This is genuinely my new favourite topic on the forum! Thank you for taking us along on this adventure, and for your great commentary along the way too. I for one hope the road trip continues beyond your first destination! 
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Thank you for your kind comment! I will definitely continue this project, but I am still thinking about whether to just continue from Tripoli or choose a new route. So either a continuous or a more free-form project. But we’ll see how it’ll turn out once we reach the city!
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007: From Mesarf (TN) to Zuwara (LY)
This was perhaps the most emotional part of this trip, not just because after a week of daily driving we finally crossed the border to Libya, which felt like an enormous achievement due to the time we spent getting to this point. But more on that at the end of this post.
Leaving Mesarf we continued along RN1 towards our next intersection with Highway A1.
Not long after we passed through the largest town so far on our trip (excluding Tunis of course) - Ben Gardane on the eastern border of Tunisia. Due to its size I decided to take shots in the western and eastern parts of town.
East of the town we drove along the northern shore of Sebkhet et Mnikhra, a large and - according to my map - only seasonal lake near the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. By now we were driving on a coastal plain, where the already sparse amount of trees fully gave way to yellow and brown grasslands.
This was the big moment - crossing the border between Tunisia and Libya at Ras Aidir. It felt super important to me and made me actually pretty emotional as we made it this far in a Ford Transit, going never faster than 80kn, driving all the way here, seeing all those sights. It felt great!
Continuing onwards towards Tripoli, we could enjoy the presence of the blue sea just beside us, with its golden beaches and the clear blue sky above us. Yet we had to leave it for a while as the coastal highway made a detour south through the town of Zelten.
You might not believe it, but this is our last stop before reaching our destination - the Libyan capital of Tripoli! We aren’t far off from it, here in the seaside town of Zuwara. I had to navigate my way through its tight and busy streets to reach this spot at the last row of houses at the beach. Such a pretty sight!
Quick ramble / rant / love letter to the sim incoming!
You know what I finally understood during today’s drive? I understood why I love MSFS 2020 so much and why I spent more than 1200 hours in it so far. It is my No. 1 escapism tool. I might be a pretty jaded person as I spent six years studying Philosophy, focussing on Military Ethics and the Laws of War, which destroyed much of my idealism when it comes to humanity, but this sim definitely helps me to cope with it a lot. Why? Because it depicts an ideal world without violence. In MSFS there is no violence, no war, no hate. There are natural wonders, cities, villages, cottages and a lot of empty self-driving cars going about their business. The simmers are flying their trips and even if there are military aircraft, they are unable to enact violence upon this world. It is a perfect illusion of peace for me. And for that I am very grateful!
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if i could get my wheel work with this would join you. feels too strange to drive with a stick
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Yeah, I had to experiment quite a lot to find a layout I was comfortable with. But it would be interesting to know how well it would work with a wheel (provided MSFS would support such an input device)!
tried it couldnt get my logitech to work on the xbox
008: From Zuwara to Tripoli
We did it! After eight days of driving we reached our destination of Tripoli. It was an awesome trip through Tunesia and Western Libya, full of awesome sights, interesting places and great talks with you folks here in the thread. Don’t worry, this project isn’t finished, yet, but let’s talk about it after reviewing the last stretch of the road we travelled today!
Leaving Zuwara I’ll took the liberty of driving the long way around town the stay a bit near the sea. It such a pretty beach! Afterwards we got back on the highway, passing the Mellitah Oil and Gas Complex Zuwara on the eastern outskirts of the town.
There were quite a few smaller towns we passed through on our way east through Nuqat al Khams district: First Tallil, then Sabratah and lastly Sorman.
Before reaching the capital itself we circled around the southern parts of Az-Zawiyya (I used the drone here as it is a rather large settlement and I wanted to capture the expanse of it) as well as the smaller town of Jadda’im.
Here we are: Tripoli! The reach the point I randomly chose at the start of our journey we passed Al Ghayran Bridge as well as 10th Street District. Then I captured this shot of a building I first believed to be a hotel or something similar. Turns it this is the National Safety Authority of Libya. Beyond it we entered Al Nasr Street and finally came to a stop in the green expanse of Sidi Monaither Cementery. We finally arrived at our destination!
So where to next? I am not yet sure about it, but I made a few notes about interesting routes. Of course I will not spoil them as I want to unveil them part by part (so that I don’t feel horrible when I have to quit or postpone them). But I’ll share at least the possible starting points with you:
1. Augusta, USA
2. Karesuando, Sweden
3. Istanbul, Turkey
4. Cairo, Egypt
5. Delta Junction, USA
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How about the silk road to China? I’ve always wanted to do that IRL.
