THE LAST FIVE ...

Closing up shop
- Wednesday, Aug. 02, 2006

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- Wednesday, May 17, 2006

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- Friday, April 21, 2006

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- Wednesday, March 1, 2006

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101 in 1001
American Road Trip, 1998


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Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2003 - 9:20 p.m.

The end of the road


Whitefield to Little Silver

So I jumped ahead on my previous road entry, not realizing that I did indeed touch upon my visits to Massachusetts and Maine. Huh.

The thing that remains in my mind about my cross-country odyssey of 1998 -- both then and now -- is the end. The only deadline I set for myself was to be in Chicago by the beginning of August, and I made it on the 2nd. I don't even know why I put that date and that location together. My only obligation (other than eventually finding myself a job) was the Notre Dame-Michigan football game September 5th ... which I ended up driving to from New Jersey.

But the way it worked out, I made it to Maine to visit family with family and then got home on the 19th, five years ago today. It was six weeks and I came off the road with a lot left unexplored, with a lot left I would have loved to do. But I was also weary of that life, of the adventure. It was another big step in Growing Up, another logical step to take after college, and I leapt. I was ready for a break, a chance to relax and figure out what to do next with myself. While I headed home, Matt continued on his post-collegiate travels. While I was on the road for six weeks, Matt took off for six months. He hit all 49 North American states, reaching Alaska before Thanksgiving, the deadline he'd set for himself in order to hit all 50 states within a year. I envied him to some extent, but where my trip was funded by graduation gifts, his was funded by his inheritance from his father's death two years earlier. At least, that's what I and some of our friends suspected; we never asked him directly how he was able to put off work as much as he did.

I certainly could have traveled more, and there's barely a day goes by where I don't dream of cruising down some far-off, remote road, but that day will come again.

Five years ago, I visited all these places, all these states partly to discover them for myself and, in the back of my mind I think, to scout them out for future returns. With someone. I think it's be particularly fun to share a cabin at the North Rim with someone someday.

The best part is, five years later, I now know who that's going to be.

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