Journal

Road Trip Mascots

by
Algonquin Gatorade

Why You Need a Road Trip Mascot: The Fun and Importance of Bringing One Along

When planning a road trip, we often think about the route, the playlists, and the snacks — but have you ever considered bringing along a road trip mascot? Whether it’s a stuffed animal, a figurine, or something that holds personal meaning, a road trip mascot can add a whole new layer of fun and memories to your adventure.

For the longest time, I had a pet alligator mascot named “Fred.” Fred and I met near Jacksonville, Florida and we went all over the country together. However, Fred and I parted ways somewhere in Oklahoma.

I picked up one of his relatives somewhere along the gulf coast of Mississippi recently. He’ll join me on the dashboard console for the next trips. I’m undecided on a few names but narrowed them down to “Algorithm” or “Gumbo”. I’m leaning towards “Algonquin Gatorade.” Don’t ask, you weren’t there on that road trip with me.

Anyway, here’s why you need one for your next journey:

1. It Adds Personality to Your Adventure

Think of a road trip mascot as an extension of your travel spirit. Whether you choose something cute, goofy, or downright odd, it adds personality to your trip. The mascot can take on its own “character” — a fun companion on the journey who always brings the good vibes. Naming your mascot and giving it a backstory can turn it into a fun member of the road trip crew.

2. Tradition & Continuity

Start a tradition by bringing your mascot along for every trip. Over time, it becomes a symbol of your adventures, collecting memories as it “travels” with you. You can document its journey through photos, videos, or even a travel journal dedicated to its adventures. Before long, your mascot will have its own legacy!

3. It’s a Great Icebreaker

People love unusual things, and a road trip mascot is no exception. At a rest stop or scenic overlook, don’t be surprised if fellow travelers strike up a conversation about your travel buddy. It can be an easy way to meet new people and hear interesting stories along the way.

4. Creates Unique Photo Opportunities

Forget selfies — your mascot is the star of the show! Capture fun and creative photos of your mascot in front of landmarks, strange roadside attractions, or perched on the dashboard while crossing state lines. These unique shots will add a playful twist to your trip photo collection, and they’ll make your social media feed stand out, too.

5. Mascots Help Relieve Stress

We’ve all experienced those frustrating moments on a road trip — whether it’s sitting in traffic, a detour, or an unexpected delay. That’s where your mascot can come to the rescue. Having something silly or lighthearted in the car can ease tension and bring laughter during stressful times, reminding you not to take things too seriously.

6. Road Trip Games and Challenges

Turn your mascot into the focus of a road trip game. Challenge yourself or your travel mates to take a picture of the mascot in as many different places as possible, or have the mascot “collect” something from each stop, like postcards or trinkets. You could even create a mascot scavenger hunt, where certain types of locations or landmarks have to be found and “visited” by your travel buddy.

7. A Symbol of the Journey

Sometimes, a road trip mascot represents more than just a fun object. It can symbolize the essence of your journey. If your trip is about self-discovery or exploring new places, your mascot can be a physical reminder to embrace those themes. It’s a way to stay connected to the meaning behind your adventure, even in the most unexpected moments.

8. Perfect for Group Bonding

If you’re traveling with friends or family, a mascot can bring everyone together. Assign someone to be the “caretaker” of the mascot for each leg of the journey, creating a fun, shared responsibility. Your mascot can be a source of inside jokes, games, and collective memories as the group creates fun stories around it.

9. It Becomes a Cherished Memento

When the trip is over, the mascot serves as a physical reminder of your adventure. It’s more than just a souvenir — it carries the spirit of the trip with it. Every time you see it on your shelf or in your car, you’ll be reminded of the memories you made along the way.

10. Mascots Make Stories

You can create fun, fictional stories about your mascot’s “journey” alongside yours. Perhaps it’s on a secret mission, or maybe it’s a “traveler” from a far-off land. Use your imagination to add a creative narrative that ties into the places you visit. This makes each stop on your trip feel like part of a bigger adventure for you and your mascot.

How to Choose Your Mascot

• Pick something meaningful: Choose an item that reflects your personality, values, or sense of adventure.

• Consider size: Make sure your mascot is easy to carry around and won’t take up too much space.

• Get creative: The more unique and odd your mascot is, the more fun you’ll have with it.

Whether it’s an old childhood toy, a handmade creation, or something you picked up along the way, having a mascot on your road trip can turn any ordinary journey into something extraordinary. It’s the little things that make the experience more memorable — so why not let a tiny companion join in on the fun?

