once upon a time young derek needed a vacation. not from anything in particular but from everything in general. i wanted to go off alone to see how long i could stand myself. so companionless i drove (and drove and drove...).

i took a mostly un-planned zig-zagged route from austin to nyc with lots of stops inbetween. i took all little 2-lane highways and farm roads so i would have no excuse not to stop and look closer at anything that was in the least bit interesting (and perhaps to increase the isolationary quotient).

since i was gonna be in nyc (the international flight capitol of the world) i figured, "what the hell! i can go to europe!" so i got myself a nice and cheap economy roundtrip ticket to brussels and would poke around the Benelux region for about 2 weeks.

since i was going to be on the longest vacation of my life and i had an entire car's worth of space to pack, i decided to bring two of the most charming, yet unreliable cameras i owned. my Holga 120s (or the 'plastic fantastic' as smario refers to it) and an old Polaroid SX-70 that i had just bought at a garage sale here in austin. needless to say, both cameras proved themselves as excess baggage. so instead of a bunch of fabulous photos, this li'l travelogue site of mine will be comprised of away-from-home-made postcards and a few ramblings that i managed to muster the energy to write down. (unlike mario and megan who went to india and nepal and carried a month's worth of stuff on their backs and still made room for two fully-functioning quality cameras and ended up with a mountain of photos that make guests weak at the knees...)

so anyway... i packed up my car with a six weeks supply of socks, underwear, jolt and crystal-meth and hit the road!

i knew after the first 15 minutes behind the wheel that i was doing the right thing.
there was never a moment during those 38 days i was gone when i wished i was anywhere else.

i ended up driving about 6,300 miles in total.

LET'S GO TO TO ARKANSAS!

(suggestions suggested | congestions requested) The contents of this web site copyright 1997, 1998 team smartyPants! All Rights Reserved.