California, here I am...

I'm in the Golden State.

Moments

1. Standing at the Alamo Shrine:



2. Driving at 110 mph on I-10, near Fort Stockton, TX...

3. Getting lost in Silver City, NM, and forgetting what the time zone was.

4. Being frightened by the driving in the Apache National Forest:



5. Standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona:



Epic trip so far.

You all can go to Hell; I'm going to Texas

Yes, I will be at the Alamo today.

El Paso tomorrow, where I shall lunch within spitting distance of Mexico.

Arkansas! And a decision...

Nashville was lovely -- went to a honky-tonk called Tootsie's Orchid Lounge, went to a Predators game, and did various other things.

Now, however, I have a choice.

Do I want to head straight west on I-40? I can see the Grand Canyon near Flagstaff, AZ.

Or do I want to go to the Alamo? That involves a steep dip southwest through Dallas to San Antonio, after which I head west along I-10.

Photo of crazy Alamo route attached.



Do I dare?

Update, following morning: another friend said, why not do both?

The Biltmore

Had all sorts of thoughts, but I'm tired.

But here's one: all that land, all those rooms, and George and Edith Vanderbilt only had one child?

Seems kinda lonely...

In the South by the grace of God...

Well, it's been interesting seeing what's around.

One thing I have noticed: there is altogether too much federal highway money kicking around -- there are four lane divided highways throughout the South with little to no traffic. I was driving along highways with no-one else around... one could go 80 mph even in driving rain.

Another: the roadside motel is an under-appreciated institution -- I'm at a Days Inn in a town called Opelika, Alabama, and it's cheap, clean, and in excellent condition.

My mother is in a panic, because, well, I'm in the South. And what she knows of the South is newsreel footage from Birmingham (which I'm about a hundred miles southeast of, incidentally), from her college days.

I'm finding that I quite like it, however. Everyone is very pleasant, from the security guards at my friend's gated community house, to the black lady who rented me this hotel room, to the cashiers at the Piggly Wiggly I stopped at in Fenix City, Alabama (right near the bridge to Columbus, Georgia), when I took a wrong turn.

Oh, and the waitstaff at Cajun Corner, in Eufaula, Alabama, where I stopped for a very filling lunch.

And being able to drive just under 80 on the interstate, because one can always drive ten over the limit before the state police decide to give you a ticket.

***

Exit question: why do people live in the Northeast?

I can understand why people go to school there -- the old universities are lovely and great -- but why stay?

The route west

I'm going to snake my way up to Nashville via Alabama, I think -- I'll drive towards Birmingham today, tho' I may take a few back roads.

Once I get to Nashville, though, I'll take an interstate west -- I-40. That'll take me most of the way to LA, around 2000 miles, and then I can head up I-5 to San Francisco...

Yes, this is simple and elegant, and totally can be done in four or five days from Nashville to SF. Over five days, it involves just under eight hours of driving a day.

If I want a more scenic route, I can deviate some. But I now have the general direction...

Little Rock, Oklahoma City, Amarillo, Albuquerque, Flagstaff, and Bakersfield, here I come!

On the road again...

Deciding where next -- stayed an extra day in Jacksonville, as my grad school friend's family was so hospitable, but the old rule "guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days" must apply, and so I'm off elsewhere before I check into Nashville on Thursday.

Yesterday was nice -- went to visit one of my old roommates from grad school. Did not crash with him, as he starts his exams today, but I had a wonderful couple of hours wandering around Gainesville with him and catching up on things. Very large stadium there, too...

The decision today is, do I go west through the panhandle to Alabama and Mississippi, before looping back via Memphis to Nashville, or do I snake back through Georgia and South Carolina to Asheville NC, see the Biltmore estate, and then go to Nashville via Knoxville?

The former involves states I've never seen, but a longer drive, whereas the latter involves pretty vistas but keeps me near the Atlantic coast...

Wow, I'm in Florida!

If I'd had a camera, and could have taken photos while driving without endangering my life, I'd have taken a photo of the I-95 sign in Jacksonville -- "I-95 Daytona Beach".

It's kind of awesome.

I'm staying with my friend Matt's family in what is an honest-to-God gated community. The security guard, an imposing looking fellow with a not-so-passing resemblance to G. Gordon Liddy, was tougher on me than most border guards are (when I travel unbearded, that is). They have a giant house, neat as a pin, which backs onto what is either a natural or an artificial pond which is almost large enough to be called a lake.

The drive down was a lot of fun -- rainy and miserable at first (and slightly scary), but then nice and easy, over some not-so-busy roadway. Didn't get crowded till I crossed into Florida, at which point it got slightly hairy -- cars going at seventy-five, packed into tight formations.

My aunt is looking at hooking me up with relatives of relatives, either in Texas or Indiana -- it'd be nicer than a hotel, that's for sure.

Decisions, decisions...

Oh, and I'll probably make it to the oldest European settlement in the continental United States tomorrow -- St. Augustine.

Should be interesting...

Richmond was an easy road to travel...

My friends all told me that the drive from Arlington to Richmond would be kind of hairy.

But it wasn't. It was a little busy, but not that bad. Had a good radio station, and I was cruising along. (Well, my car has no cruise control. So I can't do that. Means I'll be safer, but also that much more likely to pick up a speeding ticket...)

All goes well. Except that my car doesn't have a CD player, and the agency didn't tell me, so my favourite old Russian CD got eaten by the thing that looks like a CD player. And two truckers tried to kill me about an hour north of Fayetteville, NC.

But I survived, and shall continue on my way to Jacksonville (FL) today. And being forced to listen to radio instead of my CDs and audiobooks ensures that I'll get to know America that much better. (And I'll probably listen to Rush Limbaugh every day. RUSH! RUSH! RUSH! RUSH!)

Fun times.

The Road Ahead

Event One: Author of these thoughts gets first driver's license.

Event Two: Author turns twenty-nine.

Event Three: Withdrawal of the one job offer coming from a year of a truly vile job hunt.

Event Four: Author has no fucking clue what he's supposed to do with himself.

Conclusion: Clearly, a solo cross-continent road trip is needed.

***

Items in car: Cell phone with bluetooth earpiece, fifty state road atlas, three audio books including Kerouac's On The Road, GPS unit (for emergencies), and stuffed panda bear.

Fixed points of itinerary:

December 4, 9 AM: Pick up rental car at Reagan National Airport.
December 4, 5 PM: Arrive in Fayetteville, North Carolina, to stay with study abroad friend.
December 5: Arrive in Jacksonville, Florida, to stay with grad school friend.
December 6: Go shoot semi-automatic weaponry at Jacksonville range with said grad school friend.
December 10: Arrive in Nashville, Tennessee to stay with college friend.
December 12: Go to hockey game in Nashville with college friend.
December 18: Arrive in San Francisco, California to stay with cousin.
December 25: Drop car off at Reagan National.

All else is subject to passing whims.

Expectations: many moments of loneliness, some few moments of awesomeness.

In any event, this must be done.

***

Will there be some moment of enlightenment along the way?

If I knew now, I wouldn't need the trip, now would I?

***

Initial soundtrack: