✨ Welcome to Curt’s 2025 Road Trip

Two months. Thousands of miles. Hopefully, a chocolate-resistant mindset - let my calories come from great restaurants along the path.

Welcome, fellow wanderers, curious souls, and accidental tourists. This is not just a road trip—it’s a rolling experiment in joy, restraint, and the art of savoring without surrendering. From the high desert (altitude 7250') of New Mexico to the fog-kissed cliffs of Newfoundland, I’ll be chasing unique sites and lodging, occasional golf courses, and keeping up with charging locations for my 220-mile range EV.

I have an AI Assistant who has helped me plan this trip and who has invented a cast of characters to accompany and comment:

• A Humanistic Stoic who reminds me to appreciate our varied humanity and to endure those with whom I disagree. 

• A Bureaucrat who reminds me to keep records of the journey - which I hope to do here. (After my 36-years uniformed (E1-O6), I spent 16 as a GS15, so I know bureaucracy.) 

• A Chocolatier who reminds me to cheat (just a little). It's a weakness that I don't really want to overcome.

• And the Old Retired Guy who reminds me that fun doesn’t retire—as long as I keep that youthful brain who refuses to accept the mirror's reminder that life is short.

The original purpose of this year's Road Trip is to spend time with family in NJ and NC. When I've done the coast-to-coast in prior years, I've tried to visit a few National Parks, a couple State Parks, and every State Capital I pass through. I'm well over 50% on NPs and SCs. I expanded this year's trip to visiting the Eastern Canadian Provinces after seeing so many incredible places in various films and streaming series. I decided to spend enough time to feel their culture and get back on an oceanfront for a month or so. (I grew up a couple of blocks from the Atlantic, Exit 0 on the Garden State Parkway, and enjoyed a long career in the USNavy, initially as a teenager, that lasted 49-years.)

This site is my travel companion, my accountability partner, and my digital postcard to you. Expect maps, meals, musings, and maybe a few moments of chocolate weakness. But hey—growth isn’t linear, and neither is my route.

So buckle up. The road ahead is long, winding, and absolutely worth it. I hope to keep you entertained a little.

According to my AI Assistants (Copilot & ChapGPT)