1998

• The Mac Is Not a Typewriter, Robin Williams
• Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis
• Ball Four, Jim Bouton

1999

• Stats Minor League Handbook 2000, Bill James
• Stats Major League Handbook 2000, Bill James
• Best American Short Stories 1999, Amy Tan (ed.)
• A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. LeGuin
• Scream, Dracula, Scream, Rocket from the Crypt (CD)
• Permission Marketing, Seth Godin
• Anaconda (VHS Movie)
• 1999 Minor League Scouting Notebook, John Sickels
• You’ve Come a Long Way Baby, Fatboy Slim (CD)
• Dr. Axelrod’s Mini-Atlas of Freshwater Aquarium Fishes, Dr. Herbert Axelrod

2000

• The Innovator’s Dilemma, Clayton Cristiansen
• Please Understand Me: Character and Temperament Types, David Keirsey
• Enema of the State, Blink 182

2001

• The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint, Brady Udall
• Philips EXP103 eXpanium Portable MP3-CD Player with 45-Second Anti-Skip and Car Kit
• Perl for Dummies, Paul Hoffman
• The Associated Press Style Book and Briefing on Media Law, Norm Goldstein (ed.)
• Don’t Make Me Think! A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, Steven Krug.
• Lord of the Flies, William Golding
• The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury

2002

• The Complete Guide to Contracting Your Home, Kent Lester
• The Simpsons – Complete Second Season (DVD)
• Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? (DVD)
• On the Waterfront (DVD)
• Building Wealth: The New Rules for Individuals, Companies, and Nations in a Knowledge-Based Economy, Lester C. Thurow

2003

• The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the CIA, Allan Swenson
• Inside the CIA, Ronald Kesler
• Greatest Hits, 1991-2001, Barenaked Ladies (CD)

2004

• The Mental Game of Baseball: A Guide to Peak Performance, H. A. Dorfman
• Charley Lau’s Laws on Hitting, Charley Lau

2005

• Etymotic Research ER6i Isolator Earphones
• Thirsty, M.T. Anderson
• Angle of Repose, Wallace Stegner
• Stranger Things Happen, Kelly Link
• Post Office, Charles Bukowski
• Aristoi, Walter Jon Williams
• A Place So Foreign and Eight More, Corey Doctorow
• The Snow Queen, Joan Vinge
• Eastern Standard Tribe, Corey Doctorow
• Life, Gwyneth Jones
• Olympic Games, Leslie What

2006

• Creating Short Fiction: The Classic Guide to Writing Short Fiction, Damon Knight
• The Year’s Best Science Fiction: 22nd Annual Collection, Gardner Dozois (ed.)
• D’Aulaire’s Book of Greek Myths, Ingri D’Aulaire
• The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, Robert Heinlein
• I, Claudius, Robert Graves
• Beginnings, Middles, and Ends, Nancy Kress
• Dynamic Characters: How to Create Personalities That Keep Readers Captivated, Nancy Kress
• Macally USB Slim Keyboard – ICEKEY
• The Field Guide (Spiderwick Chronicles, Book 1), Holly Black
• On the Road, Jack Kerouac
• New York Doll (DVD)

2007 (a representative sample)

