Road Trip
-
In Reno, the shantyboat was blocked in so we had to grab a handy forklift to extricate it
In Reno, the shantyboat was blocked in so we had to grab a handy forklift to extricate it. #ForkliftVirginx2
-
Louisvilleβs Schnitzelburg neighborhood at Checkβs Cafe
Louisvilleβs Schnitzelburg neighborhood sitting at Checkβs Cafe during Karaoke Night. #louisville #kentucky #roadtrip #singlelinecontour #blindcontour
-
First Friday Santa Cruz: Secret History Project Tells Untold Stories of the San Lorenzo River
For local artist Wes Modes, this process of finding and sharing the stories of peopleβs relationships to rivers is a deeply powerful form of social practiceβan art form that creates change through human interaction and conversation.
-
Home finally! After a month and a half on the Ohio River and days on the road it feels amazing to be back home
Home finally! After a month and a half on the Ohio River and five days on the road it feels amazing to be back home. 2,375 miles #Home #RoadTrip #CrossCountry #ShowerFinally
-
Now our boat hangs out in Reno with the burning man kids until the burn
Now our boat hangs out in Reno with the burning man kids until the burn. #Shantyboat #Storage #burningman #RoadTrip
-
-
Crossing the Great Salt Flats in a storm
Crossing the salt flats this morning. #SaltFlats #RoadTrip #Utah
-
-
An undiscovered wildflower wilderness on Hwy 80
Stopped to make dinner at a turnout less than a stoneβs throw away from a major highway we discover a miniature wetland edged with nettles and wildflowers. #hwy80 #utah #easternutah #shantyboat #roadtrip
-
Feeling cute, might drive later
Rockin PetShop Boys, Ah Ha! And The Bangles as we cross the high prairies. #feelingcutechallenge #roadtrip #magicrockouttravelmusic #wyoming #80sflashback
-
I love being back in the American West. Something about the way the cool morning air touches your skin
I love being back in the American West. Something about the way the cool morning air touches your skin. Walking the wide, charming streets of downtown Laramie, Wyoming. #Laramie #Wyoming #AmericanWest #RoadTrip
-
Camping in rural Missouri
Camping at a random turn out in rural Missouri. Hot and humidΒ as holy fuck. #missouri #roadtrip #sunset #BeautifulButUncomfortable
-
-
Weβre trying a new thing called Preventative Maintenance
Weβre trying a new thing called Preventative Maintenance. Word is we will have fewer wheels falling off. #ohioriver #roadtrip #preventativemaintenance #trailer
-
Packing up
Packing up. The total accumulation of a six month exhibition and a month and a half river voyage all in one pickup. #Louisville #ArtShow #Exhibition #RoadTrip
-
Arrived in Pittsburgh to a warm welcome
Arrived in Pittsburgh to a warm welcome by boat punk friends. #RoadTrip #Pittsburgh #PGH
-
Welcome to America.
Welcome to America. Apparently, this is the largest cross in the world. Interestingly, I drove by its only stiff competition in Groom, Texas on this trip. As if God is guiding me to the most kitschy and monumental symbols of His faith. #Crosses #ChristianNation #roadsideamerica #illinois #effingham
-
Battened Down. Finally.
After 6 years, I finally got tired of all the shantyboat stuff walking all over the place when I drove. #boatrepair #shantyboat
-
Big storm over Vandalia, Illinois
Big storm over Vandalia, Illinois #roadtrip #shantyboat #stormacomin
-
Accusatory look. I donβt think either Squirlsey or I thought this trip would take six days.
Accusatory look. I donβt think either Squirlsey or I thought this trip would take six days. #AngrySquirrel #RoadTrip #RoadService #CrossCountry
-
Middle of the night truckstop shantyboat repair
Middle of the night truckstop epoxy work to repair the damaged hull of the shantyboat. #epoxy #boatrepair #shantyboat #roadtrip
-
First real meal of any kind in three days of travel at the Sunnyside Diner in OKC
First real meal of any kind in three days of travel at the Sunnyside Diner in Oklahoma City. I love stumbling upon places like this. Great peeps, good prices, excellent food. #RoadTrip #Diner #OKC
-
There are a lot of abandoned places in the American Southwest
There are a lot of abandoned travel service places in the southwest, gas stations, motels, restaurants. Walking around on the weed-shattered, glass-strewn pavement, the sun pouring through dusty windows, hearing no sound but the crickets in the encroaching vegetation has a very post-apocalyptic feel. #RoadTrip #PostApocalyptic #Route66
-
Sometimes you move over the same landscape so many times that you get a sense of dΓ©jΓ vu.
