Tag Archives: America

Welcome to Paths Unwritten

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Welcome to Paths Unwritten, the successor to Slightly Removed, my original blog.  While Slightly Removed served its purpose, it was time to move on to something more permanent in a private domain.  This site will be much more encompassing in its content, including many other facets of travel than the journals and random musings of Slightly Removed.

(the story) So Far
The main body of Slightly Removed was journal style posts.  Entries and pictures of my movements from place-to-place listed in chronological order from the time I left Michigan on a one-way ticket to Puerto Rico in order to crew a boat in the Atlantic, to my shift in life once again to Asia.

This is my travel journal, and I am sorely in need of catching up on its entries.

Home In Nowhere
A section for general-style travel posts focused on sustained long-term travelers.  I’m working on a number of ideas now and new ideas from readers are always welcome.

Lost Cities
I’m turning 27 this year and was an archaeology major, yet I have never seen an Indiana Jones movie for some reason.  Despite this, wandering the ruins of ancient civilizations is one of my favorite parts of travel.  Throw into that the fun of getting to some of these remote locations when you are without your own transportation, and these are among my favorite posts to write.

Out of Place
Posts that are more than random thoughts or that have a common theme but don’t fit in the other categories.

About Me
Pretty self-explanatory.

 

Thanks for reading and I’ll continue to expand the Paths Unwritten in the coming months with content I hope you’ll enjoy.

Regards,
Ben

 

 

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A Reminder of Why I’m a City Person: A Memory

An old update from 2008 I found:

So last night around 7:30, I was driving through southern Mississippi, and had been driving for about 9 hours, so I decided to pull off for some food. Instead of just going for McDonald’s or some other crappy fast food like the Huddle House (would anyone actually eat at a place called that?) I wanted to go to a local place. So being in southern Mississippi, I figured the small town restaurant would be the way to go.

I got off the highway to go to the town of Bogue Chitto, about 5 miles off the highway. It was close enough so that I wouldn’t go out of my way, but far enough that it wouldn’t be swarming with commercialization. Well it turns out that there was less in this small town than even I expected. It was, of course, what you’d expect a small Mississippi town to look like, and MAYBE 200 people could live there at the very most. So aside from the houses, here is a roster of what the town had:

1 school
1 Post office
1 self-storage building
1 Derelict gas station
1 lawncare store
6 churches

No restaurant, not even a town bar. Yet, they had 6 churches. And 4 of these were baptist churches. Can anyone figure why a town of 200 would need 6 churches, most of which are exactly the same?

Another thing I noticed the whole time I was in Mississippi is the pickup trucks. They are everywhere. And these are not the little pickups like those Ford Rangers that we may see around Grand Rapids, these are all gigantic monsters of trucks, Ram 3500′s and such, that seem to take up a lane and a half of roadway. Why Mississippians would need trucks this size is beyond me. Although, there is something somewhat satisfying about jetting past these things in my little Sunfire.

After finally getting through Mississippi, I got to New Orleans last night around 10. Fun should be had now.

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