From the Creator...

This all actually started with a phone call, or maybe a letter, written on one of those long, dusty, sweaty, boring-as-shit days in my tiny ass Ghanaian village.  Was that it? No, actually, if you really think about it, I’ve wanted to do this for a long, long, long time, long enough that I can’t actually place the original idea. I do know when the idea mushroomed in my head though, I can tell you the exact event. (this is all exposition, you can skip ahead if you’re time pressed, or bored) Mikey D. and I were in Dublin, it was St. Patrick’s Day, but we weren’t out getting trashed with everyone else. We were on the tail end of a trip we had taken during our Spring Break while studying in England. Sean Capistrant had given me this book, that, to be honest, I wasn’t really interested in, only because I had been buying books like a maniac and already had a stack like this high anyways. Not that I didn’t appreciate Sean’s recommendation, just that I like, already had all these other books. Anyway, somehow this one wound up in my bag. So here I am with Mikey in this tiny Irish hotel/hostel room, exhausted as hell, but unable to sleep. This book comes out, and, can you guess what it is? Probably the most famous road-tripping book ever written. That’s right: On the Road. I fell in love with this book. Just the whole idea of idea of it. Of driving back and forth all over our country, visiting friends in different areas, enjoying the road and the company and the experience of it. Granted, we don’t really live in a time anymore where you can really do it how Sal and Dean did. You have to be a bit more careful about whom you give rides to (Grandmas, I’m joking) and whom you take tips from. But seriously, you have to watch your back these days. That’s kinda sad really, if you think about it. That we can’t even trust people without being suspicious of them. When people talk about the good ole days, are those the days they’re talking about? When things were more laid back and carefree and people could just be. Anyways, we’re not that naïve to believe the trip can be exactly as it was back then. But when it comes down to it: it’s us and the road. It’s unexplored territory and leaving everything else behind. It’s adventure. It’s having a plan, but not really having a plan at all, just going, just doing it, just seeing what happens. That’s the whole idea. That’s exactly what I wanted, and after like two years of full out planning, hopefully it’ll be what we get.
So, yeah. That’s when it started.

And now it’s like starting starting. I left this morning for my first leg of the trip, to see my wonderful girlfriend and her family, and then some peeps in Peoria. I’ll meet Jana and Dad in St. Louis on April 9th, then run the marathon, then the OFFICIAL start on the 11th. 

And as I was leaving Evansville, I got that feeling I always get, just the need to say goodbye again. You’d think I’ve left enough that I wouldn’t get that feeling anymore. But as I pulled away, Wilco was playing, which was oddly appropriate, and the sun was bright, and there were actually birds singing (no joke) and it all seemed right. This is going to be great.