Upon leaving on Sunday, I was invariably delayed by lack of sleep, needing to fill up gas, last minute-packings, and of course saying my final goodbyes. While I made a significant effort to be on the road by 6am, as the revised plan stated, I did not actually start driving until 8:09am. Regardless, I was on my way. (Of course, it would not be a trip without some mishaps- my newly bought camera refused my memory card, I still could not locate a friend's lost camera amongst all my luggage, and I had forgotten my new phone's wall charger AND phone charger, necessitating the purchase of one along the way.)
Using my voice recorder, as suggested by my Father, I began to record my thoughts and recollections and ideas about my trip, my drive, and my life as they occurred to me. Rather than post on some of them now, I will create a "best of road observations by nevan michael patrick richard" post when I have gathered enough exhaustion driven postulations to create an entry of entertaining length and worth. I did get choked up, and my intestines did seize every now and then as I repeatedly was seized by the understanding that I wasn't driving to Rhode Island, or that this was a vacation, but rather that I was driving far away by myself to lands I had never seen and to stay with people I did not know. It was hard, but truly, it was the music that kept me going, and the understanding and truth that arose from within- that I had been wanting to make this type of journey for years. And so despite some misgivings, and a fear of the unknown, I drove on.
Highlights of my drive to Michigan-
-The ever changing landscape: Moving west brought me through various landscapes and geographical locations. From suburban Connecticut to rural New York to isolated Pennsylvania to the farmlands of Ohio and back to quiet suburbs of Michigan. Unfortunately, the landscapes were mostly dominated by barren brown/yellowness of post-snow Winter land, though occasional outcroppings of green grass and tress could be seen amongst the dead forests. For one stretch of trees in some portion of Pennsylvania, there was actually ice amongst the highest branches of the tress, creating a wonderful "crown effect," where each of the trees possessed it's own shimmering cap of ice. When these forests of crowns were blown by the wind, it created a really cool effect. Speaking of, despite it's length, Pennsylvania did have some of the most exciting portions of my drive the first day. Namely, the sections where after miles of driving through tight portions of road where densely wooded hills encapsulated your trip which suddenly opened up to reveal sprawling valleys with minute houses on distant ledges giving scale to the absolutely massive open areas within the heart of Pennsylvania. It was really exciting to be taking a long steady curve around a mountain and to suddenly be on a bridge, many hundreds of feet above a river within a hidden valley, and then to drive back into the woods. Fun.
-The License Plate Game (with a twist!): Everyone is familiar with the tried and true game of trying to find unique license plates from states unseen before. Well, in my version, I am recording novel license plates from states not yet seen, but ALSO where they occur! For example, in Connecticut, I only saw cars with plates from Connecticut, Massachusetts, or New York. Typical, ye? And in larger states, such as Pennsylvania, the extended distance and time spent there granted time to find more exotic plates, such as Florida, Texas, and California. But then Michigan, I saw my first Rhode Island plate! I am keeping a record of these occurrences, and will post a map with these findings upon arrival in Wyoming.
-The Lack of Obstacles: I had initially given myself 15 hours to go from Cheshire, CT to Holt, MI (my first pit stop on the journey.) Mapquest had allotted 12 1/2 hours for my journey. I added 2 1/2 hours for traffic, bathroom and food breaks, and misc. stop time. However, following a short but solid nights sleep, and a steady stream of tunes from my wonderful donated mix CD's, I ended up only not driving for ~35 minutes the whole days. As a result, I ended up in Michigan no more than 12 hours/15 minutes after I had departed. Following New York, I saw no more than 6 cops between Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan, which also certainly helped with my expediency.
And thus did I arrive in Holt, where I met up with my good friend Jess (with whom I graduated from the University of Rhode Island with a degree in Animal Science in May 2010). Our adventures around Holt, and MSUVS and elsewhere, are the subject for another post. Tomorrow, Tuesday, March 29, I will set out again to my next stop- Minneapolis, Minnesota! Hopefully I will be able to find a rest stop with internet service to send emails, check my facebook, and check back in with y'all.
=G'night.
No comments:
Post a Comment