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Sounds like an interesting idea although I would have to decide which Silk Road (as it is more of a network than a singular road) to follow. I’ll put it on my personal list, thank you for this idea!
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LOL this was a right good chuckle to read on a Monday. 
Looking forward to the next installment.
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Usually I’ll only write one entry per day as this takes quite the time with the driving, the sorting, the labelling, the research and the writing of each post. But today I feel like just kickstarting the next installment of my Ford Transit Road Trips! Where to? Weeeell… I don’t actually want to reveal that, yet. But I’ll tell you where we started and why I am doing this - right now.
2nd Road Trip: United States of America.
001: From Augusta, ME to Wilton / Dryden, ME
Okay, so why am I driving around Maine? Easy, I want to explore a country that is (for me as a German at least) a pretty exotic, distant and sometimes really weird place. I never visited the US, I didn’t fly much in its borders and most of my knowledge about it comes from geography class in school as well as random facts I came across in my life. I want to learn more about this land and it’s people, so why not do a road trip?
We started in central Augusta, ME at Memorial Park before leaving the city on ME27, past Maine General Express Care. As you can see I even downloaded both World Updates for the USA, which I normally don’t do (as I seldom travel in updated countries).
Leaving Augusta (and the photogrammetry with its floating textures) behind us we followed the road past Belgrade, ME and Belgrade Lakes, ME (hehe this is kinda fun!) as well as a village which turned out to be a poultry farm in real life (Pine Tree Poultry to be specific).
At Douin’s Market & Diner we turned west onto US Route 2 (East) and crossed Sandy River at New Sharon.
![sc_001_008_near-farmington-solar|690x388]
On the northern bank of Sandy River the dense forests eased up and revealed beautiful scenes of the distant hills and mountains beyond the river to the south.
(upload://823Ar49DrQ5sNaGrHpEGtLxR4zT.jpeg)
After an hour of driving and an improvised stop at what turned out to be a motel with a gargantuan Walmart behind it (Colonial Valley Motel), we arrived in Dryden, ME, just south of Wilton, ME (I actually love the “x,State name” thing, it’s hillarious!). Tomorrow, we’ll carry on, but first a new segment I’ll be doing from now on:
What I learned today:
- Maine wasn’t one of the “13 Colonies”, but remained a part of Massachussets until 1820 (actually didn’t knew this, I always thought it existed back then!)
- American supermarkets are enormous, like the one near Dryden has the size of an industrial plant!
- As I listen to radio stations from wherever I fly / drive, I found a pretty diverse set of stations in this small part of the country alone. I am thrilled to listen to more of them!
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Congrats on finishing your first trip! Has been awesome following your progress. Looking forward to seeing where your USA tour takes you
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002: From Wilton, ME to Gilead, ME
The second day of our US adventure! Let’s see what we’ll experience in Maine today.
As you can see these posts include way more pictures than before. This happens mostly because I needed the first week to get a feeling again for what works well on camera. Anyways, we left Wilton, ME and continued on Route 2 past the Clover Wheel Farm (which according to Google Maps produced very good eggs!) to Dixfield, ME, where we encountered the Androscoggin River for the first time. We won’t leave it for today!
Following the river northwest we crossed it on Veteran Street in Rumford, ME and continued on Bridge Street before crossing it again in the west of the town. Back on the northern bank we drove past Zinck Airfield and the local Tractor Supply Company before arriving in Rumford Point.
During the following part we encountered something new - it got foggy, which made for some pretty awesome shots later on! But here, still in the sunshine we visited Stony Brook Recreation, Mayville, ME and the New Mill Canabis (Medicinal), now again on the southern bank of Androscoggin River, which we crossed (again) in Bethel, ME.
Now it got really foggy as we continued west past Peaked Hill and Philbrook Island. After about an hour of driving (counted from Wilton) I finally stopped the van at Evans Notch Lodge in Gilead, ME with quite the scenic view of the mountains to the north.
What I learned today:
- US radio programs are really different from the ones I know here in Germany! I never experienced the joy of listening to well-made radio reports about local issues and specific topics before, explained in detail with short interviews intersparsed within. Not just a short hourly news reel, but actual “radio documentaries” if that term makes sense! I really enjoyed listening to it.
