The money has been made, the car’s been tuned, the words of Hunter S. Thompson, Karouac, and Steinbeck are fresh in the mind, and the applicable portions of “Worst Case Scenario’s Survival Handbook” have been duly memorized. The florescent orange line traces the highways, byways, back ways, and sideways of America’s roadways creating a big, odd shaped, jagged-edged loop, circumnavigating North America with no real beginning or end, just a whole lot of in-between. A geographical “connect-the-dots,” if you will, between metropolises, museums, monuments, mountains, music, national parks, ballparks, Chan Ho Parks, battlefields, landmarks, coastlines, bars, restaurants, diners, and friends.

Approximately: 10,716 miles in 60+ days, consuming 383 gallons of gas, while touching 36 states, and eating a hell of a lot of barbeque and pie.

In the next two months I will see the sun set over the Rockies and rise across the Atlantic. I’ll tread the battlefields of the Civil War in Georgia and stroll the streets of the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham. I’ll boogie with the King in Graceland and Walk the Line with Cash at Sun Studios in Memphis. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, Experience Music Project in Seattle. The Windy City, The Big Apple, The Big Easy, Bean-town, The Mile High City, The City That Never Sleeps, The City of Angeles, The City of Brotherly Love, Music City, Motown.

The things I see, the people I meet, the places I go, the music I listen too, the hurricanes I run from, the beaches I lie on, the street I walk and the food I eat make up this trip. There is me and the road and a whole lot of country to look at. Well, I’m gone.