39 days sober and into my fourth week of rehab with a five day stint in Chicago's finest psychiatric ward, I decided to take a break from the stress of a fruitless job hunt. I hopped into my ATM, a 2001 Honda Accord that I paid $3000 for and have received over $6000 in insurance checks for other people's mistakes, and hit the ground running with two trusty hounds by my side.
At first the adventure was no more than a weekend with family in north central Iowa. Somewhere on a two-lane highway near the Field of Dreams it hit me, the Grand Plan. Why restrict Operation Decompression to a three day stretch? What about a three week - four state tour of photographic exploration and development of a long overdue children's book?
Upon my arrival at Castle Parecki, the stately home of Mario and Roxanna Radina Parecki (my parents), the kaiser roll to the ham salad that was to be Operation Decompression began to rise. I logged onto roadsideamerica.com to become familiar with as many of Iowa's oddities that a trip funded by donations could handle. After scratching a list that filled two pages in my 24th sketchbook I realized that this was more than a leisurely Sunday stroll through the countryside, this was a true American adventure.
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