Audio By Carbonatix
Nathan Gebhart, Mike Marriner and Brian McAllister weren’t the first newly minted college graduates to leave the shelter of academe and be overwhelmed by the possibilities. But they just might be the first to turn their bewilderment into a kind of alternative business plan: A few years ago, on the brink of real life, they bought a 1985 Fleetwood motor home, painted it green and set off across the country in it, randomly picking people from all professions, some famous and some not, to interview about their work. The RV broke down often, but the plan coalesced quite nicely; before they knew it, the three had compiled their findings into a book, Roadtrip Nation, starred in a documentary and PBS series of their own making, and started a national trend among college students.
What began as a lark has grown into an educational program and partnership with campuses across the nation that sends three-student road-trip teams out annually to continue in the trio’s tire tracks, crisscrossing the nation, recording interviews and visiting colleges and universities (this summer’s tripsters include a crew from Boulder). And the three buddies are launching a second book, Finding the Open Road, a definitive Roadtrip Nation history that puts the whole phenomenon in perspective and boils it down to twelve themes, including such wisdom bites as “Don’t Fall Asleep at the Wheel” and “Unplug Your Education.”
Notes Marriner, who appears Tuesday, May 31, at the Boulder Book Store: “When you graduate from college, you really only know about 10 percent of what’s out there. But just by opening your eyes and having a broader view of what’s out there, you have a better chance of running into your passion.” That’s just how it happened for Marriner, who left college thinking he’d be headed to med school and ended up learning that the color of his particular parachute was writing. As the arm of the organization that handles publishing projects, he’s put it to good use.
