"With an open mind and an open heart, I set out on the open road toward the unknown in Arizona. As soon as I started my poor little car, heavy with everything I owned and had left to my name, I felt the butterflies kick in. There were still little patches of snow on the ground as I drove away from Gardner and down past Worcester. As I crossed the Connecticut border on Highway 84, I let out a war cry of heartbreak.

It was a ceasefire of spiritual warfare after a season of soul-crushing, post-divorce madness. In this thunderous scream, I felt the exhalation of torment, and inhaled the promise of a new life. From New England, through anger-inducing traffic in New York City and the enormous slog of driving through Washington DC, I found myself drifting through the Carolinas. Here lies a wounded, unhealed soul with a nasty colonial past much like other Southern, Bible-belt states. I wanted nothing to do with their past. I didn’t want to have anything to do with anyone’s past so long as they were in deep denial. You can’t help people or places that don’t want to be helped. You just have to keep driving forward, taking care of yourself and being the best you can be if you want to help others. I knew deep down that I was no help to anyone so long as I wasn’t looking out for my own health, safety, and sanity. So I kept to the one direction I knew had always helped: forward."

- M.B. Dallocchio, "The Desert Warrior"