About Matt Savino

Matt graduated with a degree in physics and a minor in creative writing. And by Matt, of course, I mean me. Please don’t turn me into the book police for writing my author bio in the first person.

Ah, that’s better.

Anyway, I bounced around Kansas City and San Francisco, trying my hand at stand up comedy while I waited tables and fixed computers to make ends meet. Age twenty-nine convinced me I had to seek a more stable profession. So I spent $78 dollars on two programming classes at SF City College, which launched a decent little career. I took a few years off to play online poker, realized I didn’t have the temperament for it, then dove back into software development.

In 2005, I bought my first non-disposable camera, a Sony point-and-shoot, and headed out to Death Valley to take pictures of the super bloom in progress. On that same trip, I took the upper left shot in my photo gallery, which is probably the best shot I’ll ever take in my life, and I’m ok with that. That trip kicked off a decades-long love affair with photography and exploring the American West.

In late 2017, I launched my quest to drive the Pan-American Highway, chronicling my journey in a blog named Ushuaia Or Bust—Ushuaia being the southernmost city in the world. Land Without a Continent is my book about that interrupted journey, which technically still stands in “Bust Mode.”

I always had in the back of my mind that I wanted to be a writer, but I never felt like I had anything to write about, until this trip. I hope you enjoy riding the Pan-Am Highway with me.