Headed West (August 2020)

(Minolta SRT-200)

I often think about the time that Trevor and Dallin, in the midst of our drive from New York to Sacramento in the late Summer of 2020, woke me up in the early hours of the morning. I muttered sleepy words, likely a question of our whereabouts. Dallin responded, in soft, simple, and jovial tone, “We’re at the world’s largest truck stop.”  I remember peeling my eyes open, from the middle back seat, and being greeted by a neon yellow sign that read exactly what Dallin said, WORLD’S LARGEST TRUCK STOP—located off of I-80 in Iowa. Dallin and Trevor, giggling, asked, “Do you wanna come in?” I believe I replied, “I’m going to sleep.”

Maybe it was the silliness of the moment. I’ve never regretted going back to sleep. I don’t question why I hold the experience to such high esteem because when I think back to it, I smile. So, that vivid moment I simply note as a time I am lucky to have experienced. I smile now, as I write about it. Pure, unscathed, moment—how brief you were, and, simultaneously, so saccharine and long. Here are a few photos from the trip.