Blog Amateur Apr 2026

I didn’t have a compass. I didn’t have a GPS signal. All I had was a sunburn and a stupid sense of direction. But I pointed left, and he turned.

Sam woke up. “Whoa,” he said.

“You knew,” he said.

Not literally. But Dad’s printed directions ended at a place called “Scenic Overlook 7.” The road after it wasn’t on the page. It was just a beige slit in the red earth, disappearing into a haze of heat. blog amateur

So we went. The four of us: Dad, Mom, Sam (12, obsessed with pterodactyls), and me, sulking in the passenger seat with a copy of On the Road that I’d only read three pages of. I didn’t have a compass

That last part was bratty. I admit it.