"There is saying that if you aren't living on the edge you're not really living.

But how far over the edge should you go?

 Life is so unpredictable, too many of us wait until, so often when until comes, we decide to wait until another until comes and comes. On my trip I saw far too many people that I didn't think would be a alive in another 6-12 months. They worked their whole lives, until they finally met their final until. Some were so weak that they were in sitting chairs on oxygen. They looked so weak, so fragile I didn't believe that they could do anything for themselves. If was as if their children and grandchildren were doing everything possible to get one more day out of them.

Work your whole life then rush to get everything possible before you take your last breath. I often asked myself, why, who will they be sharing their last experiences with; who will they be seeing and talking to if they are six feet below ground or in urn?

My Great American Adventure of 2011

	13,542 Miles in 29 days; June 30 to July 29 2011		Twenty Two States
Total Cost for everything: $2,574.66 $88.79 per day			22 U.S. National Parks 6 Canada National Parks	67 Lighthouses

My trips are like being a caterpillar; I spend a great deal of time taking in nutriment (information), far more than most persons. In some ways I am like the Voyeur, my only purpose is to collect as much information as possible. Every single day I take in verbal and non-verbal information from countless sources on numerous subjects. Much of the information seems to have no present value.

People see me reading, writing, or doing something us, and then in a moment’s notice when they make the mistake that I don’t know what they are talking about I ask them a deep question; A question which often they have a hard time given a solid answer.

After a period of time, all this information just over loads my systems. I am not like Voyeur which only collects, I have to process everything, I have put everything in its place, and I have to take the information which has no present value and process it in a manner than when the time comes, I make it appear that it was no big deal, that it was almost effortless, when in fact it may have taken years of work.

After a period of time, my system just gets overloaded as I use more energy than I should; wearing myself down more each day. So I go into a cocoon to protect myself, to save energy, trying to shut down as many sensors as possible.

Just waiting for the opportunity to take a trip, a trip where I can shut everything off, a trip where there is no need for me to be anyone but me. No requirements to meet anyone expectations of me. I am just Kris E. Roberts and I have no title, no rank, no job, no nothing.

I needed to take a trip, time to review all the information that I had taken in since the last trip, to spend time with my selves, process all the information, drop the worthless information, file the valuable and recreate myself, as if I break out of my cocoon into a butterfly as I become someone that no one ever expected. I change while the people around me remain the same.

While I have driven more miles in the past, the longest a little more than 12,000 miles, my goal was 10,000 miles; 9,000 in the U.S. and about 1,000 in Canada. My goal was 30 days, my longest trip in the past was 17 days but that was broken up with 10 days break at my daughter’s home.

My goal was 10,000 miles in 30 days for less than $100 per day. I wanted to visit about 35 national parks in the U.S. and Canada along with about 110 lighthouses mostly in the Lake Superior and Pacific Coast regions.

In many ways the trip was a hugh success. Despite the fact that I was able to travel 13,542 miles (12,646 in the United States and 996 in Canada), visited 22 states, 32 national parks, 76 lighthouses and a number of National Historical Parks all in 29 days while spending less than $88 per day for gas, food, camping, showers, park fees and other items, Despite the fact that enjoyed the trip, I enjoyed meeting the people I did, I enjoyed learning what my physical and mental limitations are I will have to say it was one of the dumbest, if not riskiest trip I have ever made.

It was far dumber and more dangerous than the unplanned trip down the Pan-American Highway, through the Darien National Park Rain Forest toward Columbia. A trip I just took on a whim in a foreign country which I spoke very poor Spanish, had no idea where I was going, how far, I didn’t even know if there was gas station or any services.

I had been planning this trip for at least six months. I just was looking at the map picking places to go, I never stop to count the miles. I had no idea the quality of the roads. I had no idea if I could even afford the trip. In many ways it was lets head out there, then go there and make it home in 30 days and decision which direction to take on the fly.

You know we all fail. I knew there was no way that I could visit every national park and lighthouse I had on my addenda, but I knew I would fail forward.

I had been saving up for the trip. I planned on using a check from the City Council, the school board, unused mileage money from the state house, the $350 in Canadian money I had left over from past trips to Canada, about $300 in quarters and dines I had saved, $500 in saving at the credit union, and cash I had been saving. But like all good plans, sometimes things go wrong. I had to give one daughter $200, I had to spend a few hundred on the other, a number of unexpected expenses popped up and I quickly found myself very short on money.

I never told anyone that I didn’t have enough money to make the trip, that I would have to make decisions on the fly.