• Free Orange County: The Ultimate Free Fun Guide to the California Riviera, Robert Stock
• Lonely Planet Los Angeles and Southern California, Andrea Schute-Peevers
• iRobot Roomba 4220 Discovery SE Intelligent Floorvac Vacuuming Robot, Grey
• The Movies (Mac) (Video Game)
• The Road, Cormac McCarthy
• Kid A, Radiohead (CD)
• Given Up for Dead: America’s Heroic Stand at Wake Island, Bill Sloan
• FUBAR F—ed Up Beyond All Recognition: Soldier Slang of World War II, Gordon Rottman
• Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut
• Making the Corps, Thomas Ricks
• Last Chapter, Ernie Pyle
• Up Front, Bill Mauldin
• Brave Men, Ernie Pyle
• Guidebook for Marines, Leatherneck Association
• World War II Jungle Warfare Tactics, Stephen Bull
• The World Within War: America’s Combat Experience in World War II, Gerald Linderman
• With the Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa, Eugene Sledge
• Stay Off the Skyline: The Sixth Marine Division on Okinawa, An Oral History, Laura Homan Lacey
• Guadalcanal: Starvation Island, Eric Hammel
• Peleliu 1944: The Forgotten Corner of Hell, Gordon Rottman
• The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook: Kauai Revealed, Andrew Doughty
• Kauai Trailblazer: Where to Hike, Snorkel, Bike, Paddle, Surf, Jerry Sprout
• US Marine Corps Scout/Sniper Training Manual
• Solomon Islands Map
• Moon Handbooks South Pacific, David Stanley
• On the Canal, Ore J. Marion
• No Bended Knee: The Battle for Guadalcanal, Merrill B. Twining
• Into the Valley: Marines at Guadalcanal, John Hersey
• Guadalcanal Diary, Richard Tregaskis
• The Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer

That was about half of the war-related books I bought from Amazon in ’07.

2008 (selections)

• Polar Insulated Water Bottle (24-Ounce, White)
• Stearns SunShower 4.0 with Pocket and 3-4 showers (Capacity- 4 gallons)
• Coleman SportCat Perfectemp Catalytic Propane Heater with Instastart Technology
• From Here to Eternity, James Jones
• Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Video Game)
• Deliverance, James Dickey
• Wii
• 4x Hasbro Nerf N-Strike Firefly REV-8
• Football Manager 2009 (PC / Intel Mac) (Video Game)
• Fallout 3 (XBox 360) (Video Game)
• Slumberjack Big Timber 10F Long Right Sleeping Bag
• Intex Pillow Rest Twin Airbed with Built-in Electric Pump
• Samsung Touch of Color T260HD 26-Inch LCD HDTV Monitor
• Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 G ED-IF AF-S VR DX Zoom-Nikkor Lens
• (Man, you can sure tell what years I was gainfully employed — Toshiba, Amazon thanks you!)
• The Heritage of World Civilizations: Combined Brief Edition, Albert Craig et al.
• Economic Policy Beyond the Headlines, George Schultz
• The American Age: United States Foreign Policy at Home and Abroad 1750 to the Present, Walter La Feber
• Realities of Foreign Service Life, Patricia Linderman
• Basic Economics, Thomas Sowell
• A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East, David Fromkin
• Agents of Innocence, David Ignatius
• Costa Rica (Country Guide), Mara Vorhees
• Living Abroad in Costa Rica, Erin Van Rheenen
• The Lives of Others (DVD)
• Karting: Everything You Need to Know, Memo Gidley
• Pidgin: The Languages of Oceania, Trevor Balzer
• Canon ZR800 MiniDV Camcorder with 35x Optical Zoom
• Advanced Elements BackBone – For AdvancedFrame1
• Substance, Joy Division (CD)
• Logitech Harmony H-659 Advanced Universal Remote Control (Black)
• Rand McNally 2008 Road Atlas and Travel Guide: United States/Canada/Mexico
• Property Management for Dummies, Robert Griswold
• Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy

2009 (selections)

• The Most Scenic Drives in America: 120 Spectacular Road Trips, Readers Digest
• Montrail Enduro-Sole LP (Black)
• Kaplan GMAT 800, 2005/06
• NHL 09 (XBox 360) (Video Game)
• Slumberjack Standard Camp Pillow
• Contour Elliptic Trekking Poles by Black Diamond
• Full-Size Aluminum Folding Portable Chair
• Folding GI Aluminum Cot -Aircraft-Aluminum Construction-3 Years Warranty-Top Of The Line Construction-Reinforced Aluminum Frame-400 lbs. Max Weight Ca
• FitDeck Bodyweight & Instructional DVD
• Kindle 2
• The Official Guide for GMAT Review, 11th Edition, Graduate Management Admission Council
• National Geographic Guide to the National Parks of the United States
• Xantrex Technologies 851-0400 XPower Plus 400-Watt Inverter
• Oahu Revealed: The Ultimate Guide to Honolulu, Waikiki and Beyond, Andrew Doughty
• Fallout (Mac) (Video Game)

