The Interstate 80 Road Trip Guide

On a family road trip, my parents pulled over and said, “Get out—we can’t afford to feed you this week.” I smiled, stepped out, and held up my phone. I’d been recording everything for child services. An hour later, the police arrived… and my parents never saw what was coming next. I remember the heat first. The kind that seeped into your bones, making the air shimmer just above the pavement. That was the Arizona sun in late July, and there I was, 16 years old, standing on the side of Interstate