Yesterday I returned from a 40-day road trip around the US, and although that span may appear to have Biblical proportions, it simply wasn’t long enough. All I am thinking about today is how I can spend more time on the road. In fact, the last 1,000 miles (there were 7,364 miles in all) were spent dreaming and plotting ways to extend my experience. How could I spend three months, six months...even a year or two on the road without living off credit cards and ramen noodles?

I’ve read books on the topic before, and I’ve found them useful and motivational, but they also seemed to embrace the backpacker/vagabond lifestyle. I’ve certainly got those characteristics in me, and my lifestyle as a consultant allows me much more freedom than many of my friends. Still, I have a tendency to cling to my “established” life, which includes a mortgage, a car, a life partner and a good thirty years before retirement.

I’m not looking to leave all that behind, but I’m also not willing to ignore my dreams to maintain the status quo. That’s where Carol and Phil White’s book “Live Your Road Trip Dream: Travel for a Year for the Cost of Staying Home” excels. They have written a practical handbook for those serious about spending an extended period of time on the road...be it a US road trip or world travel. They talk directly to the type of person who has spent much of their life following a course...education, career, family, whatnot.

Their reassuring and sensible style provides the motivation and direction many folks with unfulfilled wanderlust need to get moving in the right direction. Chapter by chapter they address all those fears (or excuses) that pop up. They focus as much on the plan as they do the lifestyle, and this provides their secret ingredient. They don’t just sing out “just do it” and they don’t randomly advise “become a travel writer...” two overused suggestions. They systematically set a course...and reveal the steps to both evaluate and plan a long-term trip.

In the second part of the book, they chronicle their year on the road, offering a snapshot of how a year on the road could look. The travelogue section colorfully puts in to practice the tips and suggestions from part one. It’s worth the read on its own.

The book caters to individuals who have been career or family focused, especially retirees, but because they emphasize the process and the experience, the audience can be much broader.

Deep down, I know what I need to do to make my road trip dreams happen, but “Live Your Road Trip Dream” provides a blueprint to get me moving in the right direction. By this time next year, I hope to be writing reports like this from the road. Wish me luck.

More about “Live Your Road Trip Dream: Travel for a Year for the Cost of Staying Home”   and Phil and Carol White at www.roadtripdream.com.

More about my Irish-American Roadtrip at www.IrishFireside.com.

Corey Taratuta is the Ireland Editor at Wandering Educators.