The plan was simple, we’d start calling out songs to play on Spotify to pass the time, but the catch was, we couldn’t repeat the artist.

My family loves playing the name game, and this was just another fun take on it. The name game, for the unanointed, involves someone saying the name of a band or solo artist, like say, “Bob Dylan.”

Then we’d say, “Ok, D to you” to the person clockwise from that first person. That means, the person has to come up with a band or solo artist that begins with a D because of Dylan. So the next person might say “Don Henley, H to you,” to the person next to him.

There are twists with the name game though. Like if the second person said Don Dokken, for instance, the game reverses and it goes back to the person who started it with Bob Dylan.

This is a drinking game, by the way, and as the night wears on, the chants of “drink while you think” get louder and the pressure to come up with something gets worse. Oh, and if you say a name that’s already been said – you drink as a penalty. My wife and I have played that game for three decades at house parties, while camping or hanging out by a bonfire with friends. And it never disappoints. Now my daughters love to play it too and sometimes we’ll play for a little while after a nice dinner out or something – just for a few laughs.

So what we were doing in the car to start the journey was really just a variation to an extent – without drinking obviously.

I didn’t take a lot of handwritten notes on this 22-day adventure, but I typed a lot on my laptop keyboard, often while Kirsti slept in. She didn’t write much in the car either, which is why the reporter’s notebook detailing the 17 songs we alternated choosing, in her handwriting, seems really valuable to me.

Big Brother and the Holding Company kicked it off with Janice’s masterpiece “Piece of My Heart.” I think I chose that one.

Then came “Shark Smile,” by a band called Big Thief.

Kirsti’s choice.

Then the Doobie Brothers with “Listen to the Music,” “Jane Says” by Jane’s Addiction and “Don’t Fear the Reaper” by Blue Oyster Cult.

Not sure if there’s a theme or genre forming yet?

One of my all-time favorites, “Yellow Ledbetter” was up next from Pearl Jam, and “Monotonia” by The Growlers (definitely hers).

We then heard “Fadeaway” by the Bodeans, and “Little Mascara” from the Replacements and then – we lost service and could only play songs she had saved on Spotify.

That reduced our canvas a bit.

We heard Croce’s “Time in a Bottle,” “White Room” by Cream and “The Grand Illusion” from Styx.

   I think Kirsti will tell you she is pleased to have been exposed to all sorts of music as a kid, from the Grateful Dead, Stones and Beatles to Jane’s Addiction, REM and the Replacements. She plays a ton of decades old songs in her sets including Neil Young, Jackson Browne and Simon and Garfunkel. She’s great at reading the room for her song choices and it often leads to a solid tip jar.

But in more recent years, Kirsti has turned me on to new music, stuff like Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen. And she has always loved Taylor Swift and I gotta say, aside from her pop stuff (I’m not a pop guy), I love her too. There, I said it! I love Taylor Swift. I love her voice and I think she is a very clever songwriter. Sure, I pity the guys she has ditched or been ditched by who are now cemented in platinum records, but she is so talented and has been relevant for so long. You have to respect that, like her or not.

From Styx we went to the Zombies and “She’s Not There,” then “Somebody to Love” by Jefferson Airplane, “Love My Way” by the Psychedelic Furs and – wait for it – “It’s not Unusual” by Tom Jones. Pretty sure that one was mine.

The final song, before we bailed on the game, was “Be my Baby” by the Ronettes, one of Kirsti’s favorites.

We never played the game again, but music was always on as we ate up those 5,000 miles except for a handful or hours when we listened to books on tape about Dylan, and Kurt Vonnegut.

And while we may not have been purposely picking songs and not repeating bands or artists like we started, we were often singing.

When reviewing notes for this book, it brought me down a neat musical memory lane including a rousing rendition of Joe Jackson’s “Is She Really Going Out With Him.”

When the kids were young, they’d often hear me taking a harmony part when songs I liked came on the radio. I have limited range, but can carry a tune. My claim to fame is winning the Proctor High School Talent Show in 1984, singing “Three Times a Lady” by Lionel Ritchie.

Classy right?

I wore a tux with a bad fedora hat – but I beat out the real musicians in the school and it was good for a smooth $35 pay day!

 Kirsti, as a kid and even still, often takes harmony parts too, and when she and Sarah harmonize together on “Hallelujah,” often times pubs and restaurants get silent to listen – and I love every second of it.

“Shallow” by Lady Gaga was the rage during this trip too, both nationally and in our van. We played it several times, sang along, and always cranked the crescendo – which can still give me  chills.  

I have sung in public with Kirsti a few times, to Pearl Jam’s “Nothing Man,” in particular. And I sang “Wonderful Tonight” by Clapton to my wife with the band at our 10-year anniversary party. But I’m self-conscious singing with Kirsti because I’m not in her league.

But I do love it, and cherish whenever I get to, like before she left to head back to Spain last summer.

Music was really the root of this trip in the first place. It was the “Dust Tour” to support her four new original songs. And while the gigs brought me lots of joy and pride, I arguably got even more satisfaction singing our lungs out in that old van as we ate up the miles.