Leaving the Script: A Year of Riding, Writing, and Figuring Out What’s Next

[needles]

Chapter 6: Highway 20 Ride

I always thought Interstate 20 was just another road.

After getting the GS sorted in Atlanta, I pointed east toward Savannah and decided to avoid as much interstate as I could. Somewhere along the way Zac Brown’s Highway 20 Ride popped into my head.

I’d heard the song a hundred times. What I didn’t know until recently was that co-writer Wyatt Durrette was literally driving this stretch of I-20 between Atlanta and Augusta when he wrote it. Different circumstances, same road.

The song is about separation and making do with the time you have. That hit a little differently this trip.

For twenty years, family was always somewhere else. Plane tickets. Holiday schedules. Long weekends. Suddenly, after all these years, my parents were twenty-five minutes away. No planning required.

The full story is here: https://dashedyellowline.com/2026/05/16/highway-20-ride/

 

[needles]

Chapter 7: Tybee to Dothan

One of the unexpected things about this year has been discovering that I don’t always have to follow the original plan.

I was supposed to be headed for Ichetucknee Springs. Instead, after saying goodbye to the family lake place and dealing with a motorcycle that was auditioning for the role of Pharaoh and the Ten Plagues, I took a bi-day and pointed west toward Dothan to visit an old friend.



The ride itself was classic South Georgia. Chicken buffets in Claxton. Gnats in my ear canal when in Fitzgerald. Crossing I-75 and finding an abandoned antique store where you’d expect a truck stop. Mailing my California ballot from a small-town post office.



But the part that stuck with me wasn’t really the ride. My buddy left corporate America years ago and now grows trees. Walking the property changed how I looked at the roads I’d been riding all day. Those endless rows of pines weren’t forests. They’re farms.

We talked about planting, growth, stewardship, what to cut back, what to let mature, and what happens when you ignore something for too long. “So… how is your walk with God?”



I haven’t really had an answer to that question in a long time.

Sometimes the road gives you answers. Other times it just gives you space. This one did more of the latter.

Full story here: https://dashedyellowline.com/2026/05/19/tybee-to-dothan/

 

[greenmonster]

I’m sure your parents are thrilled to have you close by once again. And it sounds good for you too.
You’ll mean more to each other. Everyone’s older now, perspectives have changed.

You’ve gone out into the world, fought the battles, stood independently and successfully against it all.
Now you can put down your sword and shield and come home to the nest.
And rest.

 

[Butch]

Way.
Cool.

Thank you.