Ghosts of the Past

I'm long overdue for a wrap-up of my ghost trip. I've been putting it off for some reason. It's not that I've been waiting on photos - I had those processed and uploaded the day after I made it home. Not waiting for mental processing, either - I do all my thinking on the road, and haven't really...

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...

An Explanation for my Disappearance

I have disappeared on many of you. I promise, it's not because you had a baby. (Even though you're right, I don't really care for babies.) Or because you moved. Or because you have a new girlfriend/boyfriend/wife. I am broke. I just entered the final year of a massive debt repayment plan. Most of y'all are...

Visionary

I shoulda been writing this morning, but I was dreaming of roadtripping instead...

#YesAllWhiteWomen

Two separate but oddly similar issues have been converging for me recently. The whole #YesAllWomen and #NotAllMen internet storm has been amazing to watch, though I haven't had much to add to the conversation. I've loved seeing my friends share their stories, and seeing people struggle (and often succeed) to explain exactly why #YesAllWomen is important....

Memories of Travel

I've become a bit afraid of this blog. Blogs have become places for a writer make her mark, places to gain a following. Places where your unselfconscious account of your adventures in coupon-clipping as a broke-ass rehab-graduate gains you a fan base that you never, in your wildest Pollyanna dreams, could have imagined. Phlbt. I forgot why...