And on the subject of roadtrips, here comes the big one. The best one before this was the trip from Riverside to Vancouver in the summer of 2005, where my mom, Kathleen and I hit the Sequoias, Sacramento, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, Boise, Salt Lake City and Las Vegas (sadly I was only 19 so it didn't qualify for this list) but the success of this trip did put on my bucket list what I would accomplish at 27:
CROSS-COUNTRY ROAD TRIP
From east to west. East coast to west coast. New York City to Los Angeles. I DID IT. There was no doubt in my mind, no hesitation for a second, that I would take the southern route. Here were all the states I crossed through: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. The cities I stayed in/visited were: (woke up in) New York City, Raleigh, Atlanta, Birmingham, New Orleans, Austin, San Antonio, El Paso and Phoenix.
And I did it with friends too!
The first friend to appear on the scene was, quite literally, Sri. He was in New York for the summer on an internship from business school at Penn's Wharton and actually came to my apartment to help me load up my car, dispose of excess, and say goodbye. I remain so thankful for that.
Day 1 was straight from NYC to Raleigh, and about 3/4 of that day was spent simply getting out of NYC into Jersey. Seriously, it was ridiculous. I drove the mid-Atlantic seaboard solo, and quite loved it. I loved watching the scenery change, going in and out of lush landscape, old stone villages, and passing by DC. That's what made it so crazy to come into the dense forestry of inland North Carolina.
I stayed with Jayna for the night, then we loaded up and she came with me through to Atlanta, where she showed me around and we stayed with her sister, into the blazing hot and totally deserted Birmingham, Alabama, through hot and wet Mississippi, into the Big Easy for another night. New Orleans was a dream! We drove out of the wet marshlands through backwoods eastern Texas, stopping in Houston for a quick jaunt, and through to western icon Austin, where we went out on the town and spent the morning meandering about, before I took her to the airport, after which I continued along to San Antonio and stayed with a friend from California doing an internship there with MLB. The rest of the way was same ol' dirty west Texas scenery, some nice looking mesas in New Mexico and Arizona, and then through familiar Coachella territory into the Inland Empire.
To watch the whole country pass by underneath me, and so many places I had never been before! was thrilling. And the crazy part was how it didn't make the country seem huge and vast to me... instead it felt smaller and closer than it ever had before. And I had zero desire to stop and unload in California. I would have kept going if I could. I had an instinct to just turn 90 degrees once I hit the coast and just go north instead of ending it.
 |
| Stuck in traffic trying to exit NYC |
 |
| Making it into Jersey |
 |
| Watching the sun set just outside DC |
 |
| Making it into Georgia! |
 |
| Coca-Cola factory in Atlanta |
 |
| Georgia/Alabama stateline |
 |
| Southern Belle |
 |
| Outside Birmingham |
 |
| Birmingham, AL |
 |
| Alabama/Mississippi state line |
 |
| Mississippi/Louisiana state line |
 |
| Louis Armstrong Park in New Orleans |
 |
| Louisiana/Texas state line |
 |
| Coming upon Houston |
 |
| Austin, Texas |
 |
| Governor's mansion in Austin |
 |
| The Alamo, San Antonio, Texas |
 |
| Texas/New Mexico state line |
 |
| New Mexico/Arizona state line |
 |
| Tombstone, AZ |
 |
| Arizona/California state line |
I loved it, and I'm so happy I can say that I've done it, because I've always wanted to! And with friends too! Next time will have to be the northern route, but I'll need to zigzag through all those other places I haven't yet seen - Montana and the Dakotas and Kansas oh my! (Should I put on a bucket list for my 30s??)
No comments:
Post a Comment