- Despite the hilly terrain and the forested areas through which Route 2 runs, I so far encountered very little troubles with driving in a flight sim around here. Yes, sometimes it yeets you off the road due to small “cliffs” within the flat terrain, but nothing major to worry about!
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some great roads north west of las vegas head up to St george
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This got me thinking, does anyone watch Vice Grip Garage on YouTube? It kind of reminds me of that a little bit, except swap the transit for an Chevy. 
Can a guy (or gal) see the similarities in the commentary? Lol.
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003: From Gilead, ME to Concord, VT
What a weird drive today - about halfway in the texture quality dropped massively. Let’s hope it’ll be only a small area in Eastern Vermont that’s affected by this!
The beautiful thing about early morning tours is the fog with the sun slowly illuminating everything around you. Taking off from Gilead, ME, we crossed the border to New Hampshire before seeing the faint outlines of Mount Winthrop looming right in front of us.
Passing Gorham, NH we entered a hilly, bumpy terrain that led us to the northern bank of Moose River near Scates Corner, NH. Just look at the road vanishing in the distant fog, it felt awesome!
Following Moose River through its valley and into the town of Lancaster, NH I started to notice the quality loss of the ground textures. As I said, I hope it’ll a) be a server-side connection problem that’ll be fixed tomorrow or b) affect just this area and be gone after leaving it. Let’s see!
Leaving New Hampshire and entering Vermont we passed the hillside village of Lunenburg, VT (a name I recognize as being derived from the German city of Lüneburg in Lower Saxony) and a larger lake called Miles Pond to the west of it.
Finally, we arrived in the small town of Concord, VT which proved to be quite the challenge to capture a good ending photo of as the textures were mostly mush so I had to fiddle around with my camera angles to (somewhat) make it work.
What I learned today:
- The amount of towns and villages in the US named after German towns and cities is baffling! Just looking at this tiny corner of the country (Maine / New Hampshire / Vermont) I feel like I could do a road trip through the entirety of Germany without ever leaving Northern New England.
- Noticing state borders turns out to be very important - I almost wrote the wrong one in the title of this post! As I didn’t notice I had left New Hampshire, I almost mistook “Concord, VT” for “Concord, NH”, which are completely different towns, being located in neighbouring states, sharing the same name. Almost did a whoopsie here!
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for a flight simulator, these stills are actually remarkably good
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Thank you! Yeah, I know, in general they are still fine, but compared to the areas in Maine, I did notice the drop. Somewhat of a photo perfectionist here, but I try my best to reign those impulses in during this project 
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004: From Concord, VT to Montpelier, VT
I think I am falling in love with Vermont radio stations… I guess it is a local tradition that radio commercials have to include the cheesiest dad jokes? I love it!
“Why do I love roofing jokes? They get me every shingle time!”
Anyways, onwards to our next stop (and first checkpoint!)
As I am about to get my sleeping schedule back to my work rhythm (as my vacation is ending next Tuesday), I can now enjoy New England sunrises everytime I drive! We left Concord, VT and took our first photo near Grove Cementery. Then we followed Moose River west to Saint Johnsbury, VT, which may have been the largest town we visited since leaving Augusta, ME.
Continuing west we visited a lot of small villages and towns, such as Danville, VT, where we got to enjoy the golden morning sun illuminating the houses and woods around us. Further on we passed South Cabot, VT and finally Marshfield, VT (where I was a bit too focused on the shot so I may have driven over someone’s garden fence, hence the angle…)
Afterwards not much happened save for this beautiful view across Winooski River near Twinfield Union School.
Finally, we arrived in the first checkpoint I set for this long-term project: The state capital of Vermont - Montpelier! I was a bit bummed that it didn’t have photogrammetry (as Augusta had it), but it made navigating the city easier. Also the capital looks really pretty from this angle!
Things I learned today:
- Two new dad jokes from radio commercials. Want to hear to second one? No? Okay, here it goes: “Why did Bob jump off the dock? Pier pressure!” Great, right? Right?
- I don’t know how realistic US Route 2 is depicted in MSFS, but the part from Marshfield to Montpelier was a nightmare! Narrow bends, bumpy roads and about an arm length between the road itself and the nearest river and / or lake. It was… exciting!
- I underestimated just how large and imposing state capital buildings are! These things are huge!
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Short update: As my vacation has come to an end, I won’t have as much time for this project. So for the time being I’ll park my van in Montpelier and come back to it once my schedule allows it.
Thank you all for your engagement with this content, for your kind comments and the great time I had during the last weeks. I’ll be back as soon as possible!
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