We are doing this because Katherine wants to see Michael Heizer’s “Double Negative.”

And because the road unwinding underneath you is always a good thing.

And because I have a crushing curiosity about wandering the earth in mobile base camps and a fantasy about meticulously organized kit and well kept gear.

And because there are few places as simultaneously romantic and weird as the American West.

We’ll make dashi and noodles and elk steaks and use a dutch oven for bread and entertainment.

We’ll wake up in the wide, red empty of this or that expanse. We’ll wake up in a Walmart lot. Maybe we’ll see the Salton Sea. Maybe we’ll go left or go right. Maybe, one way or the other, is going to be embraced.