June 21, 2026
Packing for the road
Field Note
I started packing for the road the only way I know how. No drama. No color-coded checklist. Just the essentials: my sunglasses, a steady smile, and enough emotional support to make it all the way from home to California.
The plan is ambitious in the best possible way. I am heading west with some of my closest friends in a glamping trailer. We will take our time, stop wherever something looks interesting, spend plenty of nights under the stars, and let the country unfold one mile at a time.
California may be the destination, but I have learned that the best part of any road trip is not the place at the end. It is the coffee stops that turn into conversations, the campsite chairs around a fire, the endless sky outside the window, and those quiet moments when everyone stops talking because the view has already said everything that needed to be said.
When California is behind us, we will point the van toward Las Vegas before catching a flight home to Elkhorn, Nebraska. I am looking forward to all of it: the desert sunsets, climbing in and out of the trailer, the long conversations that only happen on the road, and the kind of friendships that grow a little stronger every time everyone decides to keep moving together.