Sometimes you move over the same landscape so many times that you get a sense of dΓ©jΓ vu. Iβm nearly certain I have taken this exact same photograph before. #shantyboat #DΓ©jΓ vu #DejaTruckStop
-
30 minutes out of my way to Lake Havasu City to someplace that had fiberglass supplies
30 minutes out of my way to Lake Havasu City to someplace that had the fiberglass supplies I needed to repair the boat. #boatrepair #diy #shantyboat
-
As if we need additional confirmation that I am an idiot. Letβs be clear…
As if we need additional confirmation that I am a fucking idiot. Letβs be clear, this was not just a crazy unforeseen unfortunate highway event. I am 100% incontrovertibly unarguably and completely responsible. Mistakes were made: 1) I didnβt get the wheel bearings re-greased and repacked as part of our regular maintenance. 2) When I…
-
Chuvas Senior gets replacement tire and rim. Junior packs new bearings with marine grease.
Chuvas Senior gets replacement tire and rim. Junior packs new bearings with marine grease. Meanwhile all the old bearings are replaced and repacked. Chuvas told me he had been in King City for 30 years and spoke little English. He moved from Michoacan to Mexico City where he worked 27 years as a mechanic. #roadtrip…
-
Literally lost the tire on the trailer while driving to the tire shop.
Fuuuuck. Literally lost the tire on the trailer while driving to the tire shop. And by lost, I mean lost. No where to be found. #TrailerTroubles #RoadRepair #RoadTrip
-
-
-
I made it home safe and sound to the hills above Santa Cruz
I made it home safe and sound to the hills above Santa Cruz after the longest drive of my life: 3200 miles solo over 5 days towing the shantyboat. Nice to see Benzy again. Time for whiskey #shantyboat #roadtrip #longdrive #audiobooks #homeagain
-
-
-
-
There is something so beautiful and surreal about truck stops
There is something so beautiful and surreal about truck stops, a post-apocalyptic Terminator trainyard aesthetic. I used to really hate this kind of urban desolation, until one early morning while train hopping sitting on a curb stop in a dismal mini-mall parking lot waiting for a coffee shop to open I experienced a profound βflip,β…
-
The friendly people in the diner insisted I sign the wall
The friendly people in the diner insisted I sign the wall #Diners #Missouri #Ozarks #Shantyboat
-
Uh oh. I havenβt had to worry about these tires ever since the good folks Predator Trailer in Omaha replace the trailer suspension, axles, wheels, and tires
Uh oh. I havenβt had to worry about these tires ever since the good folks Predator Trailer in Omaha replace the trailer suspension, axles, wheels, and tires. #shantyboat #tires #trailers
-
All the way across the country I am passing up Waffle House
All the way across the country I am passing up Waffle House because of a string of racist incidents where staff are calling the cops on Black people because they donβt like their attitude. @wafflehouseofficial #shantyboat #witeppl #bbqbecky #PermitPatty #BreakfastWhileBlack #blm #BlackLivesMatter #Racism #fuckwafflehouse @wafflehouse
-
The Back Rhodes Diner (aka Fayeβs Diner), where all the old dudes hang out for their morning coffee and breakfast
The Back Rhodes Diner (aka Fayeβs Diner), where all the old dudes hang out for their morning coffee and breakfast, where the delicious signature breakfast is a biscuit, egg, and sausage sandwich smothered in gravy, is located at the edge of the Ozark mountains in southern Missouri #Shantyboat #Ozarks #Missouri #OpenSpaces #Hillbillies #Okies
-
People often ask us where we stay while weβre on the road. Answer: wherever we damn well please. Truck stops, parking lots, flat areas alongside the road, wherever
People often ask us where we stay while weβre on the road. Answer: wherever we damn well please. Truck stops, parking lots, flat areas alongside the road, wherever. We are like the turtle who carries his house on his back. As long as we donβt mind living in the chaos that bumping down the road…
-
Going through the Appalachian Mountains in Delaware it is rainy AF
Going through the Appalachian Mountains in Delaware it is rainy AF. Thatβs fun and all, until I go to sleep and find that our sleeping loft in the Shantyboat is completely saturated #Appalachian #RainPacalypse #Driving #Delaware [Edit: Appalachians in Delaware?? Maybe Maryland coming out of New Jersey.]
