It's a BIG Country
Apr. 24th, 2008 03:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
unforthWell, I'm sitting at my uncle's in College Station, TX, the cat in the lounge upstairs, Jonie playing with Dharma (my uncle's Golden Retriever) in the fenced in part of the yard with my grandfather sleeping in a chair nearby, watching a lizard make repeated attempts to scale the window (each attempt punctuated by a "thud" as the lizard hits the glass, balances on the pane borders, and then, within moments, concluded with a second "thud" as it falls on to the window sill). I arrived here early this morning, and I'm almost too tired for useful thoughts - I've been sleeping VERY badly, and I've driven about 1750 miles since I left NYC at 9:30 AM on Tuesday morning.
First, let me say that when one has nothing to do for two days except sing along with the stereo and stare at the other drivers, I'm unsurprisingly rather punch drunk. Anyway...
I followed a route I'd never taken before, hoping onto I 78 through New Jersey, connecting up with I 81 (which I've long taken to Binghamton but have never gone south on) and then staying on it for 600 miles. This lead to I 40, which I went another 500 miles or so on, and then I 30 and finally I 45, with a few little connectors here and there. This route took me across New Jersey, cutting over the south eastern tip of Pennsylvania through Harrisburg, passing briefly through Maryland (10 miles) and West Virginia (about 25 miles) and down through Virginia, skirting the entire south western edge of that state. From there, the route cut right across Tennessee, passing through Knoxville and Memphis, and on into Arkansas, through Little Rock. It hit the border with Texas at Texarkana, and continued on until Dallas, where I skirted the city and headed south, to finally end up (after two nights in hotels) in College Station/Bryan.
The first legs went very well. I brought a bunch of CD's, and singing along with them passed the time well enough; occasionally I'd think on my current works in progress, but mostly I just concentrated on driving (read: speeding) and thoughts of where to stop for meals. My first stop for gas came up in West Virginia, where I was so shocked by the price that I pushed on into Virginia, where it was 20 cents cheaper (the lizard just fell again...it looks so confused...)
I'd never visited western Virginia before, and I was impressed by how pretty it was there. The route went through the Shenandoah valley, (thud) a place I've wanted to visit for a long time but have never actually been to. It's only about 6 hours from NYC, and I've resolved to go back at some point in the future and hike. A lot. (Admission: I'm a closet Civil War buff, hence my desire to visit this and several other places I passed along my route). It got steadily prettier as I went west. You really see mountains coming, too; they rose like shadows against a clear sky, it was pretty amazing.
It was my first time in Tennessee. It's very pretty there, too, with the Smokies rolling on by and a lovely 70 mph speed limit (read: I drove 85). I was pretty exhausted by the time I approached Knoxville on the first night, but I pushed on past (realizing that I had morning traffic to fear if I didn't) and stopped near by.
The next morning (yesterday) I got going bright and early, in the hopes (vain, as it turned out) that I might actually get to College Station last night. The weather was quite nice, and I hit Memphis about halfway through the day. I'd never seen the Mississippi river before. I expected it to be kind of like the Hudson - the Hudson is 2 miles wide with built up civilization on either side, and it is BIG. But I was mistaken; the Mississippi is WAY more impressive. It just goes on, and on, and on, broken up by bright green hillocks and islands and whenever I thought "wow, well that was a big river" I'd realize that there was MORE of it. I was (thud) shocked.
This lead in to Arkansas, another place I'd never been before. Many are the times that I've driven across Ohio and thought, "god, this is so boring to drive through, it's so stinking (thud) flat." Oh, but I had no idea! I'm so sorry, Ohio, I'll never complain again. Because the eastern edge of Arkansas has got to be the flatest, dullest scenery I've ever encountered. Yay, flood plains? The western part of the state got nicer, but I was getting tired enough by then to not be impressed. Little Rock, meanwhile, had the funniest little "skyline" where I could count the small number of skyscrapers. :) Meanwhile, I got to laugh at the Arkansan desire to name things after their state, Texarkana (which is actually in Texas) being the prime example. My personal favorite was "Arkadelphia," though.
Finally, I won through in to Texas, feeling so tired that I almost stopped immediately, but I caffeined up and pushed on towards Dallas. After a long, drawn out internal battle between my taste buds and my exhausted brain, I called up![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
swan_tower to see if she knew of any steakhouses along my route. Sadly, she did not, for she is more familiar with northern climes, whereas I skirted the south eastern edge of the city. This was followed by more internal debate - there was NO WAY I was leaving Texas without steak! - and I finally broke down and decided that if I was going to be ashamed of eating a chain steak house in Texas, I might as well go ahead and get cinnamon butter out of the deal, and thus my feet...er...tires were led to Texas Roadhouse. After dinner, the rumble of thunder started, and I left Dallas in the darkness in the midst of one of those stunningly unbelievable lightening storms that I've never encountered anywhere but Texas (I've been to Texas before, just not Tennessee or Arkansas), forks flashing all about, lightening the sky, sometimes in a weird orange/brown color from a distance. I just wished I could take pictures! And hence I pulled in to Ennis, and after getting turned away from 3 of the 4 hotels, finally found one that would allow Jonie in. The timing worked out great, for just as I pulled up the skies opened and it poured. Of course, I then had to get my stuff into the room and walk the dog, which is how I ended up utterly and completely soaked through.
I woke up early this morning, decided I didn't give a damn about breakfast, and hopped in the car and drove until I reached my destination at 10:20 EST (9:20 local time). My uncle made sad faces at me when I suggested I'd be leaving more or less immediately, and given the extent to which I felt like I was about to fall over, it was surprisingly easy to prevail upon me to stay the night, and thus will I be here until tomorrow morning. It was a sad decision, though - at Nashville, I 40 met up with I 65, and I began to debate adding about 100 miles to my trip and swinging by Bloomington for a few hours on the way back. Staying in Texas, however, eliminates the time I would have had to do this in. I just remind myself that I've hardly seen my uncle in over a year, though, and I really should spare him 24 hours. I'm gonna try to get to B-ton in the next month, but I'm not sure, it's looking like a really busy May, sigh.
In the course of the drive, I saw many things I thought were neat, but sadly few lingered in my memory much past the moment that I saw them. One favorite, though, was a sign that read something like "Having faith on Him, the son, for His is the Way." I thought it was pretty impressive that faith can be strong enough to preclude proper grammar and spelling on a sign that's supposed to draw followers. Good for Him! Meanwhile, I saw two instances where car accidents were moments away, and flipped off three different drivers for various offenses against me. The cat meowed the entire time, and the dog is thoroughly miserable (I can hear her occasionally whining from outside, she fears that I've abandoned her). All in all, it was a very long and interesting drive, but I wish I had a few more days before I had to go out and do it again; my music collection is thoroughly spent and so am I.
For the most part, the other drivers haven't been too bad. I only hit traffic twice - once before I was out of NYC - and none of it lasted long. I've had some of the scarier-as-hell situations where it's concrete 10" to your left and a truck 10" to your right, but I got out of them despite hands glued to the wheel and eyes pasted straight ahead. However, I have a new pet peeve - I've grown to loath the "god's gift to the passing lane" syndrome, in which some asshole decides that clearly the speed they are driving is simply the speed, and then they will not budge from the passing lane. I don't like violating traffic rules (other than posted speed limits, that is) and I don't like passing on the right, and I HATE being forced to by someone too rude to switch lanes to get the hell out of my way. This seemed especially prevalent in Arkansas, but it was also rather endemic, really.
More than anything, this trip has left me with a sense of how BIG the country is. I really appreciate planes a lot more now, too! I still like to drive, which is reassuring cause I still want to drive across the country sometime - but not without an iPod! I've covered the US from pretty far north (I mean, I was in Syracuse on Friday last week!) to pretty damn far south, and simultaneously gotten about 40% across in the east/west direction. And wow! So much country! I also have been left with the sense of wanting to go back to some of these places. I'm going to take the opportunity of the drive back to do a little sightseeing - the Zoo in Dallas, a river cruise in Memphis (and possibly a stop at the Stax Museum of American Music), and I think I'll take the ridgeline drive through the Shenandoah instead of the highway - and maybe do a little hiking. I wanted to detour to Shiloh, in Tennessee, ever since I saw a sign for it on the highway, but brief investigation now makes it clear that it's actually pretty far from my route, so I guess I'll have to go there some other time (Shiloh is the site of one of the major battles of the Civil War). And I have to be back in NYC on Sunday night. I want to go back to western Virginia, and Dallas, and especially Memphis, which looks really neat and I want to go hear live music and stuff! But not this time...
For now, I'm going to take the Jonie for a walk and take some pictures of the spring flowers in Texas, for though I've been here before, it was always in July and August (including one year when it was over 100 degrees 40 days in a row!) and it's much, much nicer here in April! ;) Poor lizard...
