Road weary?

Yesterday morning found me in Calgary under an overcast sky that delivered a cold drizzle just as I was forcing myself to venture forth, as a good tourist should, to see the sights.

For the first time I considered turning back and giving up my plan to circumnavigate the United States.

I’d come 4000 miles in 12 weeks, spending 5 days in each of 15 towns. I’d written thousands of words, taken hundreds of photos and even produced over an hour of audio.

Though determining who was visiting this WanderingDave.com website, its obvious that a significant number of people have dropped by, for one reason or another.


The biggest problem may still be that – despite my rather frequent and perhaps somewhat wild-eyed claims to the contrary – the trip and this web site have no clear purpose or mission.

It occurred to me at one point that my venture is like “The Seinfeld Show” – a show about nothing.

My desire to establish a theme interferes with my writing. While waiting for topics that seem to fit the unknown pattern, I pass on others that I fear may turn some audience members off.

Basically, I’m trying to write for an audience that I haven’t been able to define. And that is a real problem for writers like me.

It’s fair to say that I’ve spent way too much time thinking about writing and way too little actually creating prose.

This piece, titled “road weary?” may begin a transition of some kind. For the next interval – of undetermined length – I will strive to create a more straightforward representation of what’s going through my mind. My travels will certainly continue to provide a context, but I will work less hard on creating a travelogue and more on my “search for America” – or, as I’ll probably discuss here soon, “the search for MY American dream.”

I hope you’ll decide to continue riding along with me – and that you’ll consider providing some feedback either by commenting here, by using the forum or by email.