Thunder Road

 

There's a great saying from the film Back to the Future, in which Dr. Emmett Brown says to a baffled Marty McFly, "Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads!"

I traveled a lot of roads in the summer of 2010: more than 6,000 miles worth. Without Dr. Brown's time travel capabilities, I did need the roads to take me where I wanted to go. 

But I'm convinced I did catch a few moments where the lines between the past and the present blurred: standing on the summit of the Cahokia Mounds in the heat of the late afternoon sunshine; reading letters exchanged over a century ago between two Texas lovers; walking through the long grass that covers the hills of the Little Bighorn battlefield; catching Al Swearengen's name in documents held at the South Dakota state archives.

In the years since, I've covered ground in other ways - gotten married, changed "day jobs," moved homes, and continued to write.

I never expected this blog to last more than a few weeks, let alone four years. If this is your first visit here, I encourage you to visit the entries from 2010, starting with the oldest ones first, to get a taste of the original trip. If you like those, the 2011 posts chronicle my experiences on a cattle drive in Nevada. But now, in my final post, I've decided its time to close shop here, and move into other projects.

I've had ideas germinating that haven't had the chance to develop further, and I need to take some time to see where those paths take me.

Thanks for dropping in! It's been a good ride.