Summary graphic: A tractor-trailer pulls into a gas station at night.

Like any good preacher will tell you, there’s a long line of people waiting for salvation, and on this road many of them drive tractor-trailers. So you wait, and the waiting makes you see where you really are.

Summary graphic: A plate of steak tips from Casey's in Sommerville, MA

What are Boston steak tips, why are they delicious, and why are they different from the steak tips in the rest of the country? We’re going to attempt to answer these questions with a series of road (and T) trips throughout Greater Boston.

Summary graphic: People stand atop a three-story “mountain” of snow on the MIT campus.

Standing atop the MIT Alps I saw a pale city splayed out in all directions. And yet here, atop the largest deposit of winter’s harvest, I saw no frozen necropolis.