Archived: Wow! It's Been a Wild 8 Months...
It's been too long since I've posted notes on Alan's Adventure blog, mostly because Virtualtourist.com updates have kept me so busy. I have traveled nearly all 48 states now as a commercial truck driver, a continuation of a habitual pattern I have to avoid the usual occupational trends for someone with my education and skills. I really got worn out on teaching overall, finally falling victim to the pathetic underpaying occupation of community college instructor. Education has lots of opportunity? Yeah, right. For the hundreds of applicants for each community college tenure track position offered...And, for those who don't get the job? Continuation of slave like wages for highly demanding work. Truck driving does come with safety and security issues, but mostly the lumbering vehicles are made safe by slow speeds on the interstate highway system. Of course, that's the rub. Adventure begins when one gets OFF the interstate. So, I have to put my education and traveler experience to use when trying to park the truck somewhere on some excursion off the freeway. My work over the past 8 months has been fruitful, and is viewable at the Virtualtourist.com website under my user name of atufft. Click my travel pages and examine what I have explored within the USA. Naturally, my worldwide travels are also detailed there. My trucking experience begins with visits to various towns in Oregon, where May Trucking is based, and continues with considerable detail in parts of Wyoming and Idaho. Periodically, during trips across the continent, I have paused in small and large towns within MA, MS, OH, GA, FL, PA, KS, and elsewhere, to do indepth photo and written essays on the history and character of American places. I have been particularly interested in capturing in digital foto form, for historical sake, vulnerable architecture, statues, and other often overlooked monuments. As winter closed in on most of the USA, I did capture some small OH and PA towns in great winter wonder form. Please check these out... I also found driving challenges in snow and ice storms that I could not photograph, and am lucky to have escaped from unharmed...
