When we left town on March 27, 1994, we had no itinerary, no return date, and no agenda. We did, however, want to keep in touch with our friends and families. Because we knew post cards would not be enough to maintain relationships in the long run, we decided before we left to write and send a monthly newsletter.

These first journals were published on our trusty laptop computer and copied at print shops across the country. Our mailing list grew from the original 87 to over 500 by the middle of 1996. We licked all the stamps and mailed each issue from wherever we were.

ROADTRIP AMERICA® has given us the chance to publish the PHOENIX ONE JOURNAL electronically, and we've added color photographs that we weren't able to include in the originals.