May 2025 Update: One Road is Returning!

Welcome back folks! It’s been a while, and I think it’s about time for an update on what’s been happening with this site.

This blog was started as a university project back in 2024, and it was probably the most ambitious project I worked on while there. Driving across the Maine and its neighbors regularly and writing posts on a weekly basis took a lot of time and energy (and a decent bit of money, which was a lot to take on as a college student). At the same time, producing One Road was some of the most fun I’ve had working on a creative project in or out of school, and I’ve seriously missed doing these sort of trips.

I finished out my journalism degree in December, and I’m soon to be graduated officially (this weekend, in fact!), so I figure that now is as good a time as ever to finally come back and continue what I started with One Road. Now that I’ve had some time to think about my work, and some time to brainstorm new ideas, I have a few changes to announce before we get back into scheduled content.

New Posts (Schedules and Rule Changes)

First thing’s first: You can expect new One Road on a bi-weekly basis from now on. This is cut back from once every week almost entirely because of travel costs. This blog is done by me for fun and as a creative outlet, and unfortunately I can’t afford to drive long distances on a super regular basis. Weekly posts are definitely something I would like to return to in the future though, if my career allows for it.

The first full post of One Road’s return will release on Friday, May 15th and continue every other Friday from there. I will also be releasing small blog/life updates such as this one on the first Monday of each month, in addition to the regular post schedule.

I am also adding a small amendment to the rules of One Road, but I feel it still completely stays within the spirit of “taking every road from end-to-end.” Now instead of just traveling roads by car, I am also allowing trips done by walking, biking, or public transportation.

During the original run of posts, I felt that some of my writing got quite same-y and lost some of the creative aspects I wanted to have in each story. In addition to a lighter release schedule, having more variety in the mode of transit for each post will keep that spark stronger and offer a much more diverse catalogue of adventures. The first post back on will be on a public transportation route in Boston, so I’m excited to see your responses to it!

With the extra time in between posts, I also want to really strive to polish every one of the photos I put on the blog. Most of the pictures featured in every past post have been the raw image file, and I’d really like to polish them up to make them brighter, more digestible, and overall higher quality. I will also be lowering the file size a bit, because they certainly fill up WordPress’s storage limit fast. You may notice some pictures change or disappear from previous posts due to this, but don’t worry, I still keep each one in my archive so they won’t be gone forever.

The One Road YouTube Channel

It’s still there! As I did in the original run, I’ll continue to post YouTube Shorts to go along with each blog post. But I also want to expand into more long-form content over the course of this year (and not just more Geoguessr!).

A lot of the reason I first started One Road in the first place was due to my huge interest in the “adventuring” niche of travel journalism and vlogging, namely from the works of YouTubers such as Geowizard, Miles in Transit, and the team behind Jet Lag: The Game. In addition to the bi-weekly posts here on the One Road blog, I will also be periodically posting long-form video content that falls slightly outside of the scope of what usually fits here, but still keeps that adventuring spirit at its core.

The first of these I hope to post is a journey from the easternmost point to the westernmost point of my hometown of Quincy, MA, entirely by walking. This takes me from the beaches of the Hough’s Neck peninsula through the bustling downtown of Quincy Center and deep into Greater Boston’s major hiking destination, the Blue Hills. This is already fully filmed and in the editing process, and I hope to have it released sometime in June.

Next, I’m planning on playing a two-day game of the Jet Lag home game with some friends at the end of this month. This is essentially a hide-and-seek card game played by traveling around the region on public transportation, and it has required a lot of setup but is a lot of fun to play and (hopefully) watch. This will be the third time I’ve played the game, and across by far the largest land area, as the entire MBTA system is our board – that means virtually all of Eastern MA and RI are in play. I hope to have this edited sometime this summer, preferably before August rolls around. Depending on how well it goes, this may even turn into a multi-episode affair.

These will have a much looser release schedule than the regular blog, as I’ll be the solo video editor for these projects. I have a few more ideas for more vlog content after these though, so be sure to let me know if you enjoy them when they release or if you have any suggestions for more!

The Future of One Road

Perhaps the biggest change I’ll be making in the coming months is under the hood. By the end of this year, I hope to completely overhaul the design of this website to have more interactivity and personality and move it from WordPress hosting to a new home under NeoCities.

This move will require me to learn a new programming language known as HTML, and that’s why it will take a while to get together. But once it is done, the site will have a brand new look, styled after the old-school Delorme road atlases I’ve used to map out each of my adventures. It’ll also make it far easier for me to add new functionality, organization, and some fun animations to each page for your viewing pleasure.

One of those new functionalities will be the addition of interactive Google Maps to go alongside each post that show the route being taken and some of the landmarks along it. The master copy of this map is still in progress, but does show several of my future planned routes and a little bonus video I put up for April Fool’s Day last month. As a thank you for reading this far, you can take a look at that map here.

I hope you all enjoy this new phase of One Road, and as always, if you have any questions or suggestions you can reach me at oneroadnewengland@gmail.com.

Let’s get adventuring!

• Rin