May, 1995
Not just another trip to the grocery store...
My dream is to share an incredible journey with my family. Starting at Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic Ocean, we will drive to the farthest point in South America - Ushuaia, Argentina. Although I've set our goal to travel between two distinct points, the distance is secondary. My hope is to again experience different cultures, people and natural wonders through travel. I've enjoyed traveling with Kathy, but this time my travels will include my children. Hopefully this will help them develop a real sense of the world and shape their lives as it has mine.
For the most part, everything you do in life has a purpose. For that matter even the mistakes we make have a purpose. Lately I've been thinking a lot about the purpose/reasons for this trip. I don't think I can list one or two reasons that will make it easy for someone else, let alone myself understand - why. Hopefully as the trip evolves the reasons will become evident in my travel logs.
Posts from this trip.
I want to say this is the road from hell but I know we have many more miles to go. This winding, hairpin filled road traverses the top of the Sierra de Juarez Mountain. Several times we drove in and out of the clouds. In one spot we came upon a serious truck accident that had traffic backed up. There were mangos and papayas all over the place. I'm not sure the driver made it.
What lied ahead of me was 1,100 kms of grueling and hot driving. The road ahead was through the Atacama Desert - one of the driest place on the earth. The landscape looked baked and tortured from the heat. Inside the van it was 105 degrees F (40 degrees C). I didn't dare turn the air conditioner on for fear of taxing the engine any more than it already was.
