Sunshine States

IT'S CALLED THE SUN BELT. Since the advent of air conditioning and insecticide, the southern half of the United States has prospered. From Florida and the Southeast to Texas, the Southwest, and California, nearly half of Americans now call the Sun Belt home. The tug of the Sun Belt is so strong, it sometimes seems like it has eaten away at people's desire to stay long-term in other regions. All across the North and in ice box Canada, the idea of moving away to someplace warm, someplace new is so powerful it can feel like people are all just waiting to leave...just as soon as the kids move away or retirement kicks in. The Sun Belt is the "new" America, but it's also a place with primordial nature and cultures stretching back thousands of years. It is so vast and so varied that few have thought to consider it as one thing. As the Sun Belt sets the terms for the America of the future, I decided it was time to discover it for myself, setting off on a road trip that turned into thousands of miles on the road.