Chuck / Brent Road Trip 2012
My son Brent turned 21 this year so we decided that it was time to take a classic American summer road trip. Of course the tradition is to ride motorcycles all around the mid-west visiting places like the largest ball of twine. But since Brent is mildly handicapped (Cerebral Palsy) we need to do it in a car. I have adapted the “Dr. Chuck Mobile” – a 2001 Buick LeSabre (215,300 miles) with a left foot accelerator so he can share in the driving.
Here is a short video I made in 2005 just after Brent had recovered from a hip-augmentation surgery and we purchased a Polaris 90cc ATV so we could go out riding.
More recently he has been in several heavy punk/metal bands as the lead singer. I also made this terminally cute and a bit long video to play in the background at Brent’s high school graduation party.
On The Road Again…
So the idea of the road trip is to take two weeks and have absolutely no agenda. The road trip will start early on Tuesday August 14 where we will drive to Chicago and stay at the Palmer house, do an office hour for my Coursera course at the Palmer house, go to listen to some Blues, and then the next morning get up and drive out of Chicago and decide where to go next on the spur of the moment. We will program the destination into the GPS and off we will go pointed at the horizon.
It will be a classic vagabond road trip – we will sleep in Walmart parking lots, sleep in rest areas, take showers in truck stops, eat junk food or at diners and generally smell and look pretty bad – growing beards and wearing hats when our hair looks a mess. Brent calls it our “hobo trip”. Every few days we will spend a night in a hotel to clean up and get re-civilized and then back on the road we will go. Like any good road trip we will not stay at any destination for very long – anywhere from 4 hours to 24-hours and then back on the road we will go. A key element of a road trip is to be on the road – not stopped at one location or another. It is about wandering and being on the move looking for adventure.
We are consciously not doing any planning in terms of agenda and don’t even know when we will exactly come back other than when school starts at Lansing Community College. We will generally likely not go east to explore but we may go as far north as Calgary Canada, as far South as New Orleans, or as far west as Roswell New Mexico and Area 51. We just don’t know.
We will have Twitter and WiFi as we go and I will tweet and blog as we progress. I will ask the Twitterverse for help on things like “Where is a good blues bar in St. Louis?” (if we decide to go there). I have no idea if Brent will do any kind of public blog – he is not on Twitter (sheesh – kids these days).
I may have some office hours for my Coursera course in weird locations like Mount Rushmore or Omaha Nebraska. But I won’t know in advance even where I am going so folks will only find out at the last minute.
I would be glad to get some suggestions and help for how to survive such a road trip. How do I know where there are rest stops? Is there a book of all the truck stops that have showers? There must be a book or even better an app that tells you cool road-trip like places to visit that can use location services on my iPhone. I have this feeling that showers will be the most difficult thing to manage when we become hobos living on the road. Any general advice will be greatly appreciated as this is our first experimental road trip.
Plenty of wetwipes / moist towelettes will be useful, especially any time rest stops are thin on the ground. Keep a set of respectable clothing clean so if you turn up somewhere nice, you can change into clean things and feel smart :)
Have an awesome trip!
Terrific plan that will be good for the soul. Start off like Curiosity on Mars. I’ll look for you and Brent in Chicago at the Palmer House.
Sorry, but I have the slightest idea, as I never travelled by myself using my wheelchair. Here, in Brazil, we have no acess to places. Living here is tough! I agree with Laura concerning clothes respectable and also comfortable clothes are always useful. God bless you, in your adventure with your son. Brazilian regards.
Dr. Chuck, would you please be kind enough to give some hints about purchasing a new wheelchair for me? What about places for treatment? Cheap ones, if it is possible… :) Good luck!
Monica, I don’t have any special information about finding wheelchairs. Sorry. When Brent turned 15 he decided to switch from a wheelchair as his primary mode of transport (even long distances) to using his arm crutches exclusively. We were a little nervous – but he made it work – he became stronger and now goes to school with a backpack, drives around, dances at clubs with his girlfriend, goes hiking through woods with his friends geo-caching – all on arm crutches. We kept his wheelchair gathering dust for about two years in case things did not work out. After two years, I donated it to a local school for handicapped children. We are really blessed that Brent’s condition is as mild as it is. Many handicapped people face much greater challenges than we face with Brent.
I’ve used the roadsideamerica website and had good success on quirky attractions. They have an iPhone app, but it isn’t free. Tripadvisor has a decent list of attractions, hotels, etc. but has to be taken with a grain of salt since so many people game the system and post fake reviews.
