[There's some weirdness going on with who is posting when over here, but as it's already Friday here in Korea, I'm going to go ahead and post. Also, I don't have anything nearly as funny as Glenn - or funny at all, really - but here you go.]
I do a lot of traveling. A lot, a lot, a lot of traveling. That being said, I haven’t really done all that much in terms of traveling inside the US, and I’ve only ever (in my adult life at least) taken two trips that would qualify as road trips.
The first was in March of 2003, when I drove from Lake City, Florida to San Diego, CA in order to start a new job. I purchased a new car in order to make the drive, knowing full well that my beloved 1979 Volvo would undoubtedly leave me stranded somewhere in the midst of that netherworld that is Texas. I literally brought my car home from the dealer one day and set off into the sunset the next.
I do a lot of traveling. A lot, a lot, a lot of traveling. That being said, I haven’t really done all that much in terms of traveling inside the US, and I’ve only ever (in my adult life at least) taken two trips that would qualify as road trips.
The first was in March of 2003, when I drove from Lake City, Florida to San Diego, CA in order to start a new job. I purchased a new car in order to make the drive, knowing full well that my beloved 1979 Volvo would undoubtedly leave me stranded somewhere in the midst of that netherworld that is Texas. I literally brought my car home from the dealer one day and set off into the sunset the next.
My route took me from Lake City to New Orleans, where I stayed with a good friend from college. That was the highpoint of the trip. From there I drove on to San Antonio. No, I didn’t have time to see the Alamo; all I saw was the inside of a Day’s Inn. The next day brought a long, desolate stretch of near scenery-less interstate between San Antonio and El Paso. I think I may have started to lose it a little bit during this leg. I remember listening to America’s A Horse With No Name over and over and over, thinking of my car as my horse… After my night in El Paso, I drove across both New Mexico and Arizona, and spent the night in Yuma, AZ, on the California border. The next morning I drove the final two hours to San Diego.
I spent the next six days living in a hostel in Ocean Beach while looking for an apartment. I moved in to my new place on day seven and started my new job on day eight. One hell of a two week stretch, that.
In June of 2005, I left my position in San Diego in order to move to Russia – but before leaving the country, I needed to get all my junk (excluding furniture, which I simply gave away) to my mom’s new house in Waycross, GA. I was not looking forward to making the long trek back, and I was simply dreading Texas. At least the other states along the way have some scenery. In the end, however, it turned out that my trip back East couldn’t have been more different.
My then boyfriend traveled with me, and we came up with a fantastic itinerary and route, which even managed to bypass the bulk of Texas. We started by heading for the Grand Canyon, where we camped for two nights. From there we drove to Taos, NM and then on to Oklahoma City, OK. After that, we met up with one of his friends in Memphis, where we paid our respects to The King. Then we headed for Sewanee, my alma mater, to visit with my former professors, and on the way we stopped for a tour of the Jack Daniels distillery. After leaving Sewanee, we headed down to Waycross, where we unloaded my car, and then made our way to St. Augustine, FL, where we spent our final few days before he flew home. It was an absolutely fabulous vacation, although sadly, memories of it have been somewhat marred by the subsequent end of that relationship. (Thanks a lot, Glenn, for choosing this topic. Now I’m going to go sit in the corner and sulk.) But on the plus side, I did take a lot of interesting pictures, which you can check out by clicking here.
4 comments:
I am not sure if Melissa will read this, but by far, the two strangest road trips that I have been on were with her. Actually, several of the small trips to the beachs or springs on the weekned were with her as well. I'm not sure what that says about either of us. The one trip that vividly sticks out in my mind was out Spring Break vacation to the keys in which we fled from a fifty dollar camp ground to go sleep under the stars on a stunning lagoon across from an ify van then ended up getting run out by drug smugglers who pulled up in a boat and were met by a van that kept pointing at us which involved everyone throwing shit into my car and sleeping in a gas station parking lot full of roveing chickens. The most horrible part of that trip was wipeing off everyones hot ass breath from my windows after haveing slept in the car all night. Or maybe, it was getting lost in the Miami ghetto or sleeping next to Danny after haveing heard his story of his "special bear" as a child. The other vivid road trip would be the Y2K Possome Drop in North Carolina in which we visited a Citgo Gas Station for New Years and watched them drop a possome from a triangle glass cage surrounded by Christmas garland while they shot of cannons and sang Mama Aint Dead She's Just Plany'n Possome. By the way, I now have that C.D. Of course, this was followed by the trip to the largest ten commandments in the world which was creapy to say the least in which someone stole something from the gift ship. This was all topped off with a pissing situation, a pubic hair situation, and someone trying to burn down the cabin in which we were staying. I think that I may have said too much here. No offense to anyone involved. It was a fun trip though as we did visit some incredible places. There are other small trips which involve glowing sea creatures, crazy naked river men, invading Russians on the beach, a crazy ass trip to Disney with her family, being locked out of the car and stealing Parrot ice at Guana, and I could go on, but I have work to do. I will say that Alex you have both my sympathy and my envy. I miss our little trips. Hope that all is well with everyone.
Christopher
OMG Chris, when I read this I started laughing so hard, I cried. If I hadn't been there myself, I don't think that i would believe you. God I miss our trips. Why is it that such crazy things always happen when we get together?
Melissa
I'm so jealous of your trip, Jane! I've always wanted to do something like that but haven't made the time or effort to do it. Actually, I planned to take a cross-country Amtrak trip after I graduated, but it sort of fell through, much to the relief of my parents, I'm sure.
And Melissa and Chris, whoever you are, I am so hanging out with you from now on. You don't happen to live on the mid-Altantic coast, do you?
I do wish I'd gone w/ you guys for Y2K instead of making plans solely based around the opportunity to have sex (which, no offense, I wasn't getting from any of you) - in hindsight, however, it seems that your Y2K was substantially more memorable. Of course, had I gone with you, someone might have peed on me and then set me on fire.
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