Roads From the Ashes

When a wildfire destroys everything you own, sometimes the only way forward is to hit the road.

When a devastating wildfire swept through the hills above Los Angeles, Megan Edwards lost her home and nearly all her worldly possessions. But amid the ashes, she began to see an extraordinary opportunity: the chance to leave conventional life behind and explore North America. Her husband needed a little more convincing. (“Give me five minutes to grieve!”) Before long, however, they were planning an adventure neither could have imagined.

A few months later, they set off in a custom-built, four-wheel-drive motorhome with an unusual feature: an office in the back instead of a bedroom. Edwards intended to keep writing for newspapers while they traveled, filing stories by cell phone in an era when the Internet was barely known and mobile service was unreliable, expensive, and often nonexistent.

They expected to spend six months on the road before settling down and returning to normal life. Instead, six months became years. By the time five years and thousands of miles had passed, they were still traveling, discovering remarkable places, encountering unforgettable characters, and learning what it meant to live without the possessions that had once defined their lives.

Along the way, they witnessed the extraordinary rise of the World Wide Web, from a curiosity embraced by a handful of enthusiasts to a technology transforming everyday life. They launched RoadTripAmerica.com to share their discoveries and travel advice, gradually realizing their dream of being “at work, at home, and on the road, all at the same grand time.”

Originally published in 1999, this twentieth-anniversary edition of Edwards's memoir is both an inspiring account of rebuilding a life after disaster and a funny, revealing portrait of American road travel during the Internet's earliest years. Featuring a new introduction by the author, a foreword by Chris Epting, and 22 photographs from the couple's years on the road, it invites readers to rediscover the freedom, uncertainty, and unexpected rewards of taking the road less traveled.