My one month road trip extravaganza has come to a close.
I logged about 5,000 miles in the car — with a handful of airplane flights thrown in for good measure. I gave about a dozen speeches (audio clips will be posted later). I met a few dozen friends / blog readers. Listened to a couple audiobooks (Pleasure of My Company by Steven Martin and The Road by Cormac McCarthy). Visited Louisiana, North Carolina, Texas, Wisconsin, and others for the first time.
This country is so big and diverse. Particularly for those of us who hug the interstates, it’s often hard to fully appreciate all the nooks and crannies. But I did my best. And while there still is much exploration to be done — in the South, especially — I feel good about all that I saw. Side of the road diners, big local universities, run down antique shops.
Road trips are just a lot of fun.
It’s good to be back in San Francisco, though, after four months away. I’m rooted here. It was good to hear all the Chinese being spoken on the subway to the Giants game last night. It was good to see the psycho homeless people wandering down Haight street. It was good to see the SF Bay water sparkle from atop the many hills. Most important, it was good to cheer on the Golden State Warriors at Pac Bell Park last night — thugged out G’s from the hood standing next to tech industry geeks, all united in a single, noble cause.
Hard for me to think of a better audio book to listen to on a roadtrip than The Pleasure of My Company with the road trip in it and all…
Good to have you back in SF bud.
i love psycho homeless people from haight street too…especially the ones outside McDs when we get mcflurries after pro-am games…fuckin love that city
What did you do in Milwaukee? Thoughts? I’ve living in Barcelona now, but was born and raised in MKE.
Just a quick meeting. It was a nice town. Didn’t explore too much. The historic district is pretty.
“I logged about 5,000 miles in the car…”
Ben, are there any trains in the USA?
There are, but not very many and they mostly suck.
When Eisenhower was president he tore up the railroads and built freeways.
We’ve never recovered.