**** I set off from Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in July 2011...and ended up in Aspen, Colorado, in February 2012. Along the way, I visited 28 states, three countries, dozens of national parks, hundreds of cities and towns, and countless friends and strangers. Why? Why not? In fact, I lost my job of seven years when Berkshire Living, the regional magazine I helped launch, folded. Then my apartment building burned down while I was in Miami for the weekend. A breakup and a stolen bicycle figured in shortly thereafter. Wouldn't you hit the road, too? Enjoy my virtual scrapbook of anecdotes and eye candy from a freewheeling, cross-country, cross-cultural odyssey--past, present, and future.Amanda Rae Busch
amandaraewashere@gmail.com
![I’m sitting in a coffeeshop in Sedona, minding my own business and furiously click-clacking away on my laptop, when an older guy sits down at the table to split a bran muffin with his wife. When I pause to look up, he turns to me.
“Are you writing a book?” he asks.
“Not right this minute,” I reply, sort of caught off guard, “but maybe soon.”
“About your travels?”
“Yeah, actually. How can you tell?”
We talked about the Grand Canyon for a moment, and then I went back to my work.
Twenty minutes later, the couple gets up to leave, and the guy places this napkin on my keyboard.
“Enjoy Arizona,” he said. “It’s a special place.”
[Sedona, Arizona, January 22, 2012]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ly9tavuL6g1qloi1ho1_500.jpg)
I’m sitting in a coffeeshop in Sedona, minding my own business and furiously click-clacking away on my laptop, when an older guy sits down at the table to split a bran muffin with his wife. When I pause to look up, he turns to me.
“Are you writing a book?” he asks.
“Not right this minute,” I reply, sort of caught off guard, “but maybe soon.”
“About your travels?”
“Yeah, actually. How can you tell?”
We talked about the Grand Canyon for a moment, and then I went back to my work.
Twenty minutes later, the couple gets up to leave, and the guy places this napkin on my keyboard.
“Enjoy Arizona,” he said. “It’s a special place.”
[Sedona, Arizona, January 22, 2012]