-
The shantyboat trailer started its life with me as part of the Costco Soulmate Trading Outlet fleet
The shantyboat trailer started its life with me as part of the Costco Soulmate Trading Outlet fleet. Even here in 2001, it provided opportunities to stop and see new places that I might have driven through #roadsideservice #ruralnewjersey #trailers #csto
-
This is a familiar scene going all the way back to 1999 my first year owning this trailer
This is a familiar scene going all the way back to 1999 my first year owning this trailer #trailerrepair #shantyboat #roadservice #newjersey
-
Old friend Seanix and his brood put me up in a soft bed in their Colonial farm house for the night after a day of crazy
Old friend Seanix and his brood put me up in a soft bed in their Colonial farm house for the night after a day of crazy #oldfriends #humansofnewjersey #GradeSchoolersWithShovels
-
Should I worry? By truckers now have app audio for this was βin 3.1 miles, enter tunnel and enter tunnel. Then enter tunnel and enter tunnelβ
Should I worry? By truckers now have app audio for this was βin 3.1 miles, enter tunnel and enter tunnel. Then enter tunnel and enter tunnelβ repeated every half mile. #DrivingInNYCWithA45FootLongRig
-
Sweet fucking Jesus H Christ. Driving along the expressway into the Bronx across The Whitestone Bridge when suddenly truck and trailer go squirrley
Sweet fucking Jesus H Christ. Driving along the expressway into the Bronx across The Whitestone Bridge when suddenly truck and trailer go squirrley and the shantyboat overtakes the truck and bashes against the tailgate before pitching violently forward. Do an immediate oh shit stop. What the fucking hell just happened? Cars swerving around me I…
-
We arrived in Whitehall NY at Lock 11 after 3038 miles and only a few near catastrophes
We arrived in Whitehall NY at Lock 11 after 3038 miles and only a few near catastrophes
-
-
-
Fuck Indiana roads
Fuck Indiana roads. Are they trying to rival Californiaβs notoriously shitty roads? It shakes the shit out of our teeth and sends the boat into dangerous oscillations
-
Flooding in West Central Illinois on the Illinois River
Flooding in West Central Illinois on the Illinois River
-
-
Ceremonial witchcraft to salute the deer people who have died here
Ceremonial witchcraft to salute the deer people who have died here
-
Keeping the driver awake with lurid and prurient tales
Keeping the driver awake with lurid and prurient tales: βShe rolled over again, pushed a mass of inky hair away from her eyes, and surveyed her body with the satisfaction in which there was nothing of smugness. She knew it was a good body, a lovely body. It was too early for her to have…
-
Shantyboat life at the Continental Divide. Stop and make coffee for the new driver. A beer for the one going off shift
Shantyboat life at the Continental Divide. Stop and make coffee for the new driver. A beer for the one going off shift
-
The landscape of Wyoming is so powerful and evocative
The landscape of Wyoming is so powerful and evocative, it makes me imagine riding a horse over the prairie when I donβt even like riding horses
-
-
-
Shantyboat at the Thunder Mountain Indian Monument along I80 in Nevada. A monument to native suffering at the hands of white folk
Shantyboat at the Thunder Mountain Indian Monument along I80 in Nevada. A monument to native suffering at the hands of white folk
-
-
-
-
Fits and Starts
Iβm struggling with how to describe our strange fits-and-starts launch on the Sacramento River at Red Bluff. Iβll tell you right up front like a postmodern mystery novel that the culprit was Bad Gas.
-
Okay, we’re off
After months of prep, a month-long fundraiser, weeks of long hard work days on the shantyboat, months of research, tons of help from from friends, and help from our sponsors, we are finally off on the road toward the river.
-
-
We made it to Knoxville with the shantyboat without dying in a flaming tumbling wreck! Yes!
We made it to Knoxville with the #shantyboat without dying in a flaming tumbling wreck! Yes! via Instagram
-
Kickin it on the back porch of the shantyboat on a hot Arkansas day
Kickin it on the back porch of the #shantyboat on a hot Arkansas day. #StrangersThumb via Instagram
-
First real brekkie aboard the shantyboat parked in a legume field
First real brekkie aboard the #shantyboat parked in a legume field. #BoatingInFarmland #Tennessee
-
So Far So Good
As I type we are speeding down an Oklahoma highway a few miles from Arkansas and so far the most eventful tragedy on the trip was shattering a full bottle of vodka and a bottle of Kahlua.
-
We’ve gone from white knuckling it to casual one-handed driving
We’ve gone from white knuckling it to casual one-handed driving. #shantyboat
-
Hazel in her travel lair in the truck
Hazel in her travel lair in the truck. @gooddoghazel #shantyboat
-
Watson’s amazing BBQ and farm supply in Tucumcari NM
Watson’s amazing BBQ and farm supply in Tucumcari NM. #shantyboat
-
Squirsy joined us on our madcap cross-country trip with the shantyboat
Squirsey joined us on our madcap cross-country trip with the #shantyboat.
-
#shantyboat at Watson’s barbecue in Tucumcari New Mexico. Most hospitable people. Great barbecue.
shantyboat at Watson’s barbecue in Tucumcari New Mexico. Most hospitable people. Great barbecue.
-
Benzy and the #shantyboat in Williams. We stopped to walk a cemetery.
Benzy and the #shantyboat in Williams. We stopped to walk a cemetery.
