Just call me Sal Paradise (or Dean Moriarty) if you prefer...
I probably just butchered Dean's last name, but regardless, I'm talking about "On the Road" and, more directly, how I lived Keruoac's dream this weekend by taking the ultimate road trip (though the abridged version). I figured I'd relay some of my experiences and thoughts, as you really do learn some cool things about not only the places you visit, but yourself. Hell, maybe I even went through your state.
At any rate, my girlfriend's brother and I did the ENTIRE east coast (statewise)...from central maine to central florida. We were rolling in style as we snagged my Uncle's Infiniti (i think it was a G45?? ) with the GPS navigation system. Since we had the GPS screen on the dash, we decided to take random detours to see parts of the country other than I-95 which essentially looks the same across the country, though in Maine there are moose and pine trees, while Florida you get gators and palms...but you get the idea. So, without further delay, the highlights of the trips and my observations (as though anyone cares) -
*Virginia - we'd both seen the boston to DC corridor more than enough times to not give a shit about that leg of the journey. We stopped in boston to pick get some dinner and were on the road by 10 or 11 o'clock that night, getting through to Virginia by aboiiut 6 or 7 am the next morning. We decided to detour off by about 20 miles into the state and stop for breakfast at some small diner type place as soon as we saw one. Well, we walked into said place when found, to the sounds of forks clanging, plates clinking and the general noises of people chatting and eating breakfast. The second we walk in (like it was out of a movie or something) ALL the noise stops. It turns out that out of 35 people or so in the diner we were the only white people....not to mention the only people looking like they belonged in a jcrew catalog, as EVERYONE was wearing jeans and some colored pocket-T. For a minute I thought we were going to get our asses kicked, but it turned out to be a good time. Most of them were either truckers or did something with tobacco, and they gave us shit in a joking way for the entirety of breakfast. Turns out we were the only white people who'd been in there for the last three weeks. I do have to say that it felt radically strange to be the minority, if only for a half hour or so. Odd as it may sound, it did give me some perspective on what it might be to be a minority 100% of the time. Additionally, another thing that struck me in VA was the range of classes in which blacks were present. Here in New England, it has been my experience that blacks either occupy the lowest of the socio-economic hierarchy or the highest (though it is mostly the former); it is rare in my neck of the woods to see middle class blacks. In VA, however, this did not seem to be the case, and this dispelled a good deal of my impressions concerning the south.
*Georgia - after VA, we drove straight through to GA (the carolinas are BORING as hell...every stretch looks the exact same). I know that's not the case outside of I-95, as i've seen some awesome parts of both the carolinas; but, with regards to 95, I never want to see that section of NC again...billboards on one side of the road letting you know that jesus saves, while directly across the street is a sign for private modeling, truckers welcome! Anyway, we decide that in Georgia we're finding a lake/pond, pulling over and going swimming for a while. We find one about 30 miles west of 95 on a road that borders on a dirt road and start swimming. We knew that the presence of gators was a possibility, but my sister (who lives in FL) told us that, unless you're in a full-on swamp, the chances of encountering one are about the same as encountering a bear in NH (which is to say pretty slim). Anyway, we'd been swimming for about half an hour when two older guys pull over and tell us that the pond is full of gators and we should really get the hell out if we value our lives. They were probably giving us shit, but we decided to boogie.
*Florida - All I can say is WOW. I've never seen such extreme fluctuations in weather in my entire life. One minute it was sunny as could be, the next it would begin raining so hard that the ENTIRE highway would come to a standstill as it was raining sooo hard that you simply could NOT see. Also, while jetskiing, I saw four dolphins, which I thought were sharks at first (yeah that was the most frightened I've ever been)...the first time i've ever seen dolphins outside of an aquarium.
*RETURN TRIP - I slept for almost all of it, and let me tell you, it's not nearly as cool the second time through.
