I first tried out this newfangled thing called blogging in June 2003, several years after the term "weblog" was coined. Venturing out on a cross-country trip to document, for my hometown newspaper, the history and culture of Interstate 40 (which originated right outside the gates of the university where I taught and terminated in faraway California), I pledged to harness technology that would allow exchange of communication with my readers as I went.
The technology was admittedly crude. In the days before mobile Wi-Fi, I had a flip phone that picked up a cell signal as far as one was available. I had a MacBook capable of getting on the Internet at anyplace I could secure a hard-wired connection. At each evening's stop along the 2,554-mile journey, I would log into my Gmail to file the day's story and photographs--and collect emails from readers eager to suggest their favorite next destination I should visit.
In the end our grand experiment yielded 11 segments of news copy, plus a lot more miles than originally planned as I side-tripped to unmissable locales such as the Grand Canyon and the remnants of coterminous Route 66. It yielded thousands of photos. It yielded a book, "I-40: Traveling America's Midsection at Midlife."
It yielded a blog, too, one that evolving technology soon sidestepped. I've posted to various blogs since then, documenting trips far and near. As I begin yet another journey 21 years later, I'm pledging to recreate portions of those older blogs alongside the new posts to come.
Tune in! The Transcendent Travelers, Kay and Barbara, are headed for some amazing places this week. We'll share, along the way. Adventure awaits.
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BELOW On the road to Toad, the Joads with a heavy load
Toad Suck, Arkansas, July 2003
