A Short Story Road Trip

The fact that I’d made no plans for a two-month long road trip that was “scheduled” to start next week should have been a warning. This Bliss Tour that I speak of - this adventure to the west, and then to the east, and then to farther places, to seek out those who can find their bliss, chase it, make it, never let it go - is finally going to start next week. Kinda.

I’d thought I’d have some time to plan last week, but instead I spent it hunkered down writing 6-8 hours a day to turn draft 0 of The Bliss Tour into a first draft that I can actually give to people to read. That is exciting. Extraordinary. Scary.

From Draft 0 to First Draft. Yippee!!

I’m an external-deadline-driven sort of person, so having to give something to a critique partner before I took off was pivotal in getting it done. And I did. I wrote “The End” at the end of a story. I was so happy I cried. It’s still a crappy first draft, but there’s a story there. I can finish it! I can polish it up so it’s not so crappy.

Meanwhile the the tour itself, I’d made no plans, I’d plotted no routes, I had not maps. I had done nothing to plan for this two month road trip. And when I started to plan... I found out that an epic road trip requires an awful lot of driving. Like seriously, going west from Austin is just hours and hours, days of driving through... not a whole lot. So, no.

Now here’s the plan: Next week I’m road tripping to Marfa, TX for a couple of nights. Staying in a safari tent and a trailer (the teepee was booked :( must plan ahead)! Then, instead of driving to California from there, later in June, I’ll fly to southern California and rent a car. From there I’ll make my way up to Vancouver, BC, then fly back to Austin. It’ll take about 2 weeks.

It’s less of an epic now, and more of a short story road trip.

Let’s see how long these plans last...