... or "Travels with Riley."

As some of you know, in the summer of '09 I was fortunate enough to be able to take a 48-state-in-one-run ride. In all, I spent 38 days traversing 13,000 miles and 48 states. Although the motivation for the ride was a family tragedy, it still was a dream that came true. When I finished the ride, I had a serious case of after-the-trip blues. I decided it was time to take the next logical step (logical for me, at least).

I have one more road trip seed that has been growing steadily in my “things to do garden.” See, the one thing that frustrated me on the cycle ride was that I couldn't spend nearly enough time in the places I would have liked to.

Beginning in October, my roomie Riley and I will head out on a USA tour. Traveling by motor home, we will visit and spend as much time as we wish in some of this country’s most beautiful spots. We will be heading south for the winter and north for the summer and should be on the road for at least a year.

One of the things that  has me particularly excited is the opportunity to have face-to-face time with many of my CycleFish friends while out and about. For this future joy I have to thank Lucky and Hdbeech for having put together this fabulous CycleFish site. There will be an interactive “Scratchin’ the Itch” blog, where I hope to keep in touch with many of you. I still will be a regular on CF too although somewhat less than now.

We would love to share coffee, perhaps a meal, perhaps a drink ot two, and definitely some stories. So I am asking anyone who would like to meet Riley and me please contact us either here of at my blog listed below. Don't worry, we have our own residence and won't impose.
Also you can follow our progress here. The blog is already started even though D-day will be around the 23^rd of October. Be warned, photos will be posted! hahaha

http://scratchin-the-itch.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-this-started.html.

At times Rex will be in tow and at other times Mack (my Jeep CJ-7) will be in tow. I will take short trips back to PA for grand kids’ birthdays and for visits with family and friends; this is a unanimous requirement from my children.

My passion is photography and there will be plenty of that. Part of my dream for this trip is to create a coffee table book chronicling our travels. I also dabble in writing and, with the help of my fantastic editor daughter, Jen Darr Sweeney, I hope to put a lot of words in a coherent order. I hope you will follow Riley and me as we discover our America. John Steinbeck, Charles Kuralt and my “little sister” Buffy (aka AdventureGirl) all helped push me to finally Scratch this Itch.