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I am a loner with extreme OCD and like nothing better than to be at home with my dog, my books, and my music, muddling through the same stabilizing routines day after day. A day that does not require me to actually get dressed is generally a good day. The idea of creative collaboration has always had appeal, but based on my past experiences, the reality has left a good deal to be desired—and it’s always my own fault. I long ago concluded that I’m just not good at it. I also have a checkered history with deadlines. I can’t produce anything without a gun to my head, yet I resent having a gun to my head. Much of Alec’s career has been spent working alone as well, and he has a fierce work ethic.As a result of these concerns, the whole Dispatch idea was thrilling, but seriously daunting. And since we always travel with a third person who does much of the driving and helps with logistics and other nuts-and-bolts stuff, our particular chemistry seemed fraught with explosive peril right from the get-go.It was Norman Mailer who said, “In motion a man has a chance,” and now, a year into this adventure, the challenge has become how to adjust to being off the road and sitting still once again. There’s an endless adrenaline rush to Dispatch trips, and it’s become remarkably easy to lose oneself in the planning, itinerary, working routines, and open-ended possibilities of traveling every day to a new place. The notebooks fill up, the photos keep coming, and we’ve started to take for granted the magic that we seem to routinely stumble into everywhere we go. Just a couple for instances: when we really wanted a Boy Scout in Ohio, there was a Boy Scout standing in a parking lot alongside the road; and just when we were wishing out loud for Mormons in Colorado, voilà—two Mormons rounded the corner on their mountain bikes.
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