The everywhere man

By D. Daniel, Globe Staff, 01/13/02

Where's Mr. Follett? That was the question on a classroom bulletin board at Blanchard Memorial School in Boxborough last fall while pupils traced the journey of fourth-grade teacher Larry Follett. The question could also have been "where wasn't Mr. Follett?" after he drove 12,200 miles and visited 31 states on a two-month cross-country trip with a friend.

Follett, 37, of North Billerica, is on a one-year sabbatical from Blanchard, where he has taught for eight years. He kept in touch with students through postcards and occasional e-mail exchanges. "My teaching partner said it was really fun for them," said Follett, who plans to visit the students later this year.

His travel companion was Sean Maloney, a teacher from Manchester, Conn., and fellow summer counselor at Camp Moosilauke in New Hampshire. Maloney put up a Web site that students could follow, with a chat room.

They traveled in Follett's Jeep Cherokee, where they sometimes slept. "We also camped out, stayed in motels, and stayed with a lot of friends in different parts of the country," he said. "We tried not to have a lot of deadlines or specific dates."

They departed the first week of October and headed south. At Universal Studios in Orlando, they were picked to be in the audience of "Slime Time Live" on Nickelodeon.

Then they turned west (stops included New Orleans and - for Graceland - Memphis) toward California, including Death Valley, and then north. They drove through Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, and, keeping south of the Great Lakes, arrived home the first week of December.

Their longest stay was at the Grand Canyon for five days, the highlight of the trip for Follett. "That had always been my dream, ever since watching that `Brady Bunch' episode. That was amazing finally getting to go there."

Follett and Maloney camped and also hiked to the bottom, where they hung out with the National Park Service workers operating Phantom Ranch, the guest lodge in the inner canyon. "We got only four hours sleep and had a 10-mile uphill hike. But we were out in four hours," he said. Follett was also impressed with Bryce Canyon and other places in Utah where they hiked.

The two went to a football game in Arizona (Cardinals vs. the New York Giants), where Maloney's family flew out to meet them. They attended a hockey game in Michigan (they were given free skybox seats), and visited the "Field of Dreams" site in eastern Iowa.

Another treat (from a friend) was three free nights at the MGM Grand Las Vegas, though the savings got spent at the casinos. "I sent my prinicipal a note saying I should be reimbursed because I was honing my understanding of probability," Follett said, laughing. "I still haven't heard back."

There were few places they didn't enjoy. And then there was the scary day in Wyoming en route to Badlands National Park in South Dakota. "We had a white-out and were in the middle of nowhere. We were seeing car after car upside down on the side of the road. Finally we pulled off. I've driven in snow my whole life, but never been that scared."

Where's Mr. Follett now? He's tutoring and substitute teaching, writing children's stories, looking forward to Camp Moosilauke this summer, and to Blanchard in the fall.