40 Years of Hitting the Road!
I finished college in May 1986. Four weeks later, I set off on my first "grownup" trip, an overnight trip to Raleigh, North Carolina for a job interview bookended with short stays with my grandparents in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the city I flew out of. Because the airline I flew did not use the now-typical hub-spoke model, my overnight trip included seven flights and five states. And with some time to kill after the interview and before my return flight departed Raleigh, I took a short hike at a North Carolina state park between the interview site and the airport.
I kept notes and - later - journals for that and all subsequent trips and most day trips since then, standardizing the format decades ago. These helped me keep track of what I saw and label my photos consistently when I got home. The standard journal format also made it easy to merge a year's journals into an annual summary. I now have more than 500 travel journals and 40 annual summaries.
I was curious what 40 years of travel amounted to, so I thought I'd merge all the annual journals into an overall summary of the places visited and the sights seen and experienced along the way. The summary is broken into a number of lists with duplicates removed, which if you're interested, you can see in the PDFs linked below.
01 Trips, Day Trips and Places
This includes a list of all of the trips I have taken since I graduated in 1986, all of the day trips I have taken since then for which I had kept notes and journals, and all of the countries (including both countries and territories) and their top-tier subdivisions (e.g., states, provinces, regions, etc.) that I traveled to on those trips and day trips. (Trips start and end on different days, whereas Day Trips start and end on the same day.)
02 National Park System Units, Current Unit Names
When I started traveling, an early goal was to target all the official units in the National Park System. There were about 370 at the time, and 433 today. Using today's list, I have been to 393 of the current official units.
03 Other Federal Units
Of course, the federal government manages thousands of sites in addition to official National Park Service units. I have been to more than 1000 of them.
04 State Parks and Other Units
States also manage a number of parks and other sites that I have traveled to. I have been to about 700 of these.
05 Foreign National Parks and Other Units
Federal governments and national agencies in other countries manage sites comparable to what our federal government manages, including their own national parks and historic sites. I have been to dozens of these in my international travels.
06 Provincial Parks and Other Units
Much like U.S. states, provinces in other countries also manage parks, natural areas and historic sites. I have been to a handful of these over the years.
07 Local Parks and Other Units
I have been to a number of local parks, plazas, town squares and other such places in the U.S. and in my international travels. Such places are actually more common in international cities I have traveled to, possibly because private yards seem to be far less common in those cities. I have been to about 1600 of these.
08 Scenic Routes
In the U.S., federal and state governments - and sometimes local governments - have designated segments of roads as scenic or historic routes or other types of auto routes. I have driven along more than 500 of these, sometimes deliberately and sometimes through luck of the draw.
09 Museums
I have always enjoying visiting museums, and as I have gotten older I increasingly seek them out. They are often great places to learn more about what I see in my travels, although sometimes they do focus more on kitschy topics, such as a pencil sharpeners, baked beans and fossilized dinosaur poop. I have been to more than 1200 museums.
10 Graves
I like visiting cemeteries. Over the years, I have come across the graves of "famous people", such as royalty, presidents, popes, politicians, celebrities and others, more than 700 in all.
11 Filming Locations
With all the places I have traveled to, I have probably been to a lot more filming locations than I realize. I am aware of more than 300 such places that I have been to.
12 Ghost Towns and Mining Camps
Abandoned towns and mining camps are fairly common out west. Nevada has more of these ghost towns than populated towns. I have been to about 160 of these in my travels.
13 Other Destinations
This is kind of a catch-all category for everything else that I wanted to note in my journals, which is why this list has more than 6000 items in it. I have thought about breaking out more categories from this list someday, but to do so would mean having to go back through my more than 500 existing travel journals and update them with the new categories, a lot of work for something that no one else would care about.
14 Native American Reservations
Native American reservations are generally more noteworthy out west. As my interest in Native American history and culture has increased over the years, I started tracking the reservations that I've been to - more than 130 to date.
15 Native American Archaeological Sites
This is another category that became more important to me when I began exploring the west. Initially, I enjoyed seeing such sites on trips more focused on geography and hiking. But as my interest grew, I started planning entire trips around visiting such sites and related musuem exhibits, now totaling more than 1300 such places.
16 Paleontology Sites
I didn't grow up with a love of dinosaurs, but my interest in geology led to this. Western geology is heavily intertwined with that of dinosaurs and other fossilized ancient animals. Now, I actively seek out paleontology sites and related museum exhibits, more than 200 so far.
17 Hikes
I don't know if folks were aware of how much hiking I've done - and why my diagnosis of Charcot foot hit so hard. Fortunately, my foot situation has stabilized enough for me to get back on some hiking trails, but I can't hike the way I used to.
18 UNESCO World Heritage Sites
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has developed a list of sites around the world that have outstanding cultural, historical or scientific signficance. More than 1200 sites have been inscribed on their list of World Heritage Sites. I have been to all but three World Heritage Sites in the United States as well as inscribed sites in more than two dozen other countries.
40 Years of Road Trips Map
I've kept track of road trips on state maps, both to track where I've been and to plan routes that will take me to new places. Click on the map for a larger version.
