The origins of Heatherly’s resentment date back to 1970, when Richard Nixon signed legislation banning all tobacco advertising on radio and television, something that devastated the industry’s profits. I was aware it was fucked up, but I was desperate and somewhat in a state of delusion.” I suppose I felt a high when I initially came across one, but then it was just sadness.

“I remember feeling really depressed as I cut out the UPCs and bagged them. “My lowest point was walking around looking for discarded cigarette packs on the ground,” she tells me.

Heatherly admits that the project was a grim endeavor. Over time, she was able to get her first haul of supplies - a Zippo, a leather backpack and the big prize, a red Fuji folding bike, which cost 2,200 miles, or 440 packs of cigarettes. Luckily for her, her parents owned a bar so she was able to build quite a collection by salvaging miles from discarded packs. To make it a reality, she gathered as many Marlboro Miles as she could find. Inspired by Soul Asylum’s “Runaway Train,” her fantasy included riding the rails to freedom and embarking upon a life as a train hopper. In the mid-1990s, Heatherly was a teen who dreamed of escaping her dysfunctional family.