First, let me say that when one has nothing to do for two days except sing along with the stereo and stare at the other drivers, I'm unsurprisingly rather punch drunk. Anyway...
I followed a route I'd never taken before, hoping onto I 78 through New Jersey, connecting up with I 81 (which I've long taken to Binghamton but have never gone south on) and then staying on it for 600 miles. This lead to I 40, which I went another 500 miles or so on, and then I 30 and finally I 45, with a few little connectors here and there. This route took me across New Jersey, cutting over the south eastern tip of Pennsylvania through Harrisburg, passing briefly through Maryland (10 miles) and West Virginia (about 25 miles) and down through Virginia, skirting the entire south western edge of that state. From there, the route cut right across Tennessee, passing through Knoxville and Memphis, and on into Arkansas, through Little Rock. It hit the border with Texas at Texarkana, and continued on until Dallas, where I skirted the city and headed south, to finally end up (after two nights in hotels) in College Station/Bryan.
The first legs went very well. I brought a bunch of CD's, and singing along with them passed the time well enough; occasionally I'd think on my current works in progress, but mostly I just concentrated on driving (read: speeding) and thoughts of where to stop for meals. My first stop for gas came up in West Virginia, where I was so shocked by the price that I pushed on into Virginia, where it was 20 cents cheaper (the lizard just fell again...it looks so confused...)
I'd never visited western Virginia before, and I was impressed by how pretty it was there. The route went through the Shenandoah valley, (thud) a place I've wanted to visit for a long time but have never actually been to. It's only about 6 hours from NYC, and I've resolved to go back at some point in the future and hike. A lot. (Admission: I'm a closet Civil War buff, hence my desire to visit this and several other places I passed along my route). It got steadily prettier as I went west. You really see mountains coming, too; they rose like shadows against a clear sky, it was pretty amazing.
It was my first time in Tennessee. It's very pretty there, too, with the Smokies rolling on by and a lovely 70 mph speed limit (read: I drove 85). I was pretty exhausted by the time I approached Knoxville on the first night, but I pushed on past (realizing that I had morning traffic to fear if I didn't) and stopped near by.
The next morning (yesterday) I got going bright and early, in the hopes (vain, as it turned out) that I might actually get to College Station last night. The weather was quite nice, and I hit Memphis about halfway through the day. I'd never seen the Mississippi river before. I expected it to be kind of like the Hudson - the Hudson is 2 miles wide with built up civilization on either side, and it is BIG. But I was mistaken; the Mississippi is WAY more impressive. It just goes on, and on, and on, broken up by bright green hillocks and islands and whenever I thought "wow, well that was a big river" I'd realize that there was MORE of it. I was (thud) shocked.
This lead in to Arkansas, another place I'd never been before. Many are the times that I've driven across Ohio and thought, "god, this is so boring to drive through, it's so stinking (thud) flat." Oh, but I had no idea! I'm so sorry, Ohio, I'll never complain again. Because the eastern edge of Arkansas has got to be the flatest, dullest scenery I've ever encountered. Yay, flood plains? The western part of the state got nicer, but I was getting tired enough by then to not be impressed. Little Rock, meanwhile, had the funniest little "skyline" where I could count the small number of skyscrapers. :) Meanwhile, I got to laugh at the Arkansan desire to name things after their state, Texarkana (which is actually in Texas) being the prime example. My personal favorite was "Arkadelphia," though.