Pink

by

In honor of Inter Miami’s record-setting season that just wrapped up, I have changed the highlighted colors on this site to the team’s pink home kit. They will host the MLS Cup playoffs starting next week with the final on my birthday, December 7. I’ll leave the colors up until then. Or, I’ll change my mind. That happens. These team colors of pink and black matches well with the new dark mode script I installed too.

Before the team was awarded the season’s trophy, the FIFA president announced that Inter Miami, in a never-before-opportunity, has earned a spot in the 2025 World Cup were they will host the first round in Miami. No major league team anywhere has played side-by-side with their national team. Is it conceivable that the United States, the host country, plays and loses to a team from it’s own country?

Maybe, perhaps maybe, I can convince Tracy to agree with joining me to go see another World Cup.

Soundtrack

by

If I leave here tomorrow 
Would you still remember me?

For I must be traveling on now 
‘Cause there’s too many places I’ve got to see…

— Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd

By weaving music into our travel narrative, we can emphasize the role of sound in experiencing different cultures and locations.

For example, the lyrics at the beginning of this post were especially poignant when visiting the band’s airplane crash site and memorial. The song “Free Bird” was a fitting tribute and enhanced our experience as we drove away and listened to a few other hits from the band. The goosebumps were visible on the arm as it steered the car.

Further down the road, I switched the soundtrack to “New Orleans and Dixieland Jazz Essentials” as we drove over Lake Pontchartrain and into N.O. The experience is enhanced with relative music.

Specific songs or genres can evoke memories, reflect the character of a place, and enhance the overall journey.

“El Camino Negro” or, “The Black Road” is a perfect soundtrack while driving through western Texas, New Mexico or the California desert.

And no road trip soundtrack would be complete if you don’t add Johnny Cash’s ultimate travel song “I’ve Been Everywhere”

I’ve been everywhere, man 
I’ve been everywhere, man 
Crossed the deserts bare, man 
I’ve breathed the mountain air, man 
Of travel I’ve had my share, man 
I’ve been everywhere

So let me encourage you fellow travelers to be open to discovering new music during your journey. Create a communal playlist where each traveler can contribute their favorite songs related to the locations you visit along the way, fostering a shared experience and making the road trip more memorable.

Hotel Art Critic

by

This idea was inspired by our recent road trip and will be included in the Explore More book, brought to you by the Denbow Modern Classics publishing house.

  • Tip: Stop at any hotel, small motels, inns, BnBs, etc, and critique the strange, bland, or hilariously bad art that often graces the walls.
  • Task: Make up elaborate backstories for each piece, imagining who the artist was, their emotional state, and what profound meaning they were trying to convey. Share your critiques in an ironic blog post or social media series titled something like “Art from Room 204.”
Rothko Wannabe
Requests of Independence
Contemplation Of Distorted Flame Beach
Stained Depression

Diversity

by

This morning I woke up to an unusually chilly day down here in southwest Florida. A cold front blew its way down, probably following us from Tulsa, because it was 60 degrees with a light wind. Thankfully, I still had my one sweatshirt close by from our trip up north.

While walking outside around the house surveying the hurricane clean-up needs, I noticed, really noticed the diverse flora at our home and smiled. We don’t have these species back where I am from. Oh, and that coconut that was left in the yard from a few months ago has sprouted two large palm fronds. We need to move that somewhere else before it plants roots and grows into the power lines above it.

I snapped some images with the iPhone as I walked and surveyed the plants. Okay, according to the Information button found inside Apple Photos, we have an Areca palm, 2 tall coconut trees, a tree called Job’s Tears, an avocado tree, an Izote tree (yucca), 6 Garden Croton, 5 Spider Lily, several Tiplants, 1 surviving banana plant left (2 died in the storm), a dwarf umbrella tree, a Spiderwort plant, Shell Ginger, Yew plum pine tree, and a few more royal palm trees. Throw in your garden variety tropical shrubs and wow, what a unique, diverse collection we have here just in our yard.

Garden Croton
Izote Yucca

The landscaping needs a lot of love after being left on its own for a year and a half. I’m looking forward to the projects…someday. Because a lot of these flora are self-sustaining and low maintenance, landscaping is on the back burner. Hopefully, though, we can tackle this while it is still an unusually cool fall and winter.

P.S. I neglected to mention the Dragon Sword plant I purchased for Tracy as our housewarming gift. This has yet to be planted. But where?

3100

by

All he needed was a wheel in his hand and four on the road.

