Dear readers — it’s about that time.
America’s #1 vibes-based newsletter is now welcoming your hot tips regarding any and all SCARY COOL SAD GOODBYE-coded destinations within the Great Midwest. Biker bars, supper clubs, haunted lighthouses, sites of supernatural wonder or distinct abjection, you get the gist. Drop us a line by replying to this email, or hit meaghangarvey@gmail.com.
Meanwhile, a brief selection from last year’s Midwest Road Trip Special, if you’re new around these parts…
SCARY COOL SAD GOODBYE 59
It’s still chilly in Chicago but nevertheless, my first summer with a driver’s license and a really cool car starts NOW. So it’s only right that America’s #1 vibes-based email newsletter honor the occasion by dedicating our Summer 2024 coverage to the theme of the
SCARY COOL SAD GOODBYE 61
I couldn’t tell you where I was or what I did in the years 2008, 2014, or 2020, but as for my childhood aesthetic awakening, I can see it clear as day. On the wall of a dim classroom (park district summer camp 1992), a laminated poster of Henri Rousseau’s “The Dream”
SCARY COOL SAD GOODBYE 63
How strange — I’ve lived in Illinois most of my life, and only really ventured south of the Chicagoland area, I mean with purpose, twice. Eighth grade we rode the bus to Springfield, our state capitol, with a stop for dinner at the Old Country Buffet; five years later, an appropriately dismal Greyhound to Champaign-Urbana for some party or another. I’ve…