7. On the Road Again

NOT MUCH TIME to post the last couple of days, but just wanted to let everyone know that I made it out of Stroutsburg, PA, and all the way to Minneapolis, MN.

Funny thing about karma is, on the first night that I set out, Tuesday evening, my dad had warned me that it takes eight hours to get to Buffalo.

Eight hours?

It's 400 miles away on roads where you average 85. It may take him eight hours to get to Buffalo--stopping every hour for a piss and a coffee--but it was not going to take me eight hours to get to Buffalo.

It took me three days.


BUT I AM NOT in Buffalo anymore, not after eating at the Anchor Bar, the origin of the Buffalo wing, and taking The Lorax to both side of Niagara Falls, and even driving east, in the opposite direction, to drop him off at the Rochester airport.

No, now I am in Minnesota, in the land of "wide lawns and friendly trees" hoping to take in the Walker Art Museum and the Mall of America.

I am about 1200 miles from New York, one fifth into the distance I expect to travel on this road trip, and with the exception of those two days in Stroutsburg, PA, and now what appears to be a leak of motor oil, everything is going smooth.

I think.


WHAT I HAVE learned is a road trip can be fun and adventurous and exciting, but none of those qualities make it relaxing. This is not a vacation in any sense of the word (except for the sense of the word that says a vacation is when you do not work).

Traveling across country, especially driving by yourself for thirteen hours, with nothing but local radio stations--country, Christian, classical, some more country, anarchist, Christian--is a physical feat that leaves your butt sore and your ankle tender.

There is only me and the road out there. The dot-dot-dot of the divider spaces. The woosh of a passing car. The hum of a churning engine.

Another mile marker blown off the side of the road. Another interstate gone from one end through the other. Another city and its blinking lights twinkling goodbye.

It is only me as far as I want to go. And good lord, is that not beautiful?