Moving Is The Closest Thing To Being Free
Hello from the final stop on our now nearly-completed cross-country journey, Atlanta, Georgia. We’ve been back in the south in earnest for a few weeks now, in some ways since Rogers. But our most recent stop before this one made it clear – Memphis, Tennessee.
Hello again from yet another state, as we hurtle full-speed back toward the east coast. We’re here in Memphis, Tennessee, on the right side of the Mississippi River for the first time since January. For lack of a better term, we’re back in the real world here. Because to be quite honest, two weeks in Northwest Arkansas feels a bit like a parallel universe, or one of those secret societies living in the mountains, isolated from the rest of the world, or maybe time travel.
Hello again faithful readers, as we check in from Rogers, Arkansas. “Where?” you ask? Or maybe “Why?” We’ll answer both of those a few weeks hence, but suffice to say this was a deliberate stop and not another car-related stranding.
This blog is instead about Oooooooooooooooooooooooklahoma, where the wind does, in fact, come sweeping down the plain – though not often or strong enough, and sometimes with the heat of a clothes dryer exhaust vent. We endured basically Vegas or West Texas heat for our entire two weeks there, without the benefits of Vegas gambling or West Texas scenery.
This is, essentially, my only complaint about our time in Oklahoma. Forgive me if I gush like an Osage oil well, but my expectations have been absolutely blown away in just about every way – excellent food, great museums and attractions, a cool bar scene, and a general amount of underrated weirdness for a state that quite literally no one has ever told me I should visit.
Continue reading “Where The Wind Comes Sweepin’ Down The Plain: Weeks 42 and 43”Greetings to our loyal readers who’ve followed us more than 15,000 miles across this great country and now, most of the way back. We’ve arrived at our new digs in Oklahoma City, in a state that no one can quite agree if it’s part of the south, the midwest, or the plains states. But we’ll leave that for a future blog. This one is firmly set in the mountains – or rather, along the edge of them.
Hello and welcome to yet another chapter of our Great Swing Back East. We’re now fully east of the Rockies for the first time since February, and it almost brings a tear to my eye to report we probably only have another 5-10 blogs before our journey concludes.
When we left you, we were fleeing Mormon Country as fast as our newly purchased wheels could carry us. Our destination was to the northeast, the Cowboy State – Wyoming.
Continue reading “Don’t Fence Me In: Weeks 38 and 39”Greetings from Wyoming, as the Great Swing Back East continues, Cowboy-edition. When you last heard from us, we were wrapping up our time in Sin City and nursing what was essentially a two week hangover mixed with mild dehydration.
The time since our last post did not go as smoothly as it could have, to say the least, which forced us to miss quite a bit of our week in our last stop, Salt Lake City, Utah. Things had gone too smoothly thus far on our trip, and we were due for something like this.
Continue reading “Misadventures in Mormon Country: Week 37”Hello to all our loyal readers – here is proof of life that we have survived our two weeks in Las Vegas, and at least haven’t lost so much money that I’ve needed to pawn my computer.
The title of this post comes succinct piece of wisdom delivered by a slightly buzzed Morgan on our first night here, marveling at the chaos of the Strip. After all, we’d just spent a week in a town where the excitement was limited to minor league baseball and watching a semi-regular flow of people hotboxing cars down the street from our Airbnb.
Continue reading “The Best and Worst Place in the World: Weeks 35 and 36”Hello from the recently reunited Nick and Morgan, as we undertake yet another New Development. That’s right, the Great Swing Back East has begun, as I write to you from Sin City itself, Las Vegas, Nevada.
It’s a fairly absurd Vibe Shift™ from our most recent stop, Fresno, California.
Continue reading “Fres-slow: Weeks 33 & 34”Hello with a brief update from Fresno, a giant shrug of a city near some incredibly gorgeous spots that you’ll hear more about next week in a post recapping our two weeks here.
Today, I’m putting up a short bonus post with a heads-up on our route over the next few weeks and months. I mentioned briefly last week that we’ve begun the Great Swing Back East, and that is, in fact, the case. You’ve got questions? We’ve got answers.
Continue reading “How Do You Solve A Problem Like Nevada? A Route Update Q&A”Hello from our latest (but not greatest) stop of Fresno, California – a city I mostly know from the Fresno chile, often used in Bon Appetit recipes but seemingly never available at the supermarket (I use serranos instead).
I spent the previous week, however, in a much better known and beloved place – California’s Central Coast and Big Sur.
Continue reading “To Sur, With Love: Week 32”