Cracks in the Concrete: A Motorcycle Odyssey Through Modern America

A lot of you have given me interesting suggestions on jobs I could try after I'm done with trip. Others have suggested it might be fun to take bets on where I might put down some roots after the trip ends. To that end, I've created a polls page where you can share your ideas and see what other people are thinking. You can access this page from the blog menu or from this link . 

Greetings from Pittsburgh, where I’m on extended Thanksgiving break. You might think with all this time off the bike I’d catch up on the blog. You’d be wrong to think that. I really have no excuse and am now officially 2 months behind. Somehow this feels fitting for my South Bend post as I spent the vast majority of college chronically behind on my school work.   My first stop in Indiana was Indiana Dunes National Park. While this tract of land had not yet received national park status while I was in college, it was already a popular day trip destination for Notre Dame students as it is less than an hour from campus. I never made it there as a student though and regretted that, so I was excited to finally see what all the hype was about on this motorcycle trip.   At Indiana Dunes, I immediately met with confusion, as I discovered there is a state park of the same name immediately adjacent to the national park, and was frustrated to find the state park charged its own...

​I officially crossed the 10,000 motorcycle miles traveled on this trip mark today (total is much greater than that if you include foot travel, car, bus, train, and plane). It felt fitting that it happened on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  25 states (and DC) down, 23 (or maybe 25 - we’ll see) to go. In many ways, 10,000 miles, 25 states, and (almost) 7 months since departure feels like a lot. In other ways - such as when I look at what still lies ahead -  it feels like I’ve barely begun. This journey has been much different than what I envisioned it would be when I started it on May 1, but it’s certainly been a blessing and a decision I’d repeat if given the chance to. 

Greetings from Sykesville, MD, where I'm officially well over a month behind on blog posts. Maybe someday I'll catch up... In Chicago, I stayed with my old college roommate Matt, his wife Emma, and their 22 month old son Francis.   Matt, Emma, and I, featuring a block of parmesan cheese. Matt and Emma are big cheese people - some might even argue that Emma's family is the first family in cheese. Francis doing his best baby Yoda impression in one of Emma's old sweaters. Over the past few months, Matt and Emma have enjoyed seeing Francis develop a sense of humor and outlandish facial expressions. So far, the consensus seems to be that he's more like Emma than Matt so far. Francis's favorite word is agua and he's a big fan of bikes.  Matt, Emma, and Francis recently moved back to the Midwest after 6 years in the Bay Area, where Matt completed his PhD.  Matt is originally from the northern Chicago suburbs. He recently started a new job as an economics professor ...