2010 (selections)

• Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Sixth Edition
• Mastering the Dynamics of Innovation, James Utterback
• Utilitarianism, John Stuart Mill
• Information Ethics: Privacy, Policy, and Power, Adam Moore (ed.)
• Brother HL-2170W 23ppm Laser Printer with Wireless and Wired Network Interfaces
• How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie
• Fallout: New Vegas (XBox 360)
• The Makings of a Hard Rock Miner, Stephen Voynick
• Design and Analysis: A Researcher’s Handbook, Geoffrey Keppel
• Framing the Domains of IT Management, Robert Zmud (ed.)
• Writing the Doctoral Dissertation, Gordon Davis
• All the Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy
• Nordic Ware Microwave Eggs ‘n Muffin Breakfast Pan
• Iwo Jima 32 Piece set by BMC Toys
• Hercules XPS 2.0 30 2.0 Multimedia Speakers (Black)
• Day and Overnight Hikes in West Virginia’s Monongahela National Forest, Johnny Molloy
• Western Digital WD Elements 1 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive
• Complete Tiling (Stanley Complete)
• Complete Wiring (Stanley Complete)
• Complete Baths (Stanley Complete)
• Rubbermaid 3H89 Configurations 4-to-8-Foot Deluxe Custom Closet Kit, Titanium
• The Milepost 2010: Alaska Travel Planner
• Sierra Designs Light Year 1 One-Person Ultralight Tent
• Hiking from Here to Wow: Utah Canyon Country, Kathy Copeland
• Mining the Sky: Untold Riches from the Asteroids, Comets, and Planets, John Lewis

Man. That’s basically every major event in my life coupled with my susceptibility to pop culture and overlaid with stuff I thought I might want to do. That’s definitely me since 1998.

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Labor Day last year.

Labor Day this year.

I miss that trip like I assume most people miss, like, people. I start getting choked up when I start flipping through my photos. Seriously.

Oh well. In memory of the events of last year, here’s an FAQ made up of a few questions I’ve been asked a lot and a much larger number that I’ve never been asked. I guess it’s more just a Q.

Q: What was your favorite place?

A: I understand why that seems like a good question, but it’s not. Seriously, think about it. I was on the road for 129 days, each of which included a very different experience from the one before. What set of criteria could be used to reasonably answer that question? I haven’t come up with one.

Q: What was the prettiest place then?

A: Seriously, that’s the same question. Going back through my photos, I think the Sierras were the most photogenic, but while I was there I don’t know that I felt I was in a prettier place than, say, the Hoh Rain Forest, Glacier, Pictured Rocks, Cathedral Canyon, or in its own way Manhattan.

Q: In which of the places you visited do you think you might want to live?

A: That one’s probably better, although it involves accessing information that had nothing to do with the trip, e.g., average tax rates. But whatever: the Nevada side of Tahoe, Western Oregon, the Spokane area, Western Montana, Northern Michigan, and South Carolina.

Q: After four-and-a-half months, weren’t you sick of it?

A: Not at all. If I could figure out a way to do that as a full-time gig without starving to death or running out of gas, I would absolutely do it. Aside from the fact that it was getting into mid-November and getting pretty cold for camping, I was very disappointed when it was over.

Q: What was the best part of it?

A: I think anyone who might have asked this one was hoping I’d name a state or a park or something, but, yeah, no. The best part of it was being almost entirely free from group social norming, while at the same time feeling like I was making legitimate, productive use of my time and energy.

Q: Do you think it would be as good if you did it again?