Jack Kerouac

We took the long way back home to Cape Coral and racked up a little over 3,100 miles round trip. For perspective, the distance from coast to coast in the United States varies based on the specific starting and ending points, but it typically ranges from 2,400 to 3,500 miles.

Hurricanes Helene and Milton were devastating, as we witnessed separately, their power in the big bend of Florida and between Tampa and home.

We are grateful for the unexpected road trip, the safe travels back, our family back home, and an undamaged house.

I have a lot to think about due to the inspiration that travel offers. Quite a bit to write about as well, in fact, I have been writing quite a bit.

Tomorrow we’ll take down the shutter boards off the lanai, windows and doors. Yard clean-up, trash, and return the pool/patio furniture where they belong. I’ve already re-filled the low, dirty pool water, added six gallons of chlorine and ran the pool pump most of the night.

Maybe, just maybe, after all of that, I’ll have some time to follow-up on that road inspiration and write a bit more. Then I can start to sort, organize all of the creative material I accumulated from a very generous patron of my arts (you know who you are.)

From The Library Of CJD

by

I love used bookstores, has it been mentioned? While in Oklahoma I decided to swing by the buy/sell/trade store and pick up some desired reference books such as a dictionary, thesaurus and an encyclopedia. Even the History of the National Geographic Society was grabbed.

Now I am on the look out for an atlas and a globe. These have all been on my list to add for the new study in the new home.

Let’s Go

by

I want to go on more adventures. Be around good energy, connect with people, learn new things and grow. – Chris Denbow

I wrote this exactly ten years ago and am pleased that this hasn’t changed.

I’m digging my script that allows me to revisit previous posts.

Nature’s Neon

by

Thanks to another coronal mass ejection from our star, the aurora borealis made another appearance further south than usual. I was blessed to witness this event back in May and blessed again for being further north in Oklahoma to see it again.

The light show started just as a small thunderstorm passed to my south but partly cloudy to the north. Thankfully, the clouds dissipated enough for these results!

Nebulae

by

Upon further inspection of the Orion constellation image I took the other morning1 I noticed multiple nebulae. Had I remembered or even noticed, I would have broken out the tripod and opened up the shutter longer for a better shot. Here, the Horsehead and Flame nebulas are quite visible, as is the Orion Nebula to the lower right. I’ll try again on the return trip home.

  1. what day is it, I am evacuating Milton ↩︎

Escape From Florida

by

After boarding up the house, we left Cape Coral, Florida on Monday, October 7 at 12:30pm to escape from Category 5 Hurricane Milton. Interstate 75 north bound was already filled with fellow evacuees. It seems some have no sense of urgency during evacuations because no less than 30 times I am following a car in the left lane as they drive 10-15 mph less than the permitted 75mph. They would leave gaps in between themselves and the next car anywhere from 2 car lengths to 10 car lengths. Maddening!

Normally the drive from Cape Coral to Tampa would take 2 hours. This time it took 8. I had enough of I-75 and decided to divert west to the Suncoast Parkway parallel to the Gulf of Mexico. Thankfully, the governor had removed the tolls and we flew northwest through the big bend area of Florida…until we came to more stop/go traffic at various spots. There was a backup of 30 miles due to…something. There was another 30 mile backup for no reason. We tried to bed down a couple of times but only managed an hour nap in the car. This area was hit by Hurricane Helene not more than a week ago and the evidence was all around us. We pressed on to the rest of the rural Florida panhandle until we hit a massive rest stop west of Tallahassee. Technically, we were in the clear after a monotonous, frustrating 20 hr drive, having been awake for 30 hours and maybe 3 hrs sleep. After this, we raced to the Florida/Alabama border and began to feel even more at ease. While en route we drove through Milton, Florida just as hurricane Milton was geographically positioned below us in the Gulf. Haha, not today you don’t get us.

Having crossed Mobile Bay, and observed the U.S.S. Alabama battleship, we drove under the city through the Bankhead Tunnel and joined in with the other driver’s in the echoing song of car horns. All of us shared a smile through the windshields.

Tonight finds me on the Mississippi gulf coast line. No clouds, beautiful blue skies. We gorged on boiled and/or blackened shrimp, and fixings until we popped. After we have cleaned ourselves up, we stretch out onto a bed, finally, after two days.

Milton will arrive either Wednesday or Thursday between Tampa and Cape Coral. Evacuating our new home was a smart decision. I just pray that when we return, there will be minimal to no damage to it.

She’s asleep, now it is my turn.