Senior backpacker at the wheel on Oregon roads

I got a driver’s license 10 years ago at the age of 54. Since then, driving on US highways to visit national parks for hiking has become one of my dreams. In Japan we don’t need so much a car to access to entrances for mountain hiking, but things are different in US. I don’t rely on a tourist company's packaged tours. My traveling style is just like backpackers’, so I like to go as wind blows like a wanderer and do what I feel good at that time.

 The issue was driving on US roads. My annual driving miles in Japan average less than 3,000 miles and I have had no experience in using rent-a-car even in Japan. Not only inexperience in driving, but also I need to consider my physical handicaps like allergic eyes and disabled right hand due to polio with which I was struck at five. 

How I can manage to drive safely and be ensured to reach my destinations as scheduled?

I have planned routes carefully since one year ago and bought a US Garmin's portable navi, which I tested for Japanese roads and set up all possible addresses and routes into it. 
And on arrival at Portland, Aug. 29 Fri, 2014, I immediately rush into a AT&T shop to buy its prepaid phone, Nokia Lumia 635 mainly for security reason while driving.

 

 With all these precautions and bless of good weather, I really enjoyed my summer vacation and found driving on US roads a lot of fun as well as hiking in beautiful US National and natural parks. Let me present my nice memories here one by one;

• Mt. Rainier 
• Oregon Coasts
• Columbia Gorge
• Portland

(to be continued)