A: Probably not as good. One of the other great feelings I had on the trip was the constant feeling of discovery. Obviously I did not “discover” the Adirondacks or Pedernales Falls, but I’d never been there before, so it was all brand new. I imagine it wasn’t *quite* the same as Columbus “discovering” the “New World”, but I’m guessing my feelings were at least 80-percent of the way there. That said, I really enjoyed living out of my truck, traveling from place-to-place, and engaging in a wide range of activities that I couldn’t do while strapped to a desk and executive chair. I think those good parts would always be there for me and that they’d be enough to make re-engaging in that lifestyle a worthwhile endeavor.

Q: Wasn’t it hard to sleep/eat/shower?

A: Not really. After the first week sleeping in the truck, cooking over my JetBoil or Coleman stove, and looking for campgrounds with showers or a private site to set up my portable shower bladder was just normal. At first I felt a little deprived without running water, convenient lighting, or the ability to sit up in bed without hitting my head on the camper shell ceiling, but I got over that. In fact, after the first few nights, I generally slept as well or better on the trip than I did prior to it or have since.

Q: You had a very detailed itinerary. Did you ever feel like you’d over-planned?

A: Not once, no. I planned the exact right amount for me. If I’d done less planning, I would have done less and felt guilty about wasting opportunities. This was another one of my favorite parts of the trip — it was a great stoke to my ego to plan a detailed itinerary, packing list, and considerations for road life and then for that plan to work out exceptionally well.

Q: Is there anything you wish you would have done differently?

A: A more fuel-efficient vehicle would have been nice (although it would have to be large enough to sleep in still, which really limits the options and, from a cost perspective, running my pick-up with its crappy mileage was a more cost-effective solution than purchasing a purpose-bought vehicle). I also took some stuff I didn’t need (the generator never came in handy, I didn’t ever use the X-Box except so that I could say I did, and I could have easily done without my bicycle and inflatable kayak).

Q: Was four-and-a-half months the right amount of time to see all the lower 48 states?

A: Apart from the fact that I wished the trip had gone on longer, yes, that was a pretty good duration, although it also includes about seven days “off” so I could work on grad school applications as well as about seven additional days spent waiting for my transmission to get fixed. If I’d gone less than four months, I think I would have felt deprived to some degree.

Q: Did you visit everywhere you wanted to visit?

A: I visited everywhere I *planned* to visit. I would have liked to have gone to the Everglades and Florida Keys, but they were a long way out of my way and it was the wrong time of year for either location. I also woud have liked to have visited a few places in the mountains in Colorado and spent more time in Southern Utah, but, as earlier implied, it was getting too cold to comfortably camp in those locations.

Q: What did you learn about yourself on the trip?

A: I’m still parsing that one. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I was surprised at how rarely I wished there were other people around — I’d imagined that if I indulged my asocial tendencies to the degree planned on the trip, I’d eventually realize I needed people more than I thought I did; it didn’t turn out that way and while I was happy when I got to see friends and family along the way, I was hardly unhappy when I didn’t.

Q: What did you learn about the country?

A: It’s pretty. From a natural beauty standpoint, I don’t think there’s anything in any other country that’s “better” or “more worthwhile” than any given region in the US. I.e., from a natural beauty standpoint, I got as much out of visiting Michigan for three days as I did out of any three days in Fiji or New Zealand.

Q: What did you learn about people in the US?

A: They’re scared and like the security of groups. I think I always knew that and I think it’s possibly less prounounced in the US than it is in other parts of the world, but still, the trip kind of brought that home. There aren’t a lot of people who are willing to risk arriving at independent conclusions or taking independent actions based on objective considerations.

That’s been further hammered home after the trip. I’ve had numerous people tell me they would “love” to do something similar — but they never will, because doing a trip like this poses some social risk (family, job security, whatever). In what sense, then, would they “love” to do a trip like mine? I’ve come to accept that when people say they would “love” to do something, what they really mean is that if they had infinite time and resources and there were no possibility of social repercussions, they would consider doing it.

Moreso than ever after the trip, I think most people shouldn’t bother saying most of the things they say. Our species should either be more interesting or quieter.

Q: So you didn’t like the people?

