Happy-trails trekkers turn road trip into travel log-on

....Two young entrepreneurs are doing a high-tech '90s take on the all-American road trip of self-discovery -- and they're giving the rest of us a view from the back seat via the Internet.

Chris Moeller and Brian Ardinger, both 30, aren't just sightseeing. They're asking the big questions of life -- trying to find the guideposts to happiness and success for their generation.

You are invited to ride along as a virtual passenger by following their journey on the Internet www.quest-4.com. They are calling their journey "Quest-4" and they speak of it with an earnestness that makes it sound like a '90s version of the search for the holy grail.

"It's a personal quest as well as a quest to help others," Ardinger says.

The official description of the mission on the Web: "Quest-4 is a project designed to inspire people to take action in their lives to reach their highest potential. The interactive Quest-4 experience poses questions on the meaning of success, happiness and personal greatness and offers insights into how these can be achieved in daily life."

To do this, the quest masters are interviewing successful people, almost all from the 20- to 35-year-old set. They are then posting excerpts of these interviews along with photos, maps of their route, personal observations and pithy quotes on their Web site, which they have been updating faithfully en route.

The two plan to spend six months criss-crossing the country, hitting all 48 continental states on this detour from their high-tech career tracks. They're staying with friends, acquaintances and even strangers.....

..... Ardinger and Moeller sure enjoy leaving the limits of a 9-to-5 life behind; Ardinger quit a job as a marketing consultant for a high-tech marketing company in San Jose; Moeller quit a job in Web site development and graphic design in Los Angeles. The two first became friends as kids in West Virginia.

Something about the head-on collision with that big Three-Oh birthday made them decide to rev up the daydreams of a road trip and make it a reality.

But they didn't just hop a train. They did their homework and outfitted themselves in first-rate trappings. They got a Jeep Cherokee, a video camera, a couple of tape recorders, a Macintosh Powerbook. They wear expensive-looking hiking boots and casual clothes. They even have real business cards for their endeavor.

These two are a far cry from the uneasy rider types traveling down the highway of rebels without a cause. They are wholesome, well-meaning and plugged in, not only to the Internet, but to the whole search-for-excellence thrust of a lot of business and human potential movement literature. ("Search for Excellence" is one of the headers on their Web pages).

Moeller sounds like a prospectus when he says: "We're primarily self-funded at this point." We don't think Jack Kerouac ever said anything like that.

Call them tech-nomads: riding high on rogue adventure, but fully linked into the cyber community. They're hoping to find lots of virtual passengers -- some of whom may offer them real-life places to stay or join their "Full Tank Club" by donating money for gas.

At the end of the trip, they plan to write a book.....

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