48 No Interstate ... Plus 2

Sometimes things just work out.

Sometimes those things are small, like when I was little, and I prayed that Sweet Home Alabama would come on the radio, and it did.

Sometimes they’re bigger, like when my post-college roommate told me she was going to be at a beach about an hour north of my grandparents’ house if I wanted to plan to make a trip while she was there, and then about two weeks before the trip she texted me to tell me that she got the beach wrong, it was actually Surfside Beach, and she hoped that wouldn’t be too far for me to still come visit. Well, it just so happens that my grandparents’ house is at Surfside Beach! We laughed about how it would be funny if we were neighbors. Well, I laughed. Chuckled is more like it, and I don’t know whether she laughed or not because all of our communication was done through texts, but she probably at least chuckled too because it seemed more than doubtful that in a town that runs 16 avenues north of Surfside Drive and 16 avenues south of Surfside Drive we would even be within reasonable walking distance of each other. Biking, yes. Walking, no. Then, what do you know, Rebecca and her family’s rental house ended up being on the exact same street as my grandparents’ house. What we thought was going to be one visit on one day turned into sharing beach access all week and seeing each other almost every day.

Sometimes those things don’t seem very big when they happen, but when you think back on them you realize just how big they really were. For example, I had left my parents’ house after Christmas last year to go back to my apartment. I was almost to my apartment when I realized I had forgotten my purse, which had my wallet in it, which had my license in it. If you know me at all, you know that I am not one to break laws (or even suggestions) so I decided that since I was closer to my apartment it was best to go on there and have someone bring me my purse. I was driving a couple of car lengths behind a pickup truck with a gigantic Christmas tree lying in the back of it. As I had the thought, what if that tree fell out of that truck, I realized I was moving over to the other lane. Literally a second later, the Christmas tree fell out of the back of the truck and landed in the lane. There is absolutely no way I could have avoided it if I had still been behind the truck, and there’s also no way I could have successfully driven over it. So not only would I have been on the losing end of an accident with a Christmas tree, I would have been on the losing end of an accident with a Christmas tree and without a driver’s license. The truck kept going, by the way. And I know they know the tree fell out because it was so big that the whole truck bounced when it happened. So more than likely, someone did have an accident with a Christmas tree that day because it was almost dark when it fell into the road. I’m just thankful it wasn’t me.

And sometimes those things seem just as big as they are. A copy of Behind My Eyes has now traveled through 34 states in less than two months. And before the next month is over, it will have traveled through the remaining 16. What were the chances that my brother and sister-in-law would have the crazy idea to zigzag across the continental United States on nothing but back roads a few months after I had a book published that needed some great photo opportunities? Slim. What were the chances that I knew someone who was going to Hawaii during that same time frame? Slimmer. What were the chances that I knew someone who was going to Alaska during that same time frame? Even slimmer. But I did and I do, and a copy of Behind My Eyes will have had its picture made in all fifty states before the summer has officially begun.

Below is the 48 No Interstate road map, showing where Nick, Laura, and the book have already been as well as where they are going to be in the future.

And if you missed it on my Facebook or Instagram pages, here is Hawaii:

And a few others: