Family Road Trip: The Oregon Trail

Paul Szabo Start Date: Sep 7, 2023 - End Date: Mar 6, 2024
  • Educational/Research Trip
  • Study/Degree Abroad
  • Vacation/Personal Trip
  • Cape Cod, MA, United States of America
  • Cooperstown, NY, United States of America
  • Niagara Falls, NY, United States of America
  • Dyersville, IA, United States of America
  • Keystone, SD, United States of America
  • Yellowstone National Park, WY, United States of America
  • Carson, WA, United States of America

My Travel Story

by: Paul Szabo Start Date: Sep 7, 2023 - End Date: Mar 6, 2024
  • Educational/Research Trip
  • Study/Degree Abroad
  • Vacation/Personal Trip
Hello, my name is Paul.  I'm a 36 Year old husband, father, veteran. I am an Infantryman and I served in the United States Army for 8 1/2 years. My first deployment was to Baghdad Iraq; I was 22. During that deployment I would go to suffer 3 significant concussions during combat operations, and witnessed horrors of humanity that no 22 year old boy should see. I lost the ability to see, hear, and express significant feeling. My frontal lobe was damaged and I lost the ability of imagination, the world inside of me is black and quiet and has been replaced by constant tinitus.
This has raised a significant barrier to my ability to support my family in the manner they are deserving, currently we subsist off of VA disability alone. 
I am asking for help to provide my family a chance to experience something I have yet been able to give them.

I pay attention to the news and I see how our leaders hand out 100's of billions of dollars non-citizens, yet volunteers of your own nation have to fight tooth and nail for basic disability.  So I ask for help from you.

Our 2 boys are homeschooled and they have never been out of the state of New Jersey due to financial restrictions.  I have always wanted to take them across the country to show them how big the world really is while learning along the way.  I know in my heart that this trip would change their perception of Earth for forever, and would impact their souls on a level deeper than any TV screen.

I would like to surprise them and raise funding that would allow us to secure a vehicle and a travel trailer to be used to travel across country utilizing the The Oregon Trail route from Cape Cod to US-20 Oregon.  I expect this to be a month long trip between 30-35 days.

This is a massive request, but any help at all would be nothing short of a dream come true.
I thank you all.
  • Cape Cod, MA, United States of America
  • Cooperstown, NY, United States of America
  • Niagara Falls, NY, United States of America
  • Dyersville, IA, United States of America
  • Keystone, SD, United States of America
  • Yellowstone National Park, WY, United States of America
  • Carson, WA, United States of America

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