Travels with Quincy: Roads Scholar

We're home!

And I think the cats missed us!


They're thrilled. I swear.

Well, okay, we missed them, anyway.

Being on the road for the entire month of January was thrilling, fun, exhausting and awesome. We drove 6,340 miles! We sucked crawfish heads! We experienced Carhenge! We saw an actual tumbleweed.


This is just an approximation... We took back roads here and there that aren't on this map.

We took a big step back from our lives. Just in that, we gained perspective that was nothing short of revelatory.

What I Learned on My Month-Long Road Trip

1. Texas is big. Like, really really big. Incomprehensible large and unending. 


West Texas: A whole lotta this.


2. Being a nomad is fantastic but only if you have a solid home to return to. And you guys, I really want to create a homey home that will be my base of operations. I know it seems like common sense, but I don't often operate in a sensical fashion, so I've got homewares in my parents' basement, clothes at Quincy's and furniture at a friend's. It's time to bring all this meaningless junk together and build something meaningful with it.
3. Speaking of meaningless junk, I've got too much of it. I lived out of a suitcase for a month. Thirty-one days, one suitcase, and I probably only needed 75 percent of the stuff I lugged around. I'm guessing that it's not a surprise to anyone, but I've got mountains of apparel and it's apparent that it's only weighing me down. It's time for a real possession purge, people. Anybody want to shop my closet?


And we did a whole lotta this.


4. I'm not sure if it was seeing the plains states firsthand, or the evening we spent watching Ken Burns' PBS documentary The West, but we gained a real and vivid understanding of the terrible deeds done to native Americans during the westward expansion. Yeah, I knew it was bad, but now I somehow feel the tragedy to a greater degree.
5. Cheddar crackers with peanut butter filling are the best snack in the history of the world.
6. I'm a big fan of the Bluegrass State and the Queen City, but before we left, I'd begun to think that maybe it's time to live somewhere else. Now, I'm not so sure. I love travel and I adore adventure but between you and me, no spot in the country spoke to my soul in a way that made me want to relocate. 

Somewhere in South Dakota

I would like to add that we met/stayed with approx. 928 wonderful people along our way, and I'm so grateful to all y'all.

Here's to an adventurous year!