41/300: What is the best road trip or vacation you have ever taken? Who was there? Where did you go? What did you see along the way?

it was just two of us. and a red Dodge.

we filled it up, right up. probably too full, but space was more important than mileage.

we made sure to set the icon on the GPS to an x-wing rather than a car because the car was boring. i don’t remember spending too much time worrying about snacks, but we probably did. it’s an essential component of any good road trip.

we went from practically one side of Canada to almost the other. via America. Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Montana. we listened to Eminem when we drove past Detroit because we saw a sign for 8 Mile. it seemed like the right thing to do. i think we listened to Sufjan Stevens as we skirted the windy city. again: the right thing to do.

it wasn’t particularly exciting, especially in North Dakota. the only interesting part of that state was the sign for Fargo. otherwise you just pointed your wheels west and go.

and go.

and go.

and we went. there was a beautiful national park in Montana named after some president and we could see the mountains in the distance. there were also the saddest towns. remnants of a flourishing midwest that’s been a distant memory for awhile now.

i had forgotten that parts of America are dying. generation by generation the stores close, the flow of visitors becomes a trickle. these quintessential pieces of americana are on their final exhale and it feels like no one notices. we did, but only for the time it took us to fill up our gas tank.

each night of the trip we watched an episode of Game of Thrones and drank a bottle or two of local beer, if we could find it. we had Taco Time one night and it brought on some intense waves of nostalgia. it tasted better than the hotel breakfasts we choked through every morning. but choke through we did because it was part of the experience.

the experience, man.

that’s why it was such a good road trip. we were two guys in our twenties driving across the country with a car that was too full, a gas tank that was never full enough, and a music selection that was just right.

that’s the dream, isn’t it? we lived it. and it was grand.