-
Outside of Flagstaff Arizona. Th #shantyboat moves ever eastward.
Outside of Flagstaff Arizona. The shantyboat moves ever eastward.
-
Here’s what we’re doing as we tow the #shantyboat across country.
Here’s what we’re doing as we tow the shantyboat across country.
-
Benzy and Hazel on the shantyboat after a night in Needles California along the tracks.
Benzy and @gooddoghazel on the #shantyboat after a night in Needles California along the tracks.
-
Leaving Felton with the #Shantyboat requires us to push up low-hanging wires.
Leaving Felton with the #Shantyboat requires us to push up low-hanging wires.
-
Farting Around Muscatine and a Sudden Road Trip
We explore small town Iowa life and take a brief break to head back to Minnesota.
-
Apocalyptic dystopia of traffic, potholes, and overcrowding
SO glad to get back to California. Actually, after threeΒ months in the Midwest, this pretty much looks like an apocalyptic dystopia of #traffic, #potholes, and #overcrowding
-
Stuck in quarantine at the California border
Shantyboat stuck in #quarantine at the #California border. #zebra mussels #illegalaliens #securetheborders #pressurewash #sendanextractionteam
-
Zebra Mussel Detention
California agricultural border inspection detaining us to remove zebra mussels on the #shantyboat. #stuckinquarantine #zebramussels #pressurewash #securetheborders #illegalaliens #nomusselisillegal
-
Best BBQ in the Country
James and I at Pat’s BBQ in Salt Lake City #shantyboat in tow. #selfie #bestbbqever
-
Rise and shine in Winnemucca Nevada
Rise and shine in Winnemucca Nevada #shantyboat in tow. #sunrise #selfie #dogs @gooddoghazel
-
Shantyboat trailer with new suspension, springs, wheels, and tires
#shantyboat trailer with new suspension, springs, wheels, and tires. #Rollin #ballin via Instagram
-
The danger of giving adults crayons at a restaurant.
The danger of giving adults crayons at a restaurant. #shantyboat #midwest #whatisfrozencustard #whatweretheythinking
-
-
The Plan.
The Plan. #shantyboat #travel #roadtrip #crosscountry #optimism #praythewheelsstayon via Instagram
-
Shantyboat trailer gets new axels, wheels and tire’s at Omaha’s Predator Trailer
#shantyboat trailer gets new axels, wheels and tire’s at Omaha’s Predator Trailer. #ICallNoDeath #preemptivestrike #preventingflaminghighwaydeath via Instagram
-
Results of a terrible two boat collision?
Results of a terrible two boat collision? Bringing both the #shantyboat and Donboat home.
-
A Midnight Journey to the Bone Yard
The potholes were deep, nearly as deep as our growing fear. Trees loomed on either side. Thunderclouds threatened on the horizon. Hazel dog was unaccountably agitated. We flew down the Iowan country road through thick fields of fireflies, a kind of hillbilly hyperspace.
-
Roadtrips are always more interesting when your wheels fall off
As we were about to hit the road, a lady in the car in front of us was irritatingly gesticulating at us. What could this lady possibly want? What was she trying to tell us? Another person who wants to stop us o give us an enthusiastic thumbs up about the shantyboat? Jeremiah went to…
-
24 Hours
Tomorrow morning early we pull out of Santa Cruz towing the shantyboat. The journey has not yet begun, yet I’m so tired I could lay down my paintbrush and take a nap right now. This kind of tiredness is big the kind of tired fixed with a night’s rest, but the kind of tired from…
-
15 Discoveries After Two Days of (nearly) Non-Stop Driving
Bug massacre, crossing the Rockies, mysterious cattle, new truck, two good diners, and making progress.
-
A Brief Tour of One Random Neighborhood in Salt Lake City
We found ourselves stranded on a Sunday in Salt Lake City and explored one nifty neighborhood.
-
For Your Information: The Rockies Are Big
In which our heroes discover that the Rocky Mountains eat heavy duty trucks for late night snack — We meet Chuck the all-day all-night tow truck driver who loves puppies — We travel up the Rocky Mountains at 15mph and back down at 70
-
Desert Crossing
Today was the day I had scheduled to be in Minneapolis. The world being what it is, we adapt our expectations to our real world experiences. Instead we are in the Nevada desert. The old truck struggles to pull our big windsail of a boat. I need to do more research for the oral history…
-
The Trouble With Building a Boat in California
Stuck in California needing a new radiator. We are trying to raise $2500 quick like to fix the truck and provide a tiny contingency fund.
-
A Series of Unfortunate Events
California, we love you, but please please let us achieve escape velocity. We are still in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. It is beer thirty and we are sitting coolly in the shantyboat on this hot hot day drinking tall cans of PBR, reading (Kai) and blogging (me). This morning we were woken…