"The divided highways offered speed, and gas, food, and lodging, but as we rolled through the hills of Kentucky and Tennessee on narrow state roads, even a child saw the culture and how the miles altered expressions of business and public art."

"Everyone who works in America believes in the mythology of the dream, that if they put in sufficient effort, they will be rewarded with success in the form of cash or comfort. Few people in this country have ever entertained the notion that our capitalism is a failed construct."

I learned the deceptive power of disingenuousness and how it could rot important ideas and institutions. Lost in our abundance, we've created divisions and argue over crumbs while the wealthy walked away with the cake and only looked over their shoulders for a laugh or two, and we have let them.

Whenever you are heading west across the Plains states, there comes a moment when you sense, not even feel, the earth begin to rise beneath your wheels. There is no explaining the moment or the emotion but a traveler begins to become hopeful.

"There was never a moment I was not excited, and even in the aloneness of a sleeping bag on an empty beach or behind a boulder in a remote rest area, I was often too energized to even close my eyes."