General Archives - The Twisting Road

What’s in a name?

I love road trips. Always have. When I was a child I remember sitting in the backseat of my parent’s car with an atlas in my hands trying to help my dad plot our course on one of our road trips. I think it is breed into me. Both my grandfathers loved to road trip. My dad has always road tripped, and ever since I could drive I have too.

Over the past decade I have taken several amazing road trips. I have driven Hwy 1 (the Coastal Highway) from San Francisco to LA. I have driven from Green Bay to Yosemite, the Icefields Parkway, the Rocky Mountains, the Appalachians, etc. Hell, I have driven in 47 of the 50 states. There was also the back-roads of England and Wales. Then there was the epic drive on the Amalfi Coast in Italy. You get it, I love to drive.

Somewhere along the Icefields parkway in Alberta Canada

Julia Pfieffer Burns State Park off Hwy 1 in California

Trying to find a blog name

Once I determined I was going to start a blog the most difficult part was finding a name. I spent weeks bouncing ideas off my wife Amy and others. Everything good was taken. Most that were available were corny or just didn’t quite fit.

Finally we stumbled on “The Twisting Road”. It was perfect. It captured my love of road trips. It alluded to the twists and turns that travel and life can take. And it was available!!

To the pics!

I probably have over 5000 travel pictures scattered across my digital devices. I scoured them for hours before I came to the realization that I don’t have good pictures of a twisting road. I mean, how ironic is that. I have driven on an endless number of twisting roads, and I don’t have a picture of a single one. I guess it makes sense – I was purposely trying to avoid the road in my pictures thinking it was a distraction, but still!

Well, I now have a new goal for the next road trip. Pictures of a twisting road!!!

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The Cow’s at Hadrian’s Wall

For our first international trip we though we would start with something easy. Somewhere where they spoke the language. That someplace was England. 7 years have gone by since that wonderful trip and what do we remember most? The cows at Hadrian’s Wall.

It was a microcosm of the entire trip. We were a bit lost. We were trying to find this famous wall – the northernmost border of the ancient Roman empire and it supposedly stretched from coast to coast. I mean it couldn’t be that hard to find – could it?

Driving down hedgerow lined roads so narrow that cars could not pass each other, we looked for the elusive wall. My wife Amy was getting more and more upset, but I was determined to find it.

Finally through an opening in the hedges we catch a glimpse of the wall. We had found it, but with those darn hedgerows we couldn’t even park to see it. Then, at last there is a side road and a path to the wall.

Our goal was a sign that we had seen while driving by. To get there we had to hike through someone’s field and up and over the stone fences that marked each field. There were ladders and a path, so it must have been OK…

Why we travel - Hadrian's Wall — The elusive sign at Hadrian’s Wall

At last we are at the sign, but alas it is blocked by a herd of cows that is sheltering from the cold and blustery wind. Little did I realize that both my wife and my son were afraid of those cows. I found myself guarding them (against cows!!) so that they could read the sign before fleeing.

It’s all about the experiences

That trek down a little known side-road in northern England taught us that it was all about the experiences. Sure we had seen great things in England – from medieval castles to Stonehenge, to the streets of London, but the what we remember most is the cows at Hadrian’s wall.

These are the types of experiences you can’t have browsing through pictures, so get out there and find your own cows!!

Category: General

The Twisting Road

Trying to find a blog name

To the pics!

Why We Travel

The Cow’s at Hadrian’s Wall

It’s all about the experiences