he dusty pickup plunges into the July night, and soon the lights of this tiny West Texas town are gone, replaced by a serene darkness unknown to the urbanites packed side by side in the truck bed. The truck wobbles over the gravel roads, laboring to gain traction with every turn like a roller coaster climbing its first drop, and we struggle to grasp something stable. Wheels churn, spewing rocks and dust behind us as the pickup lumbers on and on into the darkness, steered by 20-something cowboy who may or may not be inebriated.

So this is backroading, I think, as the balmy breeze ruffles my hair.

To my right is Erik Calonius, a former Wall Street Journal reporter turned popular nonfiction author and ghostwriter extraordinaire. Behind me is James Donovan, a literary agent and author of the Custer biography A Terrible Glory. And just in front of me, his back pressed against the truck bed door, is Hampton Sides, who, if his Americana is any indication, regularly winds up in situations like this — comical, mildly daring romps through the rarely seen frontiers of modern America. [ mcmurtryland ]