excuse me -- can you tell me where i am?

i told myself i would set up an experimental blog, one designed specifically for a road trip that begins, unofficially, this coming saturday morning, july 1, when hank and i fly out to boston and arrive just in time to attend our friend melanie's going away party. from boston, hank, melanie, and i will drive our way back to houston, where melanie will make her new home. we have plans to stop in north adams, niagara, syracuse, columbus, louisville, nashville, memphis, and new orleans. ideally, the blog will be there for me to record our adventures, let friends know of our whereabouts, as well as to reflect on the american landscape and its people as we travel into and through some of the nation's most (un)popular cities and states.

last year, hank and i decided to get out of houston and we chose lawrence, kansas as our destination. we packed a cooler, some clothes, a tent, and other camping gear, and headed north through archer city, TX, oklahoma city, and up through kansas until we found a wiccan camping ground near lawrence, where we spent a couple of nights in a little tiny wood cabin and watched fireworks on july 4th. lawrence was fascinating, complete with an anarchist bookstore and historical markers that described some of the most committed organizing around the abolition of slavery as well as some of its bloodiest battles. we then headed out to kansas city, and down into hot springs, arkansas, stopping for a couple of nights at the largest men's camp in north america. when we told people that we spent out summer vacation in oklahoma, kansas, and arkansas, it generated a lot of surprise and disbelief, and even moreso when we gushed about our experiences. for this reason, i cannot wait to get on the road, this year with melanie in tow, and see what's going on in, for example, buffalo, NY.