Terminus: Weeks 48 and 49
Greetings from Tarpon Springs, northwest of Tampa on Florida’s gulf coast. Apologies for the utter and complete lateness of this blog. Since departing Atlanta, the subject of this blog, we’ve been in Florida, which has had a bit going on lately, if you haven’t heard. More on that to come, someday. Suffice to say, it puts everything we did and are doing in a different perspective.
The title for this blog actually occurred to me long before we even arrived in Atlanta. Terminus was what many people referred to the city as in its early history since it only existed because of its location at the end of the Western & Atlantic railroad line. Atlanta is, of course, our terminus as well. Just shy of one year on the road, we wrapped up our journey with two weeks here – and they were a doozy.
Continue reading “Terminus: Weeks 48 and 49”Mid-South Madness: Weeks 46 and 47
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.
Living Better In Walton’s World: Weeks 44 and 45
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.
Goin’ Mobile: Week 16
Greetings – or should I say, howdy? We have arrived in a rainy and chilly Lone Star state, our home for the next five weeks – first, here in Austin, and then Alpine, in the heart of West Texas. Our drive here Sunday was a fairly grueling one of about ten hours, leading Morgan and me to conclude that Texas is simply too big, and something needs to be done about it.
Don’t You Forget About Me: Week 15
Greetings from Mobile, Alabama – a city we’ve now passed through three times and are finally getting to see. I’d never been to Alabama before, so I’m excited to explore a brand new state in the week we have here before we’re Texas-bound. But for all intents and purposes, we’ve been in a fairly uncharted portion of the map as far as Florida goes – the Forgotten Coast of the panhandle.
There’s No Place Like Home For The Flor-idays: Weeks 13 & 14
Hello and happy 2022 to our fine readers. We hope you’ve recovered from your New Year’s celebrations and have already completed the process of giving up on your resolutions. Since we left you, we’ve been largely “off the road” – until Sunday, when we packed up Linus and the rest of our lives and headed here, to Port St. Joe, on Florida’s Forgotten Coast.
Au Revoir and Bon Voyage: Weeks 11 & 12
Greetings and Happy Holidays to our loyal readers. Last week, we bid au revoir to New Orleans. And it is au revoir – not adieu. We will be back, even if New Orleans isn’t in our long-term plans. In fact, we’ll be sure to be back just a few months from now, for the wedding of some very good friends. We’ve won the war against The Party, even if it had some victories in battles along the way.
I Know Where I Got My Shoes: Week 10
Hello again from New Orleans, where we have quickly evolved to deal with the new joys and hazards of our environment.
I can tell how much of a tourist I look like on any given day by the number of guys on the street who ask me some variation of, “hey, I bet you I can tell you where you got your shoes.” The answer is, of course, “on your feet” or “on XYZ street (wherever you’re currently standing.) This is then followed up by a request for money, or in some cases, extended harassment when money isn’t turned over. If I’m carrying my bright blue day pack, or sipping on a novelty drink, I’ll get asked. If I’m walking briskly enough, most people seem to assume I know what I’m doing and where I’m going, and leave me alone. This same phenomenon results in me getting asked for lots of directions, something I’ve given up on doing after realizing I may have sent someone slightly astray. Hope you found that laundromat, sir.
Continue reading “I Know Where I Got My Shoes: Week 10”We’ll Sleep When We’re Dead: Week 9
Greetings from the Big Easy as we enter our second week in this very, very unique place. There are fewer than 20 cities or districts in the United States where drinking on the street is legal. Without planning on it, we visited two in a row, and we’ll see another in January. It’s been quite a two-month stretch since we left D.C., a city I’d lived in so long I didn’t even realize how uptight it was.
But this was a busy week even by our new standards.
Continue reading “We’ll Sleep When We’re Dead: Week 9”Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler!: Week 8
Greetings, dear readers, and hello from Crescent City. When we last left you, we were departing Tybee Island, our home since late October. I’m proud to report we may be some of the few people who come to New Orleans and find alcohol laws that are more restrictive than the place they came from. Nevertheless, we persevere.
