CHARLESTON -- When Brian Poulter was a boy in northern Wisconsin, he says, "trespassing'' was his middle name.

"If I saw an abandoned barn, I had to go in and explore it," he said. "I like to go and explore things, and I usually got into trouble."

That love of poking around in the unknown has stuck with him, and now he's out on his big two-wheeler riding from one end of the Mississippi River to the other, along with his friend Jim Standerfer. They're taking their bikes by trailer down to New Orleans and left on their odyssey from there June 15. They'll end up at the headwaters of the Big Muddy in Lake Itasca, Minn., about two weeks later, give or take a few days.

Poulter, a photojournalism professor at Eastern Illinois University and Stander-fer, an English teacher at Casey-Westfield High School and former magazine editor, will chronicle the journey in a blog to be posted on the Herald & Review Web site, www.herald-review.com.

When Poulter's wife originally mentioned the trip to Standerfer, his first thought was "Wow, I wish I could go."

"It never occurred to me I could," Standerfer said. "I hadn't ridden a motorcycle in 10 years. I didn't have one and no means to buy one."

There will be no interstates or major highways for these two. Poulter said the whole idea is to take the county and township roads, the "blue sign roads," he calls them, and if they see something interesting, to pull over and take a closer look. They're just lookin' for adventure and whatever comes their way.

That attitude is totally foreign to Standerfer, though he wishes it weren't. He's a planner and a scheduler and tends to set a goal and pursue it, even when traveling.

"I've never done anything like this," he said. "It doesn't have a point. It's just the process of discovery, and I love that Brian comes up with these things. I just don't think that way."

Poulter plans to take his photos with a point-and-shoot Canon rather than an expensive camera with lots of lenses. Part of the reason is space. But in recent months, he's discovered that using the simpler camera forces him to look at photography and composition in a whole new way, and he's intrigued by that. Standerfer has made himself a promise to write every day, partly because he says that will force him to be alert and aware of everything he sees.

Riding a motorcycle, Poulter said, is about being closer to places and people and more a part of them than is possible in a car. And if they get lost, it will only make things more interesting.

"We're gonna get lost," Poulter said. "I know we're gonna get lost."

One of the times they're sure to get lost, he said, is riding through rural Mississippi.

If he can talk Standerfer into it, he wants to visit three possible burial sites for blues artist Robert Johnson, who wrote the song "Crossroads." Little is known about the bluesman, but legend has it that Johnson sold his soul to the devil at a certain crossroads in exchange for musical skill.

That crossroads is now in the middle of a city, Poulter said, but the burial sites are at tiny rural churches down meandering little roads. And further contributing to the mystery surrounding Johnson, no one is sure just which of the three sites, if any, is the correct one.

Standerfer, a big Mark Twain fan, wants to stop in Hannibal, Mo., to see the sites made famous in "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn." A campground there promises free wireless Internet, which he finds hilarious, considering the area's appeal is the simplicity of the times in which Tom and Huck lived.

"It's a weird deal," he said. "Camp where Huck camped and have wireless Internet access."

The men's itinerary, however, is fluid. The whole point of a vacation, Poulter said, is to jettison deadlines and commitments and just enjoy, so when they spot something or someone they want to get to know better, they're going to do it, and not worry about schedules. Sometimes, they'll stay at hotels. Sometimes, they'll camp. Most of the time they won't know which one until it gets dark or, Poulter quipped, when they really, really need a shower.

"People ask us, 'When are you going to be back?' and we're like, 'We don't know,' " Poulter said with a mischievous grin. " 'How long is it going to take you?' 'We don't know.' 'What are you going to stop and see?' 'We're not quite sure.' "

However, Standerfer has agreed to one firm and fast rule of Poulter's.

"I'm going to stop at every Dairy Queen I see," Poulter said.

"He loves the DQ thing," Standerfer said."

Reporter Valerie Wells: vwells@herald-review.com or 421-7982.