I don’t think you’ll have too much trouble finding a shower if you are staying near interstates since there are truckers everywhere and therefore Travel Plazas which have showers. I like Pilots and they have showers–though I’ve never tried one– as well as a free iPhone app. You might think about that though since it seems like you only get a shower credit if you buy at least 50 gallons of fuel and otherwise showers are about $10. By the time you pay $20 just for showers, you could have paid a little more for a hotel room with a bed. I’m curious to see if you two are still all about sleeping in the car after one night of it.
Have a wonderful trip.
Hello Dr. Chuck,
I am one of you several 1000’s of Internet History,… students @ coursera. I work in UoM too SRC.
I didn’t know you too had an angel. My son is non-verbal autistic and needs to be with me all the time when I am not working. That is why I couldn’t come to AA office hours. Now I think I could have brought him along with me.
Hope next time you have a office hours in AA.
Sounds like you two will have an awesome time. As one of your Coursera students, I’m loving this class, especially when you share your personal lives with us. I just want to wish you and your son a safe trip. Have fun and enjoy…
Chuck, what a great idea to hit the road for 2 wks with your son! In re showers and such, campground guides (state & nat’l) and maybe AAA could help with the showers, giving distances between each “hop.” If you do get to Roswell, my sister-in-law is a Zookeeper at Roswell Spring River Park and Zoo, and with a little advance notice, could arrange a “behind-the-scenes” tour of the Zoo. Go into enclosure with Ring-tailed Lemurs, meet a Great Horned Owl, a talking Chihuahuan Raven. My brother recently stopped working for Sandia National Labs in Albuquerque and would love to see someone from the Midwest, as I think he is tired of looking for Martian aliens who may have landed in Roswell. I can send his address and phone number if you have an interest in talk about jazz, zoo, or goofy things in Roswell.
Go West.
Hit the Dakotas (Sitting Bull’s grave, Deadwood, Mt Rushmore and Crazy Horse in SD (mainly) maybe head up to Williston for a real life crash course on economics.
Then head into Montana. Billings = ok. Bozeman is awesome – rent a hummer and climb the rocks. Then head for Whitefish MT – Flathead Lake – amazing. Once there well…Glacier Natl Park, of course. All that driving you gotta do “Road to The Sun”
If STL – stay near/in “The Hill” – the Italian neighborhood. I recommend Drury Inn on Sulphur and plan on eating on Manchester – somewhere near Schafly Bottle Works. Go drink @ Schafly as well of course.
If Mphs – lemme know…have a shower soap and a homecooked meal waitin on ya!
Omaha rocks too, BTW. Maybe you can waylay Warren for a video interview?
Y’all have fun.
You are indeed amazing, I just knew it. Your teaching methods are innovative, funny and most importantly not constraining. Keep doing what you are doing; you make me laugh when you are doing your interviews on talented people. I’m already taking classes but I spent more time on yours which goes to show you as a teacher you have open the horizons for other professors to practice your techniques, it works. Road trips are great when meeting interesting people, enjoy!
Nashville, TN would be a good place to visit. Lots of friendly people and getting lots of press as a hip place to live. I think one article called it “Nowville.” might need to check it out.
There are usually great showers at camp grounds. My sister and I RV’s in Eastern Canada for a few days and
found wonder shower facilities at the trailer camps. Happy trails!
Hi, Monica
I volunteered with Embraced Atlanta, which is an association based in Atlanta, US, that collects mobility and prosthetic devices from hospitals and donations and gives them to people who can not afford them. If you don’t mind to re-use a wheelchair (which anyway was disinfected), you can contact them and ask to ship you one. They give the devices locally and globally: http://www.embracedatlanta.org/. I hope this is helpful.
Dr. Chuck, good luck with the trip. I hope you both have fun! I really enjoy your class, especially since is an activity I do with my husband in our free time.
Have a nice day wherever you are!
Thanks for all the comments. We are now in Chicago and Brent decided he wants cities and music rather than nature and awe-inspiring beauty. So southward we go after office hours this morning.
Hi Dr. Chuck,
Have a great time. Your lectures do inspire the ” Learning ” in me but your life and attitude are awe inspiring …. a lesson to lesser mortals like me e.g.
Say Hi to Brent.Will be truly a rare privilege and honour to meet you …. hope that happens soon as we …. the mrs. and I … plan to be in your neck of the world in the near future.
All the very best,
Regards
We road trip every summer with our two boys. Best times of our lives! We use smartphone apps for finding everything. My favorite is RoadNinja. There is one just for finding rest stops called USA Rest Stops. Both have been life savers.
I am in your Coursera class and love it. If you decide to come further out West come to Tucson and conduct office hours. It is worth the drive!
Enjoy your trip and each other!
Melody (from University of Arizona in Tucson)
Hostels are good (and cheap!); my daughter and I stayed in a range of them from Pennsylvania to NYC to Boston during a recent multi-day college tour
http://www.hiusa.org/hostels