Lessons learned from a 10,000 mile road trip...

For the record, let me state that IT IS GOOD TO BE OFF THE ROAD.

Several years ago as a grad student at K-State, I routinely traveled long days in search of Paul and his blue ox. It was not uncommon for me to spend 10-12 hour days snooping around and stopping at museums, info centers (especially in Canada where every small town has one), and shops here and there asking about the folk lumberjack and his ox. I enjoyed it and was able to go weeks on end doing this.

Having said that, something has changed.

This summer I have been on the road a lot. My first trip was through the northern Great Plains looking at the linguistic landscapes of the Nakota and Lakota. I nearly cancelled this week-and-a-half trip for a lack of interest, but went ahead with it anyway. I'll likely present on my findings this fall, so in hindsight I'm sure I'll be thankful I went.

This most recent trip was a monster to say the least. It began with a trip to the Sandhills to visit Mom, Sis, and the nephews--a brief visit before traveling north to northern Minnesota and later Manitoba. However, the day before I left, I realized I didn't have my passport with me.

SIDE NOTE: I tell my students there are three essentials when traveling to another country: camera, credit card, and passport. I really should pay more attention to my own lessons.

So instead of traveling to northern Minnesota, I returned to Laramie and then made 12-14 hour drives the next two days so that I would be on schedule in Manitoba. The interview in Winnipeg went well and I figured all was ok after this. Family time and a class reunion would follow and I figured I would be refreshed for my journey out west.

I was mistaken.

Long story short, after the high school reunion, I returned to Laramie for a quick overnight to pay some bills before traveling to Utah, Nevada, northern California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, Washington, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, and finally back to Wyoming.

Although I traveled through some spectacular country--the redwoods in northern California as well as British Columbia were especially impressive--and I did find a number of Paul Bunyan sites, I really never got into a rhythm. Sure there were some good days to be found, but as a whole, it was not like it was 3 years ago, the last time I traveled to the Northwoods for my dissertation research. I'm really not sure what has changed.

At any rate, there are a number of lessons I learned from the 10,000 mile fieldwork road trip I recently completed (trip to Manitoba plus trip out west):

IF YOU'RE NOT INTO IT... You likely never will be. I'm not sure what has changed, but I really could not motivate myself for the trip. I had thought that once I got on the road that this would change. I was wrong.

Am I glad I went? Yes. The notes I took will help out tremendously with future research. However, I didn't enjoy this nearly as much as past research trips. I may need to be more honest with myself as to where my current interests rest before planning such trips (currently I would say sports geography--ie conference realignments in college sports as well as in the CHL). This may be a lesson I need to revisit in the future.

TIM HORTONS I am now so familiar with the franchise that I can order with ease a "turkey-bacon club combo with a maple dip and a double-double." I even found myself getting frustrated if the person taking my order couldn't follow me. I was temped to respond to these individuals: "Don't make me break out my loonies and toonies on you!" Crazy, I know.

"YOU MIGHT BE A CANADIAN IF..." I think I could start a new line of jokes with the opening line "You might be a Canadian if...you know aboot hockey, loonies, toonies, toques, and double-doubles." Look out Red Green! You've got competition!