As I considered how to get started with road tripping, I thought about the fact that a lot of people have done road tripping. A LOT. Jack Kerouac had his road tripping novel On the Road, Kevin Costner starred in a road tripping adventure Field of Dreams, and many ordinary Americans have done road tripping around the country for dozens of reasons.
There are road trips to the beach, road trips to national parks, road trips to ballparks, road trips to beaches, road trips to unique sculptures, road trips to underwater basket-weaving sites–okay probably not the last one.
The questions I found myself asking were “What makes my blog different than others? Who is my audience? What is my niche?”
And then it came to me. First and foremost it had to emerge organically from my experience. And right now, I knew I wanted to go on adventures, learn new things and laugh about the comedy of life.
I also knew I had limited resources, so no epic, month-long road trips would be in store yet. So I thought I could visit family. One of my sisters lives north of New York City, so I thought, hey I could visit her family for a week. I’m thankful for them, as they allowed me to stay with them without having to pay for lodging expenses. They also supported some meals and some other expenses, too. So, thank you family!
As for planning out the trip, I had gone on the route before, which is basically driving up to the Baltimore Beltway, taking either the Harbor Tunnel or Francis Scott Key Bridge to Interstate 95, taking the Delaware Memorial Bridge across to New Jersey, and taking the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway up to the Palisades Interstate Parkway to New York where I could reach my destination.
So I knew I could do the route, and it was a cheaper journey, so I sensed that journeying up to New York to see family, plus seeing the sights around the Hudson Valley and journeying into New York City would be a great way to to dip my toes into the waters of road tripping.
In my next post, I’ll write about my preparations for the New York road trip, including preparing my car for the road trip.