Thoughts From The Road

by Sam Redd

Maybe you’ve heard this story before. Small town boy hates his job, dreams of something bigger, and eventually packs up his shitty Subaru to embark on a grand quest and break through the monotony of day to day life.

Seems easy enough, right? To some degree - it was. My last two weeks as an inventory photographer at a local car dealership went by much faster than expected. Once I knew for sure that I was leaving, all the things that typically drove me crazy about the place seemed to fade into the past, their grip on my emotions finally loosening after what had been the coldest winter of my entire life. Before I knew it, my last day came and went, and soon I was barreling down the highway towards the West Coast.

I had some clothes, some fruit, 50 water bottles and just over $1,000 in my bank account when I left. Call it a dollar and a dream because it certainly wasn’t a dollar and a plan.

But that was the point, I guess. Too much planning and you’ve confined yourself to the expected; not enough planning and you won’t know where to look for the good stuff. And what’s the good stuff, anyway? What did I expect to accomplish by leaving home like this, on a whim? I thought about that question for a long time as I wrote these words by the harsh white light of my dollar store lantern. But I couldn’t think of an answer.

Of course, I was mostly there for the sights. The Bisti Badlands in northern New Mexico became my first real overnight stop; it promised martian landscapes and true isolation. I pulled up just after sunset and made up a messy bed in the back of my car, praying that my friend Jared would find his way to the same dirt lot I ended up at. Bisti is a desert wilderness area with no paths, no facilities, and of course, no cell signal. I was a thousand miles from home, and needless to say, the reality of that hit me pretty hard as I laid there. As excited as I was, it didn’t take long to fall asleep, and three hours later I awoke to tapping on my window.

I can’t tell you how relieved I was to see a familiar face and not a ski mask. Tired from long drives, we both skipped the formalities and went straight to bed once we had made our rendezvous.

The following day, we explored a decent chunk of Bisti and discovered ancient artifacts in the ruins at Chaco Canyon. After a few days of camping in the desert we drove through to Phoenix where Jared lived with his family. And that’s where I found the first part of my answer.

There’s no doubt that the dirt roads, state parks, and mountaintop campsites that have littered my path are a big part of why I left. But at the end of the day, having friends to explore them with are what made it all worthwhile.

It’s cheesy. I know. But it took me 6,000 miles and countless nights spent thinking under the stars to realize that. To really feel it. And that’s not something you can take a picture of.

But I had taken this trip solo for a reason, too. The moments of solitude were just as valuable, but in the end, I figured it was as simple as this:

Sometimes you just have to put some gas in the tank and hit the road.