Justin Spees of Mclean, Virginia

Before regular blogging resumes, I just wanted to take a moment to give special props to the very first person to invite us into our home on this trip: Justin Spees of Mclean, Virginia. I’ve known Justin by reputation for a while through his writing at NYU Local (where I’m also an erstwhile editor), but we never had an opportunity to meet in person for various reasons, and once he graduated last month I thought we never would.

But he and his friend and siblings were kind enough to let us shower, do laundry, cook food and ultimately sleep in their lovely house Sunday night. It was great meeting all of them, and if we can find people across the country half as hospitable as they were than this is going to be a much more comfortable road trip than I think anyone was expecting.