I’ve gotten a couple of questions and comments from readers about driving across country, or more specifically have I ever done this before. The short answer is not exactly. I’ve driven from Massachusetts to Iowa twice with my mom (a most excellent traveling companion and risk taker – the Princess Motel, woo hoo!!!) and from Chicago to Massachusetts with my brother once (Dude – I’m game to give it another whirl if you are!!). After library school I drove from Iowa to Fresno by myself. The trip was just days before Christmas so my goal was to make good time and get it done. I have done a lot of solo traveling – throughout Europe and Asia – and moved to Japan for most of a year without knowing anyone and barely speaking the language. This trip is a little different. For starters the car I have now has a working radio and a better air conditioning than rolling down the windows and sweating a lot! And I can't imagine how I did it before with no cell phone!
I can’t imagine moving across country any other way than driving. I’ve probably seen more outside the US than inside the US at this point and this has kind of bothered me. How can I be vocal about what I like and dislike about living in the US if I haven’t seen it all? I realize that what I’ve seen is an extremely superficial glimpse but it helps provide a bigger picture.
Moving from California to Massachusetts is a big step and a big change. I enjoyed my time in California but it wasn’t the right fit. I am looking forward to what my grand-father called “the next chapter”. I have no idea how everything is going to work out or what I am getting myself into. Driving is pretty symbolic of this change. I am literally driving toward my new future. In the process I have exorcised some of my past. I woke up in the middle of the night in Memphis, grabbed my phone, deleted some phone numbers that I have held on to for way too long, and promptly went back to sleep. I couldn’t have done this while in CA and now that I’ve done it I feel a lot freer and a lot less stressed out. Having those numbers in my phone have subconsciously held me back in a certain area in my life and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens in this area in Massachusetts!
While I am not my first choice I am a pretty good travel partner for myself. I would much rather find a mate whose feet itch as much as mine do and that wants to wander the rest of his life with me. But alas, I haven’t found him yet so I am trying to remain cool while traveling with myself. I am certainly no picnic for myself to be with 24/7! Man, I can really annoy the beegeezus out of myself! Do I really have to set my alarm every single morning that I am alive?? Really and truly??!! It’s so freaking irritating that I sometimes want to push myself out of an open window!!! :)
Half the battle when you travel with someone is knowing their quirks and idiosyncrasies. People have different quirks while traveling – some are regular quirks that become more pronounced and some are brand new quirks. I have traveled enough by myself and with others to know my own quirks. Most of my quirks I can live with (even the damn alarm clock!) and at 33 I’ve come to know myself and to like the majority of who I’ve become. As my own travel partner I know this: Details aren’t my thing. I am much better having a vague idea what I want to see and then figure it out when I get there. This can lead to hours and hours of walking with no food, rest or breaks which is not always a good thing and can lead to a timeout. If I need a time out, I need a time out (true story: in Salzburg, Austria I kind of got into a funk and went back to my hotel room for a short siesta and watched Ally McBeal dubbed into German – totally hilarious and totally lifted my spirits to continue wandering around). I need a run or some physical activity first thing in the morning ;) This will make me happy for the whole rest of the day ;) I talk too much to too many people right up until the point that I don’t want to talk to anyone ever again. I am open to the possibility of what could happen. I’m on the road – you just never know . . . Contact with the outside world helps – sending a post card, receiving an email from a friend, a flirtatious text message from a crush or phone call to family does wonders for my disposition. I love chocolate and an ice cream cone is always welcome but if I want to be happy and clear headed I will stick to fruit, trail mix and granola bars. I am happiest when I am in motion – I don’t travel to spend time lazing around hotel rooms (as long as there's good water pressure I could care less about what hotel I stay in). I am fearless, too independent and I do dumb things that make me laugh.
Music is crucial, particularly when driving long distance. I have an iPod Classic with 3,400 songs on it. I’ve learned the hard way that Radiohead and Jamiroquai are not the best choices for the first couple hundred miles; the Garden State soundtrack, Coldplay and Snow Patrol are much much better to ease into thr driving. Towards mid-afternoon I want disco and funk or something I can sing along too. Late in the day of 400-500 mile days I’ve sought out talk radio: religious, sports, politics, whatever it is I don’t care as long as it gives me something to think about for an hour or so. I really start to annoy myself when the musical selection goes sour.
A note here about the Into the Wild soundtrack: I love this album unconditionally! I read the book when it came out years ago and was really moved by the story and moved by the movie even more so. Chris McCandless’ story is beautiful and tragic and inspiring. I see some of myself in him but doubt I could ever shut myself off from the world as much as he did. That being said there are two songs on the soundtrack that move me deeply: Long Nights and Society. Long Nights is just a beautiful beautiful song about finding what you’re made of (sort of). Society is about how we always feel we need more and more stuff. No where on earth did I feel that more than I did living in LA. Status and stuff are what make you you there and I hated getting caught up in it. I listened to this album four times in a row during the first part of the drive from Savannah through South and North Carolina and Virginia. By the end of the fourth time I was ready to burn my money, abandon my car, hitchhike to Alaska and disappear. This was not good so I switched to Def Leppard. My musical taste is all over the place but it works for me.
What do I think about while I am driving?? I read every billboard and check every license plate. I count the wheels on 18 wheelers (you know, to make sure there really are 18). I look at the scenery. Lately I’ve been scratching the mosquito bites on my calves that I got in Savannah and West Virginia. I plot business and company ideas that I want to start (I’m all big picture and no detail so I have no idea how to get from point A to Z). I think about what I want to do next with my life. I worry about my friends and my family. I think about boys – boys I’ve had crushes on, boys I’ve dated, failed relationships, boys I will date in the future (so help, I am boy crazy). I think about what would happen if I got some deadly disease and what choices I would make and other equally morbid thoughts. I try to remember jokes that I only know parts of. I forward through songs during the shuffle setting on my iPod (I have WAY too many bad Queen songs!). I think about trips I’ve taken and try to remember exactly what things looked like or what I saw or where I stayed. I play travel math (I’m on this road for 35 miles so if I go 80 I’ll be there in x minutes). I do a lot of visualization - about running and cycling well, about making friends and being happy in my new home, having hard conversations with people, etc. I wonder about the other people on the road – what their lives are like, where they are going, etc. I wonder about the areas I pass through – what the people are like, what their livelihoods are, if they think about if they are happy. Fun stuff. I don’t think about any of this stuff purposefully – it just kind of slips in. Sometimes things get stuck on an obsessive repeat. I figure there’s a reason for the over kill thinking and so I just let it happen. Other times it’s totally and completely random – I’ll read a billboard for the Lion’s Den (a chain of sex shops advertised all over the place in the south) and the next thing I know I am wondering what ever happened to the dress I wore to my 8th grade dance (I loved that dress!) and what were the names of the dorms I lived in in college and how exactly does one renounce one’s citizenry. Crazy. Again, I figure there’s a good reason for all of it so I just let it happen.
The more I drive the more similarities I see between long-distance driving and doing and Ironman, running a marathon or doing a century ride (100 miles) but that’s a post for another day.
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