Road Tripping: Never Say Stuck

“I may not have ended up where I intended to go but I think I have ended up where I intended to be.” (Douglas Adams)

How does an “eye on the sky” benefit the road trip traveler?

On our most recent road trip  from South Florida to the Midwest and Rocky Mountain regions, I decided in one brief moment to take a break from writing road trip blogs on the road for a change. Why was that?  For starters, I recall stressfully listening to media reports about the widespread wrath of Hurricane Milton on our first day out of Fort Lauderdale. So being more cognizant of our routing schedule with those long, drives ahead of us each day, I shifted my focus from prioritizing my literary talents to being a safe driver, keen weather observer, and potentially a more warmly approachable person instead. Thankfully, my longstanding habit of researching and photographing places extensively, seemed to compensate for this writing loss by maintaining interest in my desire to learn. 

In fact, at several points on this trip, we faced a series of three, adverse weather conditions in various regions requiring some  alterations to our original routing plans. But in each case, we adapted well to such unexpected change. Due to wind and rain conditions from tropical disturbances in the coastal Deep South, for example, our trip shifted further east at various times. But in doing so, Roanoke, Virginia and Birmingham, Alabama now became new places for extraordinary mountainous exploration. With Texas twisters potentially brewing amid ominous black clouds in the Texas “Panhandle” prairie as well, our one day stop in the town of Lubbock led us to enjoy NFL football games on Sunday at a local sports bar. Lastly feeling stuck on the truck filled, Interstate Highway in hazardous winter conditions that had emerged in Colorado, I noticed that taking the opportunity to veer off onto those uncrowded backroads to Steamboat Springs and Colorado Springs seemed to diminish my fears of managing such slick, icy roads in the Rockies.

With a greater allotment of time to write at my leisure back home in South Florida, I hope to post future blog sessions about my favorite travel experiences along with plenty of photos from this most interesting vacation. In the meantime, I keep an “eye on the sky” as I share with you today some striking vistas that I witnessed on this journey. Also, take a look at a photo shot showing the back of our vehicle filled with visually appealing stickers I bought at so many places we visited along the way.