Road Trip #2: NYC to SFO

Total miles driven after two tours: 11,942

My second tour was with another group of French teenagers. We did the same trip I just did but in reverse. The second time was so much better. My passengers were nice & respectful, & the chaparone was fantastic!

Things went much smoother logistically too. It helped that I had already been to all of the locations, but using the GPS made a world of difference. They should issue each guide a GPS before they head out. It's probably the single most useful tool on tour.

This job has a steep learning curve, but I feel like I'm doing well so far. To be honest, it doesn't feel like this is a job at all - more like a paid vacation. I mean, I get paid to go on a cross country road trip, using someone else's car, gear & money. I think I came out ahead on this one.

Unfortunately, I have no photos of my own to share for trip #2 since my camera crapped out on the last tour. I'll just have to grab some of the passengers' photos from Facebook to post here.

Road Trip #1: San Francisco to New York City

24 days; 6000 miles; 9 French teenagers

... & a whole lot of fun!

A: San Francisco CA

B: Lake Tahoe NV

C: Ely NV

D: Salt Lake City UT

E: Jackson WY

F: Yellowstone National Park

G: Cody WY

H: Devils Tower National Monument

I: Badlands National Park

J: Mitchell SD

K: Minneapolis MN

L: Thunder Bay ON

M: Heron Bay ON

N: Sault St. Marie ON

O: Tobermory ON

P: Niagra Falls ON

Q: Ottawa ON

R: Quebec City QC

S: Montreal QC

T: Catskill NY

U: New York City NY

Scroll down for photos!

On the ferry

Lake Huron, Ontario

Mining for amethyst

Thunder Bay, Ontario

Canoeing near Lake Superior

Sunrise at camp

Mitchell, South Dakota

Mount Rushmore!

My first time in South Dakota

My home for the summer

Devils Tower, Wyoming

On the road

My group of teenaged Frenchies

Bison!

Yellowstone National Park

Not a bad way to wake up

Yellowstone National Park

Some of my group at Lake Tahoe

Offline for the summer

Looks like I'll be offline for most of the summer. I'll be busy camping & hiking & road tripping. Take a look at my home for the next three months over there on the left <--

See you in the fall!

Off to training camp

Now that I'm all licensed & certified, I'm headed to San Francisco for a two-week tour leader training camp. We'll travel to Yosemite, Death Valley, Zion, Lake Powell, Grand Canyon, Las Vegas & Malibu. Not bad for a business trip, eh?

Licensed to drive

Learning to drive: Adventures at the DMV

I'm preparing for a summer job as a tour operator. I'll be driving a 15-passenger van full of European tourists around to the national parks in the western part of the US. We'll be camping & hiking & singing campfire songs all summer long. I'm really excited about spending the summer outdoors.

You can drive a 15-passenger van on a regular driver's license in Arizona, but since there will be paying customers riding along, I need to get a commercial driver's license (CDL) with a passenger endorsement.

The CDL study manual has all kinds of information about driving semi tractor-trailers & Greyhound busses. Even though I won't need to know that stuff for my job as a tour operator, it's still included on the test. Go ahead. Ask me how to control speed on a downhill slope. Or what double clutching is.

When I arrived at the DMV, I saw a very very long line - yuck! But as a CDL customer, I got to jump straight to the front - yay! I passed the written test (which is actually a computerized test now) with a 93%. Now I need to find a 15-passenger van to rent so I can take the actual driving portion of the test.

Things I've Learned 2011

What an interesting year 2011 has been!

The most influential thing to happen this year was the office job. I've always had unconventional jobs - waitress, retail sales associate, adult education teacher, small business owner - so I thought it was time to try out salaried employment for a while.

In my office chair, I learned so much about writing & editing course materials for online English lessons. I learned about spreadsheets & timelines, PowerPoint & office politics. & I learned that - although I really do enjoy being a content editor - working a 9-to-5, enduring the daily commute, & sitting in a lifeless office all day are not exactly my thing. Thank goodness for freelancing!

This year, I was able to travel to London & the Philippines for work. (My first business trips!) I got to spend a month at home with friends & family. I traveled within China to Harbin, Xian & Tibet. Yes, Tibet! Amazing adventures.

But all this stimulating travel & discovery has contrasted starkly with the daily grind. People ask me why I would leave Shanghai when it's so easy to live here. Lots of people speak English so learning Chinese can be a hobby rather than a survival strategy. Western food & culture are widely available. Many people have drivers & maids because money is worth more here. Frankly, we don't really have to put any effort into living here at all. That's true. Maybe too true.

But Shanghai can be overwhelming with it's hustle & bustle, the traffic, the noise, the pushing & shoving, the shopping - oh! the shopping. I find I can handle it much better with my MP3 player on & my head down. I move around the city, I move through my life here in a bubble, without really paying attention to it - stimulation overload.

& so I'm leaving. I don't want to coast through my life, & I don't want to spend my days in a bubble. Instead, I want to pay attention to what's happening, & I want life to be challenging. I want to see beautiful places, meet interesting people. I want to learn what it's like out there. I want to have to solve the kinds of problems that I will only come across when traveling to a new place.

I want to do things the hard way. & that might be the most important thing I've learned this year.

Things I've learned 2010

Joiner

I'm getting ready to move to New Zealand from Shanghai, China. A new year, a new country.

For the past several weeks, I've been doing my own sort of research on New Zealand. I've been watching movies from New Zealand and reading novels by New Zealand authors. I've also secured a place to stay, & have contacted friends of friends who live there.

In addition, I've been investigating social groups in the area near where I'll be staying. I've found a book club that meets in Auckland. I've contacted the local photography club. I've looked up a list of vegetarian restaurants in town. I've even investigated volunteering for the Chinese New Year festival happening at the beginning of February. People say I'm a joiner.

Even though I'll only be in New Zealand for three months, it's still long enough to be able to meet local people with similar interests to my own - something we don't have the chance to do on a short vacation. I'm excited to have the time to be able to linger, to possibly do some things twice.

Even so, I'm glad to be on the move - I'm happiest when I'm traveling. But it's important to make certain things in my life continuous. I can join book clubs wherever I go, & continue the discussion online after I'm gone. I can take photos of the places I go, share them online, & learn from others who are more experienced than I am. I can seek out others & celebrate their culture with them. Most importantly, since I've begun teaching English online & doing freelance writing on the side, I can now keep the same job as I move from place to place.

These are the consistencies that I maintain as my life becomes happily inconsistent.

Next: Online teaching

My contract here in Shanghai is up at the end of the year. I'm staying with the same company, but starting in January, I will officially be an online teacher & freelance writer.

I'm really excited about the new job! It will get me back in touch with my teaching self (which I have dearly missed this past year), & my class schedule will be flexible - much more my style. Most importantly, it will allow me the freedom to move about the planet, which I've been striving for over the past few years.

Shanghai has been good to me, there's no doubt. But it's time to move on. Next stop: New Zealand.