21 States. 8,000 Miles. 36 Days. 1 Blog.

21 states. 8,000 miles. 36 days. That’s pretty much the plan.

On Tuesday, July 12, I’m going to pack up my car and head north from my little suburb outside New York City to pick up my son, Sam, from sleepaway camp in upstate New York. But we’re going to take the scenic route home.

Specifically, we’re going to cross the country. Twice. In five weeks. In a 2005 Toyota Solara convertible.

In order, we’ll be hitting New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming (again), Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Ohio (again), Pennsylvania (again), New Jersey, and then coming back home to New York.

It’s a little crazy, I admit. It might be a disaster. But I think it’ll be a summer neither of us will ever forget. (In a good way, I mean.)

Wait. Before I go on about the details of the trip I should probably explain the name of this blog: The Hamster and the Highway. I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that the “Highway” part is pretty clear to you by now. “The Hamster,” well, that’s Sam. We often call him Samster The Hamster, which sometimes gets shortened to The Hamster–or just Hamster, or Hamstie, or Ham, or even relengthened to Ham Samwich.

Anyway, this blog will be about our trip, about our relationship, about the beautiful country we’ll be exploring, and about what we discover about those last two. I hope you’ll come along for the ride. But only metaphorically, because we don’t have room for you in the car.