When I first decided that I’d read travel narratives while I was traveling, I assumed they’d mainly be quest narratives, where the main characters set out to achieve something specific. This was probably because I couldn’t think of many beyond The Lord of the Rings and the journals from the Lewis and Clark expedition.
This held true for the first two books I read. There’s never been a quest with a more obvious goal than the one undertaken by Frodo and Sam and in Travels with Charley Steinbeck has a very specific plan laid out for his journey. He’s going to be in this city for these days, and this national park by this date, etc. But then I moved onto the stories of Don Quixote’s adventures and, as I’ve already pointed out, he didn’t try and reach any particular destination. He had a goal definitely, but it wasn’t a physical one. He was searching for things that were more qualitative than quantitative. He happily wandered in circles seeking adventures and glory, because there wasn’t a specific location where adventures and glory would be found. They could be stumbled across anywhere.
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