On our way out of Maine, we spotted a front yard full of coastal detritus. Hundreds of buoys, bottles, bikes, signs, and even a couple cars surrounded the house.

On the Road from Chicago to Gloucester

Then we turned around to head back, and were walking directly into the full moon, rising over Glen Lake.

On the Road from Chicago to Traverse City

After ten hours of driving through central Illinois, blasting through St. Louis, and then following the Mississippi River down through Kentucky and Tennessee, we arrived in Memphis just in time to drink a couple of beers and fall asleep. The following morning we awoke at dawn and made our way to the oldest restaurant in the city: The Arcade. The Arcade was founded in 1919 by Speros Zepatos, transformed into a hip diner by Speros’ son Harry in the ‘50s, and almost forgotten when downtown Memphis became a ghost town with the decline of the railroad, the exodus of downtown businesses, and the riots following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968. It was revived again in the ‘80s, however, and has been popular ever since. Scenes from Mystery Train, Great Balls of Fire, The Client, The Firm, 21 Grams, Elizabethtown, Walk the Line, and My Blueberry Nights have been filmed in the joint, and the food wasn’t half bad, either.

On the Road from Chicago to New Orleans

The Mission

The Handshake is an independent online and print magazine based in Chicago, Illinois. Harkening back to the New Journalism that captured the American readership back in 1960s, we are dedicated to publishing conversations, interviews, experimental essays, short fiction, and photographic travelogues produced by the spirited community of journalists in Chicago and nationwide.

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