Good food is like bad relationships: it all eventually turns to shit.

Not to make a metaphor out of everything, but my problem with this trip is my problem with this life: I want every possible future, so I distrust any choice that limits me to just one.

Newbie tip: Chili and enchilada casserole are two good things to make and freeze for your RV adventure, but you don’t necessarily want to serve them at the same meal.

I felt a kinship to this guy. I, too, had always felt that without the trappings of relationships — the weight of accountability to someone else — I could do much more. Yet, there I was, afraid to be by myself for two weeks on a chicken run to the fray of a new life unknown. Riding shotgun was a guy who also preferred solitude but would still be stuck on a Great Falls road if it weren’t for other people offering up a little bit of their company.

I could have made the drive inside of two days had I been alone. But I had the wife and the dog, and when you’re driving the 1,164 miles between Chicago and Austin, Texas with souls on board other than your own, it’s best to make pit stops along the way.

Springfield. Kate was unimpressed with Lincoln’s home. “It looks too nice for being that old,” she said.

“You would have been even more unimpressed if they’d just let nature take its course for these past 152 years,” I told her.