The Caravan Chronicles

by Matthew Klem

Ever wanted to take a cross-country road trip? Wondered what you might see or what you’d experience? The Caravan Chronicles tells the story of how four friends from Riverview New Brunswick Canada hopped in a van and visited all 48 US states, including Washington D.C., over a two week period. From New England to San Francisco and back, these four adventurers saw more of the United States in two weeks than many see in a lifetime. Whether it was hiking through train tunnels, standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon, or taking selfies in Times Square, they covered 10,000+ miles and walked away with the greatest road trip story ever. This book walks you through the origins of the trip, the meticulous planning, the sights and sounds of all 48 states, and how the high tech hobby of geocaching helped set this ball in motion.

174 pages, Paperback

Published December 24, 2019

About the author

I’m a regular guy who likes to write, travel, spend time with his family, and buck the trend as often as I can.

As part of the launch of The Caravan Chronicles, everything I read and watched said I needed an “author website”. I’ve had matthewklem.com registered for years and all it ever did was bounce to my own personal blog. But now that I’m dipping my toe into the world of publishing books, I figured I should put something up for people to get the jist of who I am. But here goes my own attempt at an “author profile”.

I started writing short stories in junior high school as an escape mechanism from the incessant bullying that plagued me for the start of my teenage years. By the time high school and college rolled around I found himself writing offbeat humor in a local zine which eventually became an outlet for doing music reviews and band interviews. Then in 2001 I started writing my “Bob’s Room” blog and have had it ever since.

I also wrote a technology column for [HERE] magazine for a couple years before that folded and spent the better part of the 2010’s writing content for Cache Up NB.

2016 saw me starting to write a travel memoir which consists of a series of stories about places I’ve visited around the world and the experiences that came with them. That book was finished in the fall of 2017 when I took a trip with three friends of mine across the United States. The Caravan Chronicles is the book I wrote about that trip.

I’m not a crafty person, or knowledgeable about sports. But I am someone who loves to sit down and just write. Sometimes it goes nowhere and then other times it turns into something magical.

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not what I expected

Since I heard about this book on a Geocaching podcast I thought it would contain stories of a great Geocaching adventure across the US and back. However, it’s mostly a story about driving. I’m not too sure what compelled the author to turn this into a book. There is little to no story about Geocaching here, and barely any story of the places visited. Most of the trip boils down to “very little in the way of exciting sights or notable memories.” The reader doesn’t even get to know what places were visited until the list at the end of the book. It does serve as a reminder to appreciate my own adventures.

[Scot Haynes · Rating 3 out of 5]

I dowloaded this book, on Audible, as I love to listen to roadtrip stories from the USA. It wasn’t quite what I expected though. Yes there were some tales of the geocaches that the lads sought out and yes there were brief descriptions of the places they visited. I was just left feeling I would have liked a bit more of a description of the places they visited.
Interesting listen but I just feel there could have been more.