A: Generally speaking, when conversations occurred, people were disarmingly friendly. This was considerably less true of old people in Oregon and more true of middle-aged and older single guys, who seemed to have a native understanding for what I was doing and why. Some of the regions that I’d thought would be the most stuck up (Vermont and Maine in particular) had, in fact, some of the most gracious and easy-to-interact-with people that I met. From a random-person-you-meet-on-the-street perspective, Americans are pretty cool.

Q: Where did people have the best accents?

A: The Maine accent was compelling, although I only understood about 80-percent of what the master practitioners were saying. I was also taken aback when I got to (inland) Virginia, heard some locals talking in a diner, and realized they weren’t faking it.

Q: Where was the best driving?

A: Aside from “anywhere where there were no cars”, the upper two-thirds of Michigan were excellent. The drivers there were generally fast, competent, and cooperative.

Q: Where was the worst driving?

A: The South. They dawdle on the road, stop and turn suddenly and without warning, and are wholly impolite when behind the wheel. They will not let you merge and have no compunctions about honking any time you seize the initiative due to their uncooperativeness.

Q: What part of the country felt the “most free”?

A: What an odd question; fortunately, I’ve considered it and have an answer. I was shocked to discover that the western states, from a number of perspectives, feel considerably more weighed down by Big Brother than eastern states. The most aggressive anti-driver messaging in the country is in Wyoming, where every road sign threatens you somehow (“if you speed, we will catch you and you will pay”). There seems to be considerably more trust in a number of the country’s older places, e.g., the midwest and extreme northeast. But the answer is Texas or South Carolina.

Q: Do you think you’ll do another road trip like this again?

A: I hope so. I’m going to be trying to justify doing it after my third year of grad school here, department-willing. I’m also hoping to take a road trip through BC and Alberta and up to Alaska next summer during break.

Q: Why don’t you write about the trip and try to sell it?

A: Because the after-the-fact reflections on the trip would come off as life-affirming as this post. And even if they didn’t and I went with a tone and content set similar to what was on the road trip blog, who would pay money for that? And even if someone would, they still wouldn’t pay very much. I think people who haven’t checked into it usually over-estimate the amount of money made by writers. Writing pays like it’s an avocation, not a vocation.

So there you go. One day I’ll write my coffee table book. It’ll probably be about as upbeat as this blog post and, no, no publisher will pick it up — but that’ll be okay. I’ll be the only one who needs to read it anyway.

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So infuriatingly not dead.

• They were always relieving themselves on my deck — the railing and floor.
• Sometimes they would vomit carcasses onto my deck. I found an entire dead crab there once.
• My brilliant neighbors fed them. At first they didn’t know what to feed them, so they called an ornithologist to get advice. He advised raw meat. Sometimes I found raw meat on my deck.
• I taped nails on top of my deck railing to keep them from standing there, but they just sort of stood around the nails.
• They have orange eyes and their feathers are greasy.

Coincidentally, I had this conversation with some random woman while on Kauai and visiting the arboretum:

Woman: Did you see those birds?

Me: Yes. I got a bunch of them at my house at home and I hate them.

Woman: Well I think it would be neat to live somewhere that has herons. Where do you live?

Me: California — Mission Viejo. You?

Woman: Uh — Lake Forest.

True story. (Lake Forest and Mission Viejo border each other icydk.)

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(They’re “black-crowned night herons”. May they soon go extinct.)

It also struck me as probably a really bad way to begin the NYC adventure — by longing for the wild, open spaces of the west.

