Tuesday, I’m off on a road trip to the Northwest. The twelve-day trek takes Fish and I through the Badlands, Grand Tetons, the coast (including Portland and Seattle). Add a probable Hold Steady show and I’m thiiiiis close to pissing myself.

(I won’t, of course. That’s for preschoolers, college freshmen and Hugh Jackman.)

With my (seemingly perpetual) unemployment, I have the time most don’t (including, hopefully, me… soon). I’m milking a few freelance projects and the (hopeful) sale of my PC (seriously; if you want it, $750 makes it yours) to finance my part of things.

Related question: what’s with stick-shift? How am I to text, rock to jams and generally disregard my fellow drivers if I’m worried about which foot is doing what? No wonder Americans gave it up. (TWD for [an incredibly short] life!)

My first “manny tranny”* lesson went… well? I barely made it up a 4% grade from a stop and nearly hit an angry, old guy walking down the center of the street. The second was better and by Oct25, I’ll be pulling Transporter-esque moves.

I’m using a field notebook from Draplin Design Co. that I got as swag from Design Camp last weekend, patching together my (hundreds of) photos and maybe video for a site to be completed after I’m back.

(That’s an incredibly long, probably run-on, sentence I just made into a paragraph. So good at this.)

Most of the trip is camping, so I probably won’t be all that reachable. (Which is awesome!) Outside of my iPod (with stored articles, podcasts, music) and some books, I’ll be ignoring media as much as possible.

As part of the camping, road trip, media ignoring thing, I’ll also leave my trimmer at home. The longest I’ve gone without cutting hairs since sophomore year is six days. This could get horrifying.

And I almost forgot. What made it finally sink in?

Putting forecast and average/record temperatures into those aforementioned calendar entries. How’s that for ending on lame? Whatever, I’m fully stoked.

* Did I just make that up?

Photo courtesy PhotoBucket