I got $750 back by selling back 75,000 miles; I was almost at 100,000 which I had been saving for one of those 30 day around the world plane tickets. I ate less, I went to a number of parks early before they open or late after they closed so I didn’t have to pay entrance fees.  I took fewer showers than I wanted too and I slept in fewer campgrounds than I wanted too. I didn’t go to four national parks, one that was a major goal because I wouldn’t have had enough money to make it home. I lucked out and got a little more than 3 mpg than I planned on; saving almost 100 gallon or about $375. Saved about a $100 by not taking the ferry to Isle Royal National Park.

The dumb part was since I was low on money, I didn’t get the two new tires I should have, I drove on one tire that was cracked on the sidewall. It had been my spare, but the tire it replaced worn down so bad that the metal was showing. The back seat window was stuck in the down position so I had to cut open the side wall and used duck tape to hold the window up and in place, but still about 2 inches from the top. The check engine light was on. The passenger’s door lock didn’t work. The rear hatch lock broke and I had to use a coat hanger to work it.

About  six days out at  Great Sand Dunes National Park, I got stuck in the sand and had to be towed out. For some reason, after the tow the driver’s side window no longer worked, it was in the down position except for maybe 5 inches. Everywhere I went after that I had to have all my important things like computer, gps, cameras, lens and like items in my backpack; which was pretty heavy and uncomfortable at high attitude and with high temperatures. The tow ripped the tail pipe from the muffler.

It rained on and off, sometimes very heavy for 16 straight days. I was forced to wear a rain gear coat as I drove down the road sometimes in a pouring rain watching people looking at me as if I was some dummy. A number of nights I was wet and cold which wasn’t very good when the temperatures got down into the 30’s and 40’s. Worse yet I had taken  my sleeping bag, blanket, pillow and cold weather clothes out and stacked them on my bed. Somehow I left them all on my bed. So I had no sleeping bag or warm clothes. I had to stop at a number of Goodwill’s to buy a sweat shirt, long pants, and heavy shirt.

I took a large dark towel and laid it over the window and closed the door giving the impression that I was just blocking out the light. It got kind of scary when I was in bear and mountain lion country. I had food in the car and I knew bears could smell it and would have attacked the car for it. So for the first time in my life I slept with an open knife in my lap. I didn’t even do that in Saudi Arabia during the Persian Gulf War. I left the key in ignition. If necessary I would be getting out of there as quickly as possible. 

Then it got worse I lost my anti-lock brakes, leaving me just my regular brakes. Then I lost my turn signals, I had a fuse but the manual said #21 but I had 1-20 no 21. Then the frame of my car started buckling as I went over rough road. The car had an emergency recall due to rusting frames. The local Honda dealer told me that due to the extent of the rust the car was unsafe to drive until they installed new brackets to cover the rust. However when I got home and went under my car to push out my rear luggage rack, I saw two very big holes in the frame. 

All I can say is that I had to have at least a few angels watching over me on this trip.

Right or wrong, it was like a vision quest, I learned a great deal about myself. Whether I wanted to or not I learn a great deal about my physical limitations. I know that I not as good as I would like to believe, so I need to work harder to retain what I have. I learned that mentally I can compete with the best. I learned that life in America is nowhere near what you see on TV. That there are millions of hard working Americans out there making it through every single day. Many have little but they have seemed to learn how to enjoy life. They don’t seemed trapped by the demand for money. They mostly likely would find themselves trap by position, money and others people’s expections of them given the opportunity, but the reality is that very few of them will ever have the opportunity.

America is not an land of opportunity, America is a country where the greatest advantage that one could ever have is the accident of birth. Being born in the right family gives you such a head start in life that you don’t have to worry about some kid born in small town America. The kid in small town America could be blessed with outstanding gifts, gifts that would benefit other Americans and he or she if they are extremely lucky will get an opportunity, the great majority won’t. They will have to wait for some kid born with all the advantages to fail and fail badly because there will always be reasons for those failures and none will be the fault of that person.

There has to be a way to give every kid regardless where he or she is born and what family he or she is born in is given an opportunity to get a chance to maximize their talents.

On this trip I have seen over and over again that the people who seem to complain the most seem to have more than most.

Despite everything that I had to confront on this trip if I had the opportunity to do it all over again I would. If I had listened to all the reasons why I shouldn’t have taken the risks and hit the road, I would never have gone.

If you want something bad enough you can find a way to get it. It is not about making sacrifices, it is about making choices, it is about giving each choice a value and then making the choice that is more valuable to you, not someone else.

You can learn a lot about yourself and others if you are willing to slow down and get off the interstate and travel some of old highways and back roads.

God willing I will make a few more long trips but will have a small tent, some cooking equipment and even possibility a small camper. 29 days of cold food out of cans is a little too much to ask of my aging body. Plus maybe my angels are getting tired of some of the risks I have been taken.

We all have a purpose in life; I think this trip has gotten me closer to that purpose.