American Wayside
Morgan "Salman" Strub, lifelong hitchhiker and digihitch.com Editor, provides an intimate and honest look at America through the eyes of a traveler. From early teenage runaway experiences to college-aged adventures and 30-something road ruminations, Morgan dumps you right alongside him in the passenger seat, meeting the strangers and samaritans who take him up to share miles and surprisingly unordinary tales.
Born 1973 in Arizona, Strub recounts his early life at the desert's edge of the West Phoenix suburbs- among tract houses and tumbleweeds.
What makes a young boy in this age of insecurity choose to ramble? Through the careful unraveling of traumatic and self-conscious events in his early life, Morgan exposes a few fascinating and hard-lived theories. Psychological abuse, religiosity, molestation and mental illness each play a role, leading him to break out and discover a place free of the strict judgementalism and restraint of his youth. Both in his travels and writings, Morgan's search for release along the way becomes a continual act of catharsis; what has led him over the years to call hitchhiking his 'salvation.'
Pulling from years of travel experience among 1000s of hitchhikers on digihitch.com, American Wayside is able to offer never-before-published statistics & insights from the collective hitchhiker experience, w/ travel polls, opinion pieces and specific tips on dealing with stereotypical situations on the road-- sexual ploys, drunken drivers, violence/ intolerance, legal issues and even simple matters of hygiene.
Along the breadth of the book, Morgan Strub is diagnosed with cancer (2009) and is set with a new urgency- to complete his soul projects: a hitchhiking memoir, a film about budget, participatory travel, and the launch of a non-profit organization for the support of hitchhikers and purposeful travelers; namely, digihitch.com and Road Bard Initiative. The last pages see him racing toward his goals amidst an incurable prognosis of cancer- Stage IV Neuroblastoma. What remains is the soulful song of a lifelong traveler, thumbing at society's shoulder with an irrevocable smile.
Thanks so much to our current book sponsors and supporters!
· Melissa Frederick and Family have provided research materials from our Amazon Wishlist.
· Dan Striker has provided a donation and research materials.
· David & Charmagne Coe provided research materials.
The book will be available online and at a bookstore near you in Spring or Summer 2010. If you would like to be notified as soon as an early edition is available for advanced purchase (Winter/Spring 2010), please email: notify@americanwayside.com. Make sure that the word Book is included in the subject line.
How to Sponsor/ Support American Wayside, and Author Morgan Strub
American Wayside is a labor of love, a hitchhiking memoir and tribute to the road and America many years in the making. Without a publisher's advance, Morgan relies on the donations and sponsorship of others to provide: research materials, basic travel and interview costs, transcription services, etc.
If you would like to become a sponsor, please email: sponsor@americanwayside.com. Make sure that the word Book is included in the subject line. Let us know how you can help-- fixed donation, grant, art illustrations, research sharing, large quantity advanced purchase, etc. Or, tell us if you would like current info on specific ways to support the book during its production.
To support Morgan Strub directly, consider helping him in his fight against cancer. Read his blog at cancercaw.com for more details, and join his Facebook group- Team Morgan ~ Beat Buster!