When a wildfire destroyed her home and worldly possessions in the hills above Los Angeles, it didn't take Megan Edwards long to recognize an opportunity. It took her husband a little longer ("Give me five minutes to grieve!"), but they were both soon planning to make the most of their sudden "stufflessness" and hit the road. They did so a few months later in a freshly built four-wheel-drive motorhome that was even more unusual because of the office in the back instead of a bedroom. This all happened back when "Internet" had not yet entered the lexicon but "email" had. The mobile office would allow Edwards to file stories with the newspapers she wrote for by cell phone. That was the idea, at least. At the beginning of 1994, cell service was patchy, unreliable, and expensive.
They also thought they'd be traveling for six months or so, when, they believed, they'd settle down and get back to normal. But five years and thousands of miles later, they were still on the road. In that time, they'd watched the Internet grow from a mysterious fad prized by people in remote locales into an unstoppable universal phenomenon. They started a website, RoadTripAmerica.com, to share road tripping tips and ideas. Slowly, their dream of being "at work, at home, and on the road, all at the same grand time" became a reality.
This edition marks the twentieth anniversary of Edwards's memoir, which was first released in 1999. At its heart a story of making lemonade when life gives you lemons, this memoir is also a riveting and at times hilarious look at the early years of the World Wide Web. With a new introduction by the author and a foreword by Chris Epting, enjoy an armchair adventure across North America when the Internet was young. This edition also includes 22 photos dating from when the author lived on the road.
When wildfire destroyed her home in the hills above Los Angeles, Megan Edwards seized the opportunity her sudden "stufflessness" offered. She hit the road with her husband and dog in the Phoenix One, the one-of-a-kind motorhome that "rose from the ashes." This is the story of how a sabbatical that began with no itinerary and no return date grew into a five-year North American odyssey with a mission inspired by the birth of the World Wide Web: "To be at work, at home, and on the road, all at the same grand moment." This 20th anniversary edition, which includes a new foreword, introduction, and photographs, offers a fascinating and often humorous look back at a time not so long ago when email was a bleeding-edge innovation, cellular "roaming" charges could clean out your bank account, and nobody had yet thought of equipping a telephone with a camera."
"Edwards explores matters of identity-trying on new labels like homeless, unemployed, finding that they don't fit, and that the old labels don't either. There is also the inevitability of tension, bickering, of outright civil warfare in such close quarters, as well as the ability of a well-placed geothermal hot spring to heal heart, soul and marriage." --Tiffany Pace, Mind Bets (June, 2019)
"This is an excellent memoir, originally published twenty years ago but well worth the re-run. By the end you will find yourself appreciating the introduction of life as the Edwards lived it for the seven years they traveled. An excellent picture of California life in the 1990's, the personal pain of losing all you possess in a single day, and the joys and angsts of following your heart down back country roads in a four wheel drive motorhome." --Bonnie Reed Fry, Goodreads.com
"This is a book to stir dreams of distant places, a remarkable journey down unknown roads of travel and self-exploration. Edwards relates the stories of their Amrican adventures and misadventures in the compelling style of a novelist, with humor, drama and brilliant imagery. A journey worth taking." --Al Martinez, Los Angeles Times (from a review of the 1999 edition)
