Phoenix Artists Abigail Lynch and Bart Dangus Set Off on A Road Trip with No Return Date

As Abigail Lynch and Bart Dangus pack up their belongings and ready themselves for a road trip with no set itinerary or destination, something rests heavy on their consciences: their cats.

“I love the desert and am going to miss the landscape,” Lynch says, “but we talk so much about how we’re going to miss the cats.”

The two local artists have devised the ultimate road trip, one in which they take their recently purchased trailer on an intracontinental ride with no set route and no set return date. The two have created a podcast called Something O'er the Hill to narrate their trip and, according to their website, help their friends, family, and followers "live vicariously through them."  

As they prepare to leave Daahs and Milo behind in the capable hands of Dangus’ mother, they’re also preparing to sell their truck and move most of their belongings into storage before the end of September. Their first destination: West Virginia to visit Lynch’s family.

When they started to plan this family reunion two months ago, Lynch, 24, and Dangus, 28, had an epiphany of sorts, one that told them to keep driving.

“A few months ago, we started planning a road trip to go visit Abby’s dad’s side of the family,” Dangus says. “Then we thought, why don’t we just go do that and stay on the road for a while?”

“It’s a great time to do it, there’s nothing holding us back.” Lynch echoed. “We’re both just ready to do something different with our lives.”


From West Virgina the pair will then head to Michigan to attend the Detroit Art Book Fair, a celebration for independent publishing. After that, the two will begin their trip across North America with their impulses and their podcast to guide them to wherever they may find a compelling story to share.

“Through the podcast, we’re really excited about getting to meet people and interview them,” Dangus says. “We’re focusing primarily on talking to artists, comedians, entertainers, anyone interesting really.”

In terms of funding, he plans to take his current job on the road.

“I have a contracted position as a web developer, so we’ll be working from the road.” Dangus says. “Abby learned how to do that stuff too, so she’ll help with the contract work. And through the podcast we’re trying to get some donations.”

Lynch, a photographer who recently graduated from ASU, will use the trip as an opportunity to expand her portfolio, as well as help out with the aforementioned web development work.


Aside from the obvious trauma of missing their cats, the two have few fears about their upcoming trip. When asked what their most anxious about, Lynch had a simple answer — at first.

“Getting sick of each other,” Lynch laughs. “But I guess the lack of stability is going to be kind of tough. We’re coming from the way we’ve lived our lives, we’ve always had an address and we’ve always had jobs, but now we wont have any of that, so its scary and exciting.”

Dangus says his fear comes more from not taking a trip like this. He cites comedian Bill Burr, who once says, “Realize that sleeping on a futon when you’re 30 is not the worst thing … There’s no risk when you go after a dream. There’s a tremendous amount of risk to playing it safe.”

Dangus plans to spend some time working on his own stand-up comedy in every city he's able to.

Neither of the two plan on coming back to the desert anytime soon.

“We don’t have a set date, we’re just kind of going go for as long as we feel like it,” Lynch says. “So whenever we get done with it will be whenever we feel like it.”

To learn more about Dangus’ and Lynch’s trip, follow their playlist at sothpodcast.com. They are also accepting donations for their trip, which can be made through their website.