The Empty-Nest Road Trip Blues: An Interactive Journal from A Dad's Point-of-View

By Bruce Sallan

In Bruce Sallan’s second book he documents his 3000-mile 8-day cross-country journey taking his eldest son to college, from Los Angeles to Boston. With over 100 photos, 7 never-seen-before videos, and live web links to places that they visited during the trip, this journal is designed to keep all readers interactive.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bruce Sallan
• Release date: Dec 7, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301303762

Bruce Sallan

"Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance" are words from my favorite movie, Singin' In The Rain. The passion and excitement they evoke struck me to the core while I was taking a college film course taught by critic Manny Farber (author of the seminal book, "American Cinema."). Later, you could say I felt I "Gotta Write," but I'm getting ahead of myself. A few years later, I was fortunate to get an internship with a television producer, while earning my M.B.A. from UCLA. What followed was an award-winning television executive and producing career. During those 25 years, I produced over 30 television movies, pilots, and series. I produced my first television movie at age 24 and was a vice president at ABC by the time I was 29. If you care to learn more, you can see my credits and resume. Along the way I was fortunate to work with such actors as Ingrid Bergman, Ron Howard (before he was a director), Mickey Rourke (THAT is a story), Don Johnson (another even better story), Ben Affleck, Hal Holbrook, Barbara Hershey, Sissy Spacek, Henry Winkler, Alan Arkin, and Brian Dennehey. I wrote articles for Daily Variety and the Producers Caucus Bulletin. My article entitled "Murders of the Week," was a response to the then popular trend of taking just about every unsavory murder story and making it into a television movie. That article sparked a healthy debate and I like to believe helped usher out that low period in the history of television movies. (If you read that article, you'll see an embarrassing photo of me when I had a full beard -- another trend that has thankfully passed). I became a first-time dad, to a son, four days after my 40th birthday, less than 9 months after getting married (we got pregnant on the honeymoon). My second son was born three years later. When my boys were still quite young, I left show biz to become a full-time dad and to care for my ailing parents, the classic "sandwich" situation. Sadly, shortly thereafter, my marriage ended and my wife abandoned our children, leaving the state. I found myself a full-time single dad, in my late-forties. And after a while, I jumped into the new world of Internet dating. I was surprised to find that it was pretty much the only mode of dating that anyone was using. I began writing various blogs on the dating sites I used, as well as articles for local publications, including a regular column for a local paper about being a single dad. Late in 2008, as my children were getting older and as both my aging parents had died, I began marketing my column to more newspapers and Web sites. The happy result, so far, is that I'm now published in over 75 newspapers and Web sites, internationally. And, more recently, I've begun a radio show based on my columns which you can read about in the "Radio Show" area here on my web-site. My focus is primarily on parenting issues from the dad's point-of-view, though often the situations are gender-neutral. Yet, just as often they're not. It is my contention that the dad's point-of-view is less "heard" yet equally valuable to parents. My subject matter covers parenting situations I've experienced, but especially the ones that I believe are relevant to a great number of parents. That includes single parenting, divorce issues, dating as a single parent, step-parent issues, dealing with teens, drug and alcohol issues with teens, money issues, and sometimes just general issues about gender differences. I like to think I became a semi-expert on Internet Dating. And I suspect a compilation of all the blogs I wrote during that period will serve as the basis of my first book. All these years later, I still feel passionate about everything I do. The "Gotta Write" drive allows me to express my many passions. I like to think I bring that spirit to everything I do, from heli-skiing and going on safari in Africa, to the everyday issues of raising two boys alone and then as a blended family. I presently live in Calabasas, California, with my second wife (we were married Dec. 27, 2008) and two boys, who are now 19 and 16.

Book preview

The Empty-Nest Road Trip Blues:

An Interactive Journal from A Dad’s Point-of-View

Published by Bruce Sallan at Smashwords

Copyright © 2012 by Bruce Sallan

Production Credits:

Contributing Author: Arnie Sallan

Cover Design: Michael Voogd of VoogDesigns

Typesetting, Interior Design: H. Villa

eBook Formatting: Maureen Cutajar

Photographs, Videos: Bruce Sallan

All rights reserved. No part of this work covered by the copyright herein may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means – graphic, video, electronic or mechanical including information storage and retrieval systems – except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews – without prior written permission from its author and publisher, Bruce Sallan.

Any request for photocopying, recording, taping or information storage and retrieval systems of any part of this book shall be directed in writing to the author and publisher, Bruce Sallan.

Published by Bruce Sallan:

4431 Park Aurora

Calabasas, CA 91302, USA

Tel: [phone]

Email: [e-mail]

Website: www.BruceSallan.com

Table of Contents

Introduction by Bruce

Introduction by Arnie

Acknowledgements

Day One: Leaving and Vegas

Day Two: A Bump in the Road

Day Three: Santa Fe, the Vickerys, and Colorado

Day Four: Trucks, Windmills, and Satellite Radio

Day Five: Chicago, Chicago, that Toddling Town

Day Six: A Shelby Cobra in the House

Day Seven: Rock ‘N’ Roll Forever

Day Eight: Niagara Falls and the Baseball Hall of Fame

Day Nine: Boston, Here We Come

Day Ten: Tattoos and Move-In Day

Lessons

About the Author

Introduction by Bruce

August 24, 2012: I have just left with my son, Arnie, on our cross-country road-trip from Los Angeles to Boston to take him to college in a cherry red 2013 Ford Flex. We have allocated eight days to cover the nearly 3,000 miles with stop #1 being Las Vegas. This e-book will be a diary of our trip, replete with photos, links, and videos.

Ford has generously loaned us a completely loaded 2013 Ford Flex for our trip. Our first challenge, which the Flex met with ease, was loading it up with all the stuff my son wanted to bring with him. That included one guitar and a full drum set, not to mention clothes, nick-knacks, and my stuff for the trip. Enjoy our first video from this epic adventure: Loading Up the Flex (http://youtu.be/t8Vdc9X9dMQ).

Our second challenge, which had been brewing for weeks, was dealing with each other. The anxiety of this trip for both of us has been building all summer. Maybe it’s a good thing, but we had our first blow-up before we left the driveway. I lost it as I was feverishly working, doing final preparations, and starting to bring all the stuff outside when my son came out rubbing his sleepy eyes, after I’d been up for hours already. A nice vigorous out-of-line outburst exploded from me.

My wife came out. Arnie went inside with his friend, who had just arrived to say goodbye. We all cooled down. And, now we are on our way in Friday morning traffic heading to our first destination: Las Vegas. Hereafter, I’ll post entries on a Day One, Day Two basis beginning with Day One: Leaving and Vegas. I’m going to try to do my best to keep the correct past tense writing, though many of these posts will be written in the moment or shortly thereafter.

Note: I kept up the diary of our trip pretty religiously. The time I