trips i took as a child [inaudible] starting out in their careers when i was a young child, and took me to england and to africa, and to a number of different towns where they were starting in their first jobs. and then the many trips we took after my parents got divorced, when my brother and i went with our mother, had to move back and across the country. we were in los angeles when they split up, into the east coast. and traveled to many new homes, often new places where i didn t know anybody. as she struggled to get her life back on track, after my parents broke up. but it s also a reference, sort of a metaphorical reference to the trip that i took in reporting and writing this book, where after an entire adult lifetime, establishing my own career, having my own family, thinking all the time that i was doing everything that my parents hadn t done, avoiding their mistakes, making my way in the world completely on my own, i decided to go back to try to piece together the