“Dearest Fear: Creativity and I are about to go on a road trip together. I understand you’ll be joining us, because you always do.”

–Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic

I feel like it’s about time I explore the process of moving at a natural pace, land bound, where I go by things slowly enough that I theoretically have to look at all of them. Don’t get me wrong, I love flying. I could probably spend long consecutive periods of my life in airports and on planes before I gave up. Including club lounges, it would only be that much longer. There’s something too fast, though, about chasing the sun and actually keeping up with it, or ending up on the opposite side of the world all of a sudden. What country am I in? What season is it? Why am I wearing shorts? Why is this Starbucks selling Virginia state mugs? That seems absurd!
Also, David Huntsberger once told me (and 100,000 other Professor Blastoff listeners) that studies have shown that hamsters with jet lag incur brain damage. I’m about as big as 100 hamsters, but I’ve also had jet lag about 100 times, so there’s at least a little bit of damage explained. Granted, in the study, results were reduced with Viagara. Unfortunately, I’m not exactly Viagara’s number one customer at the moment. I actually can’t even remember the last time I bought it. Do you think I could get a prescription filled for suffering from perma-jet lag and being 100 times bigger than a hamster?
Anyway, short story long, the month of July this year marked the inaugural west coast loop of four months of intermittent road travel for me and my van/companion (compvanion?), Benjamin Button, aka Benji, aka the Millennial Falcon. In mid August, we’ll leave to take on the daunting other half of the country. I’ll be sure to keep you updated so can you all stop asking me questions like, “When is the road trip happening?”