Finally, I won through in to Texas, feeling so tired that I almost stopped immediately, but I caffeined up and pushed on towards Dallas. After a long, drawn out internal battle between my taste buds and my exhausted brain, I called up
swan_tower to see if she knew of any steakhouses along my route. Sadly, she did not, for she is more familiar with northern climes, whereas I skirted the south eastern edge of the city. This was followed by more internal debate - there was NO WAY I was leaving Texas without steak! - and I finally broke down and decided that if I was going to be ashamed of eating a chain steak house in Texas, I might as well go ahead and get cinnamon butter out of the deal, and thus my feet...er...tires were led to Texas Roadhouse. After dinner, the rumble of thunder started, and I left Dallas in the darkness in the midst of one of those stunningly unbelievable lightening storms that I've never encountered anywhere but Texas (I've been to Texas before, just not Tennessee or Arkansas), forks flashing all about, lightening the sky, sometimes in a weird orange/brown color from a distance. I just wished I could take pictures! And hence I pulled in to Ennis, and after getting turned away from 3 of the 4 hotels, finally found one that would allow Jonie in. The timing worked out great, for just as I pulled up the skies opened and it poured. Of course, I then had to get my stuff into the room and walk the dog, which is how I ended up utterly and completely soaked through.I woke up early this morning, decided I didn't give a damn about breakfast, and hopped in the car and drove until I reached my destination at 10:20 EST (9:20 local time). My uncle made sad faces at me when I suggested I'd be leaving more or less immediately, and given the extent to which I felt like I was about to fall over, it was surprisingly easy to prevail upon me to stay the night, and thus will I be here until tomorrow morning. It was a sad decision, though - at Nashville, I 40 met up with I 65, and I began to debate adding about 100 miles to my trip and swinging by Bloomington for a few hours on the way back. Staying in Texas, however, eliminates the time I would have had to do this in. I just remind myself that I've hardly seen my uncle in over a year, though, and I really should spare him 24 hours. I'm gonna try to get to B-ton in the next month, but I'm not sure, it's looking like a really busy May, sigh.
In the course of the drive, I saw many things I thought were neat, but sadly few lingered in my memory much past the moment that I saw them. One favorite, though, was a sign that read something like "Having faith on Him, the son, for His is the Way." I thought it was pretty impressive that faith can be strong enough to preclude proper grammar and spelling on a sign that's supposed to draw followers. Good for Him! Meanwhile, I saw two instances where car accidents were moments away, and flipped off three different drivers for various offenses against me. The cat meowed the entire time, and the dog is thoroughly miserable (I can hear her occasionally whining from outside, she fears that I've abandoned her). All in all, it was a very long and interesting drive, but I wish I had a few more days before I had to go out and do it again; my music collection is thoroughly spent and so am I.
For the most part, the other drivers haven't been too bad. I only hit traffic twice - once before I was out of NYC - and none of it lasted long. I've had some of the scarier-as-hell situations where it's concrete 10" to your left and a truck 10" to your right, but I got out of them despite hands glued to the wheel and eyes pasted straight ahead. However, I have a new pet peeve - I've grown to loath the "god's gift to the passing lane" syndrome, in which some asshole decides that clearly the speed they are driving is simply the speed, and then they will not budge from the passing lane. I don't like violating traffic rules (other than posted speed limits, that is) and I don't like passing on the right, and I HATE being forced to by someone too rude to switch lanes to get the hell out of my way. This seemed especially prevalent in Arkansas, but it was also rather endemic, really.
More than anything, this trip has left me with a sense of how BIG the country is. I really appreciate planes a lot more now, too! I still like to drive, which is reassuring cause I still want to drive across the country sometime - but not without an iPod! I've covered the US from pretty far north (I mean, I was in Syracuse on Friday last week!) to pretty damn far south, and simultaneously gotten about 40% across in the east/west direction. And wow! So much country! I also have been left with the sense of wanting to go back to some of these places. I'm going to take the opportunity of the drive back to do a little sightseeing - the Zoo in Dallas, a river cruise in Memphis (and possibly a stop at the Stax Museum of American Music), and I think I'll take the ridgeline drive through the Shenandoah instead of the highway - and maybe do a little hiking. I wanted to detour to Shiloh, in Tennessee, ever since I saw a sign for it on the highway, but brief investigation now makes it clear that it's actually pretty far from my route, so I guess I'll have to go there some other time (Shiloh is the site of one of the major battles of the Civil War). And I have to be back in NYC on Sunday night. I want to go back to western Virginia, and Dallas, and especially Memphis, which looks really neat and I want to go hear live music and stuff! But not this time...
For now, I'm going to take the Jonie for a walk and take some pictures of the spring flowers in Texas, for though I've been here before, it was always in July and August (including one year when it was over 100 degrees 40 days in a row!) and it's much, much nicer here in April! ;) Poor lizard...
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no subject
Date: 2008-04-24 10:08 pm (UTC)Also, that's one hell of a road trip. Rest up and I hope the trip home is all the more enjoyable for losing a miserable feline car-mate. The lack of fresh music is a shame, though.
I hope you enjoy the trip back (pictures please!) and make sure to get enough sleep to arrive safely.
And if you feel like coming by DC to help sew... :)
*hugs*
Cheer the lizard on for me.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-25 02:36 am (UTC)Good luck babe $ *huggle*
no subject
Date: 2008-04-25 05:39 pm (UTC)