Ghosts at the Weatherford

Like clockwork, on day four of my road trip I hit my cranky existential crisis. It didn't help that for this trip, day four overlapped with my birthday, which always makes me a little bit cranky. So double crankiness. I had a wonderful visit with two parts of the family that I never get to...

Borderlines

On my last road trip, just over 10 years ago now, I noticed a surprising thing when I crossed state lines. Things changed. I'd always assumed these borders were largely arbitrary, formed by politics and history and maybe a river here or there. Nope. I found that each of the states had distinct landscapes and...

Ghosts, and Adventure

My spirit tour continues... To sum up, here's my timeline so far: Friday the 13th: - Hop on Spirit Air to Dallas, connecting (belatedly) to Missouri, to pick up the car. Sunday, 15th: - Picher, OK: a ghost mining town and Superfund site, largely evacuated in 2010. - Geocaching in cemeteries Monday, 16th: - Texola,...

Digital Tools

Before I got a smartphone - and this was embarrassingly not long ago, like less than a full year back now - I railed constantly against google maps and online tools for travel. Yes, they mean you'll never get lost again. But you'll never get lost again. That's heartbreaking. I love getting lost. On my...

You Are At Terminal E

“Hello. Hello? Hello! Hello! …. Hello?” The empty baggage carousel of an international airport is a strange place to hang out and listen to “Welcome to Night Vale” podcasts. And yet, it’s somehow also the most perfect place in the world to do so. A car pulled up about twenty minutes ago. It’s still sitting there, its...