I gots dem Interstate-70 Bleary-Eyed Blues
by…from my thinnin’-hair head to the bottom of my gas-pedal shoes. Though I dread the impersonal, thundering girth of a road like I-70, I…
Round-the-World Honeymoon
Keepin’ it Tranquilo in Middle America
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Pushing through West Virginia, Ohio, and Indiana on blue highways is both a nice break from the I-70 main vein and a refreshingly weird slice of Los Estados Unidos. We drive past high school football games, yard sales, bingo halls, and a hundred churches. There are frontyard forests of local election signs (“Pudge Richardson for Sheriff!”); there are exits for Turkeyfoot Road and the Dixie Highway. There are towns named Rabbit Hash, Gnaw Bone, and Stoney Lonesome.
Roadtrip Ho! To West Virginia
byThe welcome sign to my birth state used to shout “Wild Wonderful West Virginia!” Now it says “West Virginia: Open for Business.” Yes, the…
Raise the Blue Peter! Setting Sail for Middle America
byWhen the Blue Peter, a nautical flag consisting of a white square against a blue background, is raised by a ship in harbor, it…
Ready, set, . . .
byPart of roadtrip/moving preparation (besides all the packing) is recalling the last time I drove cross-country, NorCal to NYC. I also discover things like…
Full Circle…Almost
byAs we approach the final leg of our trip—the drive from New York to Colorado—I thought another map was in order. Here’s a breakdown…
Reverse Culture Shock: A Bucket of Cold Water in the Face
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Exciting, uncomfortable, inspiring, and totally discombobulating. Such is the experience of coming home from the World.
Putting the trip back together again
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Gaining some interim understanding of everything we have just seen and experienced is important, especially as pressure mounts to get a job and rejoin the rat race. But we’re still traveling, right? Still shacked up for weeks at a time, still living out of bags. Until we land in Colorado. Or Kentucky. Or Arizona. Or Belize. There is still an uncertain and empty road ahead of us.
Gathering of the Vibes: Traveling Back to the Farm
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The Gathering of the Vibes music festival offers the perfect hippie-licious respite from the hubbub of Babylon, and driving out of New York City is a big-sky burst of relief from the heights of the Tapan Zee Bridge, vast Hudson Valley landscapes in all directions instead of just buildings and more buildings. We drive north through a green tunnel, moving faster on the ground than we have in a long time, and in the car, we whirl from the speed and the clouds and the endless trail of travel intensity frothing in our wake.
New York: Crash Landing
by“The final destination of any journey is not, after all, the last item on the agenda, but rather some understanding, however simple or provisional,…