There’s a lot that’s different this time around, though, in particular:

1. Pittsburgh is not New York City. You can drive in Pittsburgh. There are grocery stores with parking lots. Stuff is CHEAP. I’m going to be living in a house with a yard and a garage. I’ll be working with a group of people and I’ve already met some that are cool while at the same time not manic-depressive.
2. Pittsburgh is sort-of the West. Definitely through the Angle of Repose lens Pittsburgh would have been considered more like the wilderness that it would have been like the civilization of New York. And it’s sort of a frontier town anyway. Once you get out of downtown and Oakland, Pittsburgh starts looking and feeling like the capital of Appalachia, more like a part of West Virginia than part of the same state that includes Philadelphia.
3. The west isn’t The West. Maybe there are parts of Montana and Nevada that shouldn’t be painted with this gloss, but the modern-day west has nothing to do with the frontiers and taming-the-wilderness values and lifestyle of Angle of Repose. That’s one of the things the road trip taught me — the romantic West is pretty dead. In fact, it seemed more controlled and less “rugged individualist” than a lot of other parts of the country. Wyoming had the most offensive, threatening road signs in the country (e.g., “if you don’t wear your seatbelt, we’ll find you and it will cost you”-type messages) and most of the west was similar. Granted, I tend to perceive the world almost exclusively through a windshield, which might not always be an accurate reflection of reality, but still — driving in Michigan, for example, felt considerably more free. And after you’ve been on the trail to Half Dome for an hour and a half, you realize that the freedom and solitude and therefore to a large extent the bigness of the western wilderness is likewise little more than a matter of legend.

So basically, I think Pittsburgh will be much better than New York. And I don’t think it fits my ideal place to live, but after that road trip, I don’t know that a close approximation of my ideal exists anyway. Oh well.

And I still think that the book ends too quickly and/or that the author should have spent a little more time on the framing story to better justify its existence. And it’s still one of my top five books of all time.

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(A photo to keep the front page concept from breaking:

)

The upside of these photos is that they give me good ideas of what I should do with my house I’m maybe gonna buy in Pittsburgh. Very good ideas.

Gera (March-May 1993)

I’m not sure how using the Gera bathroom for two months did *not* kill me. And it was the nicest one I had the whole two years. The washer-dryer combo emptying into the tub is a nice touch. Sehr mode!

Dresden (January-May 1992)

That one was at the Kurt-Fischer-Hotel (which was not actually a hotel; we called it that because if someone was getting blitzed home, that missionary stayed their last night with us — I’m sure I personally inspired everyone who came through there to eventually straighten up, fly correctly). The shower fed off a two-gallon hot water tank; the desk lamp over the sink seems like an under-utilized concept. And if I could, I’d usually try and hold it till I got to Tiergartenstraße 40 in the morning.

Weimar (December 1991-January 1992).

I don’t think the bathtub actually worked here, which explains why the definitely non-functional communist Schleudermaschine is inside it. And the best part of this apartment was that we had a Nazi fork among the silverware. Should have grabbed it on my way out. Biggest regret of my mission.

Borna (August 1991-December 1991)

The toilet is through that door. The door is down the stairs from the apartment. Because it’s not a flush-toilet, that’s why it’s nowhere near the actual apartment (I figure).

Um, so yeah. Then here’s my ranking of Best Bathrooms of East German Apartments I Used to Live In That Are Not Pictured Above:

1. Döbeln – Frost on the inside window of an in-house outhouse toilet closet!
2. Halberstadt – For some reason the apartment had 12 rooms and covered 2,000 s.f., but the bathroom was contained in a cubby hole. (We had a library in that apartment, a workout room, a clothes-drying room, and a room where we threw unwanted baked goods.)
3. Hohenstein-Ernstthal – Very little recollection of this bathroom except that it was in the kitchen.
4. Hof (bei Weber) – Though technically in West Germany, Hof was East Germany in spirit. And we had a neighbor who was always begging to borrow our shower because he was tired of having to bathe in his sink. A lot of things wrong with that. (Also wish I could have scored a copy of that tape Denny and Kalama(?) made for Omi Weber — so many regrets.)
5. Mittweida (bei Jentzsch/Laube sort of) – We were living in an apartment that the Laube family was renovating while living in alongside us. Got walked in on a few times (they hadn’t gotten around to putting a doorknob on the bathroom yet).
6. Hof (the *good* Wohnung) – Utterly westernly normal.

Somit aufgenommen.

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PS, Re: the headline, it’s the *apartments* that I lived in; I did not live (primarily) in the bathrooms.