After A Year in New York came out, I quit my job at the New Yorker and drove west in my parents’ 1989 Honda. I brought forty-eight maps, sixty sketchbooks, and a guidebook listing every Motel 6 in the country (though most nights I ended up sleeping in the passenger seat). I stopped at some predictable places; let some unpredictable places come to me. I drew sunbathers in Florida, the Ben & Jerry’s factory in Vermont, fire fighters in Idaho, the Chicago Board of Trade. I put 14,000 miles on the car. The trip took all summer. When I was done I put my experiences into this book.
