On the road in the American West.
Writing, making videos and music, and having the adventure of a lifetime.

DRIFT

go somewhere

// on the road
Aerial drone shot looking straight down at a campsite on a gravel bar beside a creek, two people by a fire, solar panels deployed, Sprinter van at right, San Juan Mountains, Colorado.
// subscribe
June 4, 2026
The Aircraft Carrier
On Substack now. Roads dispatches go two weeks before this site.
→ chasingthebutter.substack.com
 Sunset over the Grand Canyon from the North Rim, sun breaking through clouds above the vast canyon, green trees in the foreground.
May 18, 2026  ·  North Rim, Arizona
The Foreign Visitor
Arrived at the North Rim. The canyon is vast. Something ate the potatoes. And last night a feeling showed up that took until morning to name.
→ read
// interviews
Aerial drone shot looking down at Layng standing between solar panels beside his Sprinter van, San Juan Mountains, Colorado.
LAYNG: On Nomadic Life
Nine questions on life as a nomad in the American West. June 4, 2026 · Silverton, Colorado.
→ read
// music
// hi-fi lonesome sound system
Hi-Fi Lonesome, Season Two
New music created in the spirit of 1960s country LPs.
→ all songs
A Quiet Fortune
Hi-Fi Lonesome Sound System · 2026
Let's Roll
Hi-Fi Lonesome Sound System · 2026
▶ open the player
What a Time
Chasing the Butter · 2026
// games
GAMES
Word games, strategy games, party games. SIGNAL, REVERSI, PARKS, PEEING OR NOT PEEING, and more.
→ all games
// field guides
FIELD GUIDES
Interactive guides to the places and topics on the road. San Juan Mountains. Bonita Peak. Solar panels. More on the way.
→ explore
SAN JUAN MOUNTAINS
You're standing on the remains of the largest volcanic eruption Earth has seen in 440 million years. The geology, the rivers, the wildlife, the history of who named what and why.
→ read now
// library
THE LIBRARY
Essays on intelligence, effort, creativity, and the practice of making things.
→ enter
 A glowing tablet displaying analytics data lies abandoned on a desert roadside at sunset, Monument Valley mesas silhouetted against an orange sky.
THE SAME PRESSURE
The algorithm is just the latest costume. On the pressure that never gives a command, the correction that always finds its way home, and what continuity actually means.
→ read
 A man chopping wood outside a farmhouse, a steaming pot beside him
CHOP WOOD, CARRY WATER
On the two kinds of people you already know, and the singular pattern that explains the gap between them. It's not discipline. It's something simpler and harder to name.
→ read
 Grocery store shelf
OPTIMIZED AGAINST YOU
Three essays on the gap between what the label implies and what's actually happening inside your body. Gum. Seed oils. Private equity. Systems that were never designed with you in mind.
→ read
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