Friday Snippets #003: Cross-country Thoughts
Friday Snippets #003: Cross-country Thoughts
Happenings on a 5-day cross country trek, a quote and a question, and 3 things to try
Hi friends!
We’re off the road for the next little bit and it feels glorious. By “we,” I mean you and me. Everything I’ve written recently has come from hotels or Airbnbs or cafes or my car across America. And whether you wanted to be road tripping with me or not, you have been a part of every trip as I write for you, think a ton about you, and brainstorm what things I can write, create, or do a better job promoting to help you make your own moves in life.
For hopefully our last trip in a while, just last week I drove from Portland, Maine to North San Diego County. In 5 days. Everyone should drive cross-country at some point, but not as quickly as I did this one (my third in 18 months).
Here are a few observations and happenings from that road trip to share with you:
McDonald’s really is about the same everywhere.
I ate more McD’s than I’d care to admit. This latest cross-country trip was more of a sprint than a leisurely road trip, and easy and quick was the name of the game when it came to food. Healthy supplementing food came from a few stops at grocery stores and an expensive, slow, but delicious smoothie bar in Mesa.
Most people want to talk and are easy to engage in conversation.
Two examples:
An investigative stop at a pickleball court outside St. Louis turned into a conversation right out of a movie. Carl the Tennis Coach called to me from the tennis hut which was a little unnerving since I didn’t know anyone was around. His question, “Can I help you?” led to a lovely chat about their local pickleball community, his love of tennis, how things work between the two sports in his community, my writing, how he got into coaching, and lots more.
Checking into a hotel in some town in upstate New York—I think it was outside Buffalo—I spotted a thick Stephen King book lying on the desk. “Is that your book?” I asked. Clever question, I know, considering it was just one woman running the front desk. It was her book, and we had an interesting conversation about how it doesn’t freak her out to read horror at night and how her mom got her into horror as a kid.