Road 2 Where, Exactly?
When I was Editor of Men’s Health magazine, and before that, articles editor for Playboy, I was pretty good at my jobs. But I was great at taking vacations—Moscow and Minneapolis, Bermuda and the Badlands, Kathmandu and Kauai, Key West and the Congo, plus all those national parks you’ve been meaning to visit (Acadia, Great Sand Dunes, Everglades, Point Reyes National Seashore, and on, and on). I live to travel because every trip changes and enriches my life, starting with an epic run through Paris-London-the South Downs-Belfast-Sligo-Oslo-Zagreb (!)-Venice-Rome just after I graduated from college. The Road2Elsewhere will track my own gleanings and mistakes from a lifetime of purposeful wandering through places, ideas, books and stuff that makes me laugh; harvest insights from the best memoirists and travel writers; and include paintings and drawings and cartoons I made along the way. Not all who wander are lost…they’re on the Road2Elsewhere.
Not sure yet? Here’s a sampling of my posts, and what my beautiful, quick witted, and perceptive readers have said about them in the comments.
R2E Excerpt #46*: The Rising Tide of Words Words Words
Delightfully witty and watercolors connect very well with the narrative.
Tim, 4/1/23 (though he might have just been April foolin’)
Ten Things that Used to Be Fun but are Now Worrisome
Love the art! Enthralled with the insight.
Fred, 12/1/21
Starry-eyed in Starry-Night Territory
Alors mon ami, je suis so biased. I enjoy all these scribbles and sketches so much.
Kalpana, 10/24/22
A Writer. His Wife. A Remote Outpost in Colorado. Lots of Snow. Even More Darkness.
This is absolutely WONDERFUL! I LOVE your hilarious and beautifully-illustrated story on your recent break in Colorado. My favourite thing to have read today!
Rebecca, 1/2/23
Road to Elsewhere, Excerpt #23*: Sacré-Cœur? Sa·cré bleu!
This journey of yours is captivatingly mesmerizing!
Wayne, 2/6/22
Frontier, Spirit Airlines Merge to Form Giant Pain in the Ass
I have been laughing out loud, lol.
Lee, 3/31/22
The Real Shit Tom Brady is Dealing With at Age 45: An illustrated exposé
Peter, you are a RIOT. I'll read anything—even a Covid safe distancing pamphlet—designed and written by you.
Kalpana, 9/5/22
Your talent as a humorist ranks with the best of them, and I'm really glad I found out about your Road2Elsewhere right away. I imagine you know Sylvia Plath was also ("also" meaning, like you) a REALLY gifted artist beyond poetry? Painting, pen and ink.... Geez, how I can go on and on.... Best.
Bob, 5/14/22
Packing Heat in the Paris Metro
I loved every scrap of this post, Peter!
Rebecca, 1/9/23
Great Writing. There is a song in there somewhere. I too, am a guy who cries. Things touch me, and the "ground water" comes to the surface. Am I weak? Am I showing weakness? Flip that.
Scott, 11/22/22
Who the hell are you, Peter?
I’m a decorated magazine journalist, having helped guide Men’s Health to a couple of National Magazine Awards for general excellence, as well as earning an Ellie for my feature A Tale of Three Hearts. And, during my time at MH I ghosted or co-wrote three New York Times bestsellers in the health/diet realm. I am the editorial shit, as it were. And then, about three years ago, I learned that I’m a cartoonist as well.
Never saw that coming. But my key credential is that I’ve spent my lifetime in purposeful travel, and through it I’ve lived better, and eaten better, and probably become a better person. Care for a snail?
Where in the world is Peter headed now?
I’ll be posting weekly: There will be sketches, drawings, jokes, and cartoons from the travel life. And I’ll post illustrated excerpts from my forthcoming memoir The Road to Elsewhere, augmented by wanderlusty journal entries plucked from the six million words I’ve written along my route.
Hope you’ll join me for this joyride.
Wait, did AI do all this for you?
Hell no!
Bleep. Bloop. BleepBoop.
Oh, and thanks, Substack
To find out more about the company that provides the tech for this newsletter, visit Substack.com.
