stop and got a large …
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70/7000 Slept in a Parking Lot in Jasper, Alberta
Day 50 August 14, 2001 I'm a worrier. It's bad because it's stressful but also good because I tend to have all my ducks in a row. Before the trip I had anxiety about the ultimate travel nightmare, not finding a place to stay. I saw it as the worst thing that could happen to me and …
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70/7000 Camping as a Metaphor for Life?
Day 48 & 49 August 13 & 14, 2001 I stayed two more nights at Lake Louise in my hard sided van camper. Some seasoned hikers told me to buy a set of bells at the camp store because the grizzlies were afraid of them and would move on. A bought a bell bracelet and …
The Autonomous Traveler 