Table of Contents - Start Here
Your guide to the Computing Across America book, with chapters listed in chronological order.
Substack is a handy platform for serializing a complex project, like this technomadic adventure story, but it treats everything like a newsletter. That means the “home page” shows the most recent issue first, a backwards way to read a book.
I created this page so you can easily read the story from the beginning. The book is a linear narrative spanning 8 years, with several mini-epochs. Each teaser below links to its chapter (and the “previous” and “next” links at the bottom of each one let you read straight through without returning here).
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The First Digital Nomad
INTRODUCTION - Dublin, Ohio - Spring, 1983 (with voice-over)
This tale begins at a time of primitive technologies. Cellular phones did not exist, going online cost a few dollars an hour for text-only services, and people were debating whether one could work at home instead of going to the office. We were chained to our desks...
Prehistory of a Technomad
CHAPTER 0 - 7-minute video
Electronics was passion, obsession, raison d’etre. From the early sixties to the early eighties, this is the story of a paleogeek, from science fairs to early homebrew computer now in the Computer History Museum... setting the stage...
The Idea is Born
CHAPTER 1 - Hmmm, a computer on a bicycle... Dublin, Ohio - Spring 1983
Suburbia is not a place; it's a state of mind. This chapter is the seed of a crazy idea, combining all my passions into a lifestyle with recumbent, newfangled portable computer, and CompuServe account...
The First Steps
CHAPTER 2 - Inverting a life with new tools (March-Sept, 1983)
Taking the technomadic fantasy and turning it into a custom recumbent bicycle, a suite of technological tools, and a base office with a novel business model...
Poised for the Leap
CHAPTER 3 - First test on the eve of departure - Dublin, Ohio (Sept 27, 1983)
The poignant madness of the night before, packing, the rig still untested... and a friend popping in at 3AM to get the show on the road...
The Launch
CHAPTER 4 - Send-off in the CompuServe parking lot (Sept 28, 1983)
Greasy fingers before breakfast, the first encounter with media, and the birth of digital nomadics hosted by one of the early computer network services...
The First 200 Miles
CHAPTER 5 - Creaky beginnings - Columbus-Indianapolis (October, 1983)
The adventure begins with a ride to Human-Powered Vehicle events on the Indy 500 Speedway, with some biological challenges and early fumbles with camping gear....
Rolling into Dataspace
CHAPTER 6 - A shakedown through previous life (October, 1983)
Now alone on the road, meeting article deadlines, visiting parents in Louisville, and getting to know this strange new life...
Control-Alt-Delete of a Life
CHAPTER 7 - The perils of electronic flirtation - Columbus, October 1983
While visiting my pre-trip girlfriend, I have a shocking glimpse of my new electronic home town and realize just how huge a transition this is...
Departure from the Norm
CHAPTER 8 - escaping the comfort zone - Ohio to Pennsylvania (October, 1983)
On the road for real with the shakedown behind me, eastbound to Pennsylvania, the adventure begins....
The 3-Mile Hill
CHAPTER 9 - Mutual show 'n tell at an unusual school (October, 1983)
I visit the Pressley Ridge Wilderness School after an encounter in the Uniontown Mall (and apparently have something in common with Nastassja Kinski)
The Convict Incident
CHAPTER 10 - C&O Canal Towpath - Maryland (November, 1983)
An idyllic day on the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal Towpath, along the Potomac, turns into a bizarre encounter in the woods.
Much more to come! New chapters will be added here as they are posted