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Continue reading →: I am a potato with shoesI used to regularly walk an average of about 11,000 steps per day. This was before the pandemic. I had a Fitbit. Part of that average came from physically going to work at the University of Minnesota. I’d drive to work, and to avoid paying $5 for parking, I’d try…
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Continue reading →: Travel is a lot like a colonoscopy prepEver since I came back from traveling, I’ve been trying to get more involved in things. Whenever I return from a long trip, something like this happens. Travel is, if not a rebirth, then perhaps a cleanse, like a detox regimen or a colonoscopy prep. You end up making plans…
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Continue reading →: He was a ‘working man,’ whereas I am a typing manThe other day at about 6 in the evening I was returning home from a walk when I noticed a couple on the front sidewalk near the border of my and my neighbor’s yard. Unlocking my front door, I glanced over and thought I saw the man struggling to hold…
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Continue reading →: Until the Road Calls AgainMy reintegration into society has so far gone poorly. I am cold all the time now, trapped in the godforsaken midwest again, nothing alive inside to keep me warm. This is the land of the sun-eater, that huge and horrible beast who drags his knuckles across the frozen ground, sending…
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Continue reading →: Earth is like a Big GarageI’m currently at Cholla Campground, Tonto National Forest—billed as one of the largest solar-powered campgrounds in the United States. Since they don’t have electricity at the campsites, I’m not exactly sure what that means. All the bathroom lights are solar powered, I guess, and they have hot showers. But the…
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Continue reading →: 65 Nights in a Camper: The Truth About Small SpacesI’m coming up on 65 consecutive nights in the camper, and while I always leave my return open-ended, it seems like 60 days or so is the point each year where I start thinking about heading home. I miss seeing my friends, of course, and I miss the relative comfort…
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Continue reading →: We the People, but they the People tooOut of about 150 posts here in the last 2+ years, I’ve written about politics around 5 times, and I really don’t want this to become a primary space for that, if only for my own sanity, but also because I want readers to be able to take a break…
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Continue reading →: Big Sur and Death Valley, Nature’s Best ExfoliantHow do you catch up with documenting your travels and other experiences after you’ve taken a two week break from writing and life has gone on and therefore many experiences have come and gone is a question I’m not going to try to answer here but instead illustrate through a…
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Continue reading →: Reflecting on My Most Popular Blog PostsI did one of these about a year ago, where I checked out my blog stats and looked back on the most popular blog posts. It’s interesting to me to see what makes this list, versus my own personal favorites. The most popular post of all time continues to be…
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Continue reading →: Is this DEI?Every February I get a little nervous about work. For the past five years or so at the University of Minnesota, I’ve written a recurring Black History Month feature we call “Where It Starts.” In the series, I interview a mix of Black students/alums/faculty about one or more of a…
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Continue reading →: Burrito Mondays, Taco TuesdaysTonight I stopped at a taco shop that caught my eye with a “$1.59 tacos” sign, but the deal was for Tuesdays, so I got a burrito. I asked the taco lady if Tuesdays were really busy, and she said yes, but Mondays are actually busier, because Monday they prep…
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Continue reading →: It’s been a long week, but it’s finally DunderdayI’ve always said that there is no better way to deal with a challenge or a problem that you’re having than to get into a vehicle and drive away from it. There are other ways, of course. Airplanes, for example, will take you away from your problems much more rapidly.…
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Continue reading →: Exploring Highway 1: A Scenic Journey Along California’s CoastAs it was nearing dusk, I drove 20 miles north from San Simeon SP on Highway 1 as it leisurely winds through the hillsides with views of the pacific cliffs, exposed bare clay in some places where they’re too steep for vegetation, and covered in green where the cliffs can…
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Continue reading →: Reflections from Pismo Beach: Surfers and SweetartsI was squatting down on the beach searching for jelly bean stones when I looked up to see a very attractive woman walking toward me. I struggled to stand up, my bad knee causing me to rise unevenly, and I said to myself, “try to look cool, try to look…
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Continue reading →: Exploring Sedona’s Vortex EnergyI have become one of the beachcombers, we human scavengers among the gulls and other shorebirds. Each day I walk from my campsite the half mile to the beach, then shuffle through the sand with my head down. We search for treasures among the washed up stones and scurry like…
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Continue reading →: When I travel I get chattyI arrived at California’s San Simeon State Park on Sunday afternoon, Jan. 12, after a brief stay in the southernmost part of Sequoia National Forest, which, as far as I could see, had no sequoia trees (generally they are hard to miss). They must be farther north. San Simeon SP…
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Continue reading →: Welcome to Kantexihoma, land of disenchantment
I have seen the London Bridge in person, but I have never been to London. How, you ask? A little more than a year ago I would have asked the same question, but that was before I found out that in 1968 some lunatic (visionary?) purchased the 930 foot bridge—originally…
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Continue reading →: Wish you were here + bonus poem (poemus)
I’m leaving soon on another camperland adventure, towing my little R-pod trailer to Big Sur, California, where I’ll work from home for a good part of the remaining winter. Twenty years or so ago I was there with my tent, and I recall it as one of the most beautiful…
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Continue reading →: Potato Don’t Count
Inventions I’ll never create, businesses I’ll never start, and titles of novels I’ll never write. Sometimes I think of inventions I’ll never create, businesses that I’ll never start, and titles of novels I’ll never write. I like to think of myself as the proverbial “idea man,” where I come up…
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Take a break from the chaos and read about my life to feel better about your own.
Hi. I’m Adam Overland, a writer based in Minneapolis. These are the meanderings of my muddled mind. I’ve written humor columns for various print publications, so naturally that’s dead and here I am, waiting for the last gasp.
