I have fancied myself a fairly prolific traveler in the last years, stretching the bounds of my passport and camera across mostly European locales. I was lucky enough to see sights in Norway, Germany, France, the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Italy, the Czech Republic, Poland, Greece, Egypt, Ireland, and Canada, since 2008. Each journey has its own set of challenges; in Greece, I wasn’t sure if the protestors from television would overrun my family as we climbed the Acropolis (they didn’t); or in the Czech Republic, I had to try to work as a reporter and snag interviews while not knowing any Slavic languages and having no experience there. The challenges are what make trips exciting and worthwhile, though…at least in theory.
My troupe’s latest journey set us onto America’s roadways, moving all of our things, by car, from Washington State to Ohio. Cleveland will be our new home, one that we are eager to embrace and settle into after months of transition from Switzerland to the United States. But this car journey is an epic feat for even regular drivers, and I hadn’t driven more than a few hours in the four years I lived abroad. To move us to Ohio would take more than 30 hours of driving time, spread through five long days.