In 1998, I met Annabelle, a crazy, fun French girl who was a science writer like me (actually, we both still are). Somehow in our adventures around Montreal we came up with the idea to hitch-hike across Canada. Then, before we left the city, some big things happened that made us need to decide what to do with the rest of our lives. Annabelle wanted to know if she should stay in Canada or maybe try Australia. I wanted to know if I should bet on love or be sensible. As we travelled across the country, we asked everybody we met about their lives and what they thought we should do with ours. We slept in semi-trucks and turned upside down in snowbanks, went to a prairie house party, and talked and talked and talked. And I wrote it all down with a pen, on paper, and this book contains those words, fairly raw and unfiltered and just in those moments, as we lived them.