Sunday, October 4, 2009

Cross Country, Part I

This summer I drove across the Home of the Brave. I was ordered to do it per my mother/ boss's request, but eventually I came to see the responsibility as something that I would potentially put on my bucket list. Brendan, my 21-year-old mostly rad brother, took an internship at Emerson's Los Angeles campus this fall. Since LA (which is the Seventh Circle of Hell, I must remit as a NYC resident) is completely auto-dependent (no Subway? pft), he needed his car. Shipping it + flying out there is WAY expensive, so we decided to take a route a hair less back-breaking. And we drove! DC to LA. We left on Thursday, August 27th and arrived in LA on Monday, August 31st. The trip was about 3,300 miles plus change and was supremely inspirational. Although Brendan and I were kind of at each other's throats, for a girl who's never been in a land-locked state I had a lot to see and digest.

This adventure is going to be visited in five parts on my blog - mostly because that's how I set it up in Facebook albums. There were five legs of the trip, which encompassed 12 states. The legs:
  1. DC to Cincinnati
  2. Cincinnati to St. Louis
  3. St. Louis to Denver (the most desolate road in America)
  4. Denver to Kayenta, AZ (the most beautiful road in America)
  5. Kayenta, AZ to LA
... In each leg I will highlight the state borders crossed.

The first day was a little frustrating. It was one of those things where you know something beautiful is in store, but you just have to be patient and sit through the redundant. Driving from DC to Ohio was pretty much just driving on 270 for an extension of time. For those not in the know, 270 is the northern road of Maryland, which leads into the backwoods of Appalachia. It's actually an incredibly verdant and lovely drive, but for me it was just driving into something-that-isn't-DC. The states we crossed were:
Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio*

Compared to the route that was ahead, this drive was quiet and serene, almost smothered by trees. It was very, very hilly (what I perceived to be "omg mountains!"). Mostly muted nothingness, but that's OK. Here was the most exciting part of Maryland (and the whole day of travel):


Cumberland, Maryland was the biggest metropolis we left before "Cincinnati." It was precious and awesome and in a valley.


After Maryland, it was just a mess of Eastern Mountain. We drove through West Virginia, a nothing of American Forest, then through Pennsylvania - a means to an end - and then into Ohio. We drove all the way through Ohio to Miami of OH's campus. We stayed with Brendan's awesome possum friend, Jillian.

Her house, like every other upper-classman one on campus, had a name. It was called "Intoxic-Eight" for the eight-resident quota it held. The next door neighbor was "Tequila Mockingbird." Another house that I thought was in incredibly good taste was the "Betty Ford Clinic." College.

Anyway. Miami of Ohio reminded me that I never went to school on a traditional campus. I paid like, $8 for three cocktails. EIGHT DOLLARS, you guys. EIGHT HUNDRED CENTS. To me, that's like writing a $62 check for a Park Avenue duplex. So needless to say I was ecstatic. It was nice to drink my life away that night for next to nothing in the midst of WASPy college ignorance. Jesus, is undergrad a blissful utopia. The next day, we woke up (Brendan on Jill's porch), ready to face the corn-fed road to St. Louis....


* I was so proud of myself for actually catching (almost) every state welcome sign on the trip. Obviously, though, the Maryland sign isn't mine. Suffice it to say, though, that I cross it numerous times per year driving in and out of DC and Virginia.

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