My Social Network Road Trip

I woke up early to the sound of children running frantically on the floor below my bed.  Small feet smacking the ground with the weight of a much louder frame.  I sniffled and opened my mouth to take a breath, my throat raw and scratched.  My family had given me a cold.  I called down [...]

That night I stopped in Sioux City, Iowa.  There were a cluster of hotels at the exit and I glanced at the familiar names.  Knowing the Super 8 would be the cheapest and feeling good about its general lack of sketchiness, I went in to inquire about their single nightly rate.  The kid behind the counter [...]

We had a few hours before Lindsay’s flight left the Rapid City airport so we took our time driving there.  As we left Mount Rushmore, the surrounding town was like Daytona Beach set in the old west.  There were gift shops and saloons, ice creams shops and hotel after hotel with signs meant to one-up the competition, [...]

Driving to Mount Rushmore, we kept our eyes peeled for somewhere to grab a quick breakfast. I can only assume the lack of food options in Newcastle has to do with the deer’s hostile takeover of the city. I’d gotten little sleep after my hours of sickness. I clutched the mini-Gatorade bottle in my hand [...]

The day was divided evenly among Colorado and Wyoming.  Leaving Steamboat Springs, the scenery was perfection.  It was calming and expansive and the leaves had already started turning colors.  The realization that autumn was right here confounded me as I had spent the first two weeks of the trip with direct sunlight roasting my skin.  Lindsay [...]

 After driving a while, we approached a sign that said there wouldn’t be another gas station for 120 miles. Looking down to verify our quarter tank, I noted how lucky it was that I had even seen the puny sign. The thankful feelings soon left when I looked around us. “Do you remember seeing a gas station nearby?” I [...]

At this point, I had driven over 5,000 miles. Sitting in Roger Clinton trying to visualize what 5,000 miles means, I couldn’t help but think of that song, “I Would Walk 500 Miles.” 500 miles is about the length of where I got pulled over for the second time to my destination that night in Ogden, [...]

I found myself admiring Ogden’s organizational skills as we left the city and came upon a mountain with a giant “U” on it.  “Utah labels its mountains,” I said, “How crafty of them.”  Eventually, we drove by multiple mountains with letters on them that seemed to stand for nothing, leaving our confused minds to grasp desperately for explanations.  Is [...]

We left our hotel in Washington and headed southeast.  That day took us thru 4 states: Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Utah.  Sections of the road in Washington looked out of place between the mountains, as if the untouched natural beauty just happened to have 4 lanes of concrete fall into the middle of it;  The biggest mistake [...]

I’ve admitted before that the road loosened my sanity a tad.  This video captures my downfall perfectly. 

Somewhere in Idaho, a fly snuck into the car and under my skin.  It was the end of the day and my mental capacity had eroded steadily with each hour behind the wheel.  Click the link below to see Lindsay navigate the [...]