Hey, everyone, Meandering Beard here! That’s not my actual name, of course, but it’s a name I’m hoping you’ll get to know me by. It’s one I spent entire minutes cultivating, honing, and perfecting after picking another name, sitting on it for months, and only finding out shortly before starting this blog that the other name had been in use for years.

I’m already getting sidetracked here less than a hundred words in, but that might be the point. Welcome to my blog! The whole point of it is to discuss my sidetracks, my vacations, the points of my life I deem weird or interesting enough to share. My meanderings, as it were. Most of them involving times—past, present, and future—when I had/have/will have a beard. And now y’all know the thought process behind the name. Don’t you feel special.

A little bit about me: I was born in Slidell, Louisiana—a town in the New Orleans-ish region of the state—somewhere north of 30 years ago. For the first twenty years of my life, I grew up and lived close to that New Orleans-ish area; until I deemed it my destiny to move to a far away land known as the Baton Rouge-ish area of Louisiana. And there I still am today, with occasional wanderings here and there every once in a while. After ten years of moving to and fro in the Red Stick between various apartments of varying qualities (the second-to-last one had an actual working fireplace for some reason!), I finally signed the papers on a pretty neat little house in a quiet neighborhood with covered parking for four cars,  attached and detached storage, and a mature live oak in the front yard that I decided to name Paul Oakenfold (as a joke that I’ve had to explain to every single person I’ve told it to). This last move was necessitated by a phenomenon that happens to (don’t quote me here, but I’m pretty sure I’m close to the actual figure) approximately 98.73% of parents known as a “surprise baby” with the woman who would soon after become my wife. And then it happened again, thereby solidifying this place as a good choice.

So, as a somewhat recent father of two, working a decent day (and night) job, I do dream of travel. And cars. And places to store these cars in between travels. Wanderlust has struck me multiple times a year since my mid 20s, which is about the time in my life I stopped struggling through garbage jobs and picked up a decent one at the place I’m still at today. Wanna hear about it? Too bad. This is a place to get away from both my job and yours (unless you’re reading this on the toilet at work, in which case I applaud the manner in which you are utilizing the company funds), wherein I talk about the times I got away from work.

That being said, my young family, combined with my strange hours at work, mean it is indeed hard to get away from it all at times. So while I would love to keep y’all updated with fresh new adventures on a weekly basis, I’m not like some of those other influencers who seem to have limitless vacation budgets. I will take trips when I can, and I’ll tell you about them eventually. Probably. They may not be far from where I live sometimes, but they may be your cup of tea. I hope so, anyway. You’re reading about them, right?

My goals for life are simple: provide for my family without working myself to the bone and/or killing my soul.  This blog is part of a side hustle idea I came up with along those lines: start playing with cars, and document doing so. The best way to play with cars is to drive them, of course. I figured the best way to acquire cars to play with is to buy with the intention of eventually flipping, or renting. I’ve rented a couple of neat cars in the past, and you’ll hear about them. I will rent cars, trucks, motorhomes, U-hauls—whatever I can get my hands on, in the future, and you’ll hear about them too. I have yet to see the whole process of buying and flipping all the way through, but guess what? You’ll hear about that as well.

You’ll also hear about various tidbits about various tidbits in whatever locales I frequent at the time. I’m particularly excited (only slightly less so than my wife, who suggested this portion herself) about the reviews of rest stops and restrooms along the way, and how they stand against the holy grail of traveler’s restrooms, Buc-ees. Restaurants, local attractions, whatever seems interesting enough to write about while throwing dumb jokes in every now and then.

I mentioned earlier that I’m not trying to be like a lot of these travel influencers. Indeed, there’s one major difference between myself and some of them: I have yet to leave the country. Closest I’ve gotten was Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. I could look across the Soo Locks and see Canada. It was almost like I was there (possibly because that side is also called Sault Ste. Marie. But in Ontario). Don’t get me wrong, I’d like to travel abroad one day, and maybe I will. But until then, this is somewhat of an Americana blog.

My favorite place I’ve traveled to is eastern Tennessee/western North Carolina. The Appalachians have an ancient beauty about them; and as my opinion is probably heavily influenced by my having lived in humid flatlands my entire life, I can solidly say I’m a mountain type of guy. My goal is to one day move to that region, but in the meantime, you can bet you’ll be hearing a lot about that area; though I will try my best to diversify my travels.

My favorite place in America I have yet to travel to is Lake Tahoe. (Again, mountains.) This is another goal I will be setting for myself to travel to and blog about. I probably won’t be skiing though; I’m not nearly coordinated enough for that. I’ll probably snowmobile some though. 

While my job does pay pretty decently and allows a comfortable lifestyle for myself and my family, I do still fantasize about switching careers and going trucking. If this happens, y’all are coming along with me, of course. What better way to travel than to get paid for it, one way or another? And who knows? Maybe this blog will help facilitate that dream too!

I’m also hoping to maybe have a related YouTube channel set up with possible musings, video evidence of my meanderings, and maybe even some dash cam footage. Hopefully nothing too exciting, like accidents or police chases. I’ll leave that sort of content to other channels. Actually, I was hoping to achieve the opposite. I sometimes feel like some of the best roads I’ve been on (probably a low bar, but I enjoyed them, okay?) was almost like a form of ASMR, so why not share that with y’all?

Overall, this is set to be a brand new experience for me. And it may be for some of y’all too. Who knows, y’all may learn a few new things along with me. It remains to be seen how much y’all enjoy following along with me.

Welp, I think around 1,350 words is enough of an intro for me. I’ll be posting more soon, giving a background on the vehicles in my driveway that will be facilitating a major portion of this travel. Please bear with me as I get the blog set up and running smoothly. If travels are few and far between, I’ll talk about some of my past exploits. I will try to find pictures of everything relevant to these posts, even if I can only find one; I for one appreciate visuals to go with my musings.

Time for me to meander once again!