Hello! It’s that time of year again… you know, the time
of year when I get the road trip itch and make all kinds of crazy plans and reassemble
Jane halfassedly after some long drawn-out project and then drag her all over
the country with me! And you’re here reading this long-winded intro post because
I have successfully actually executed one of my insane road trip plans.
This year’s trip is short by necessity, unfortunately.
No, I won’t be running a 10,000 mile, month-long jaunt around North America
like usual. I guess maybe that’s a good thing, because I am kind of running out
of national parks to go to. Instead I’ll be taking an abbreviated two-week
trip. But what my trip lacks in duration will be made up for by its intensity!
So chew on this: Two weeks. Two coasts. Two hot rod
shows.
Yeahhhhhh.
This plan came together sometime a few weeks ago, when I
was mad that I couldn’t go to two car shows at once. I was stuck between going
to American Graffiti Festival in Modesto, CA (June 8-10) and the Hot Rod Power
Tour in the southeast (June 8-15). On the one hand, Graffiti is a lot of fun
and a lot of my good friends go. On the other hand, the HRPT is a lot of fun
and a lot of my good friends go. Also, it’s routing through my hometown this
year. Decisions, decisions.
Well, I’m the queen of “having my cake and eating it too”
type decisions. It occurred to me that I wouldn’t have to be mad about missing
one of the shows if I just made it to both of them. So yes, I worked out a way
to make it to both events… on both coasts… within a two week period… while also
throwing in some quality hiking and camping at a few new destinations. I won’t
tell you the whole plan now, you’ll just have to ride along and see how it all pans
out. But here’s a hint: it involves a lot of driving.
And so today I found myself staring down the barrel of
yet another arduous drive through the depths of west Texas – the one barrier
between me and the awesome parts of America. A huge, endless,
dirt-and-brush-filled barrier. A barrier populated only by semi trucks, tankers,
oil rigs, and desolate remnants of towns being steadily swallowed up by dust. A
barrier mostly known for insane temperatures, incredible dust storms, and
vicious thunderstorms. In other words, the worst possible thing to encounter at
the very beginning of a trip, especially given Jane’s propensity for throwing a
wrench in things on the first day.
I’ve lived in Austin for long enough now that I know this
monster well. Whenever I plan a trip out west, I dread this part. It’s
impossible to avoid, no matter what I do. Each time I try to pick a different
route, just to see if there are any ways through that are less tortuous. Hint:
there’s not.
Today I had 600 miles of driving to do through this hell
if I wanted to escape Texas and get to “the good part”. Jane, of course, had
been thrown together haphazardly and packed at 1AM the night before, so I
missed my intended 8AM departure time and ended up scooting out at, oh… 9:30.
Close enough. The high for the day was somewhere around 105*F, and the
weatherpeople were forecasting unrelenting sun somehow coupled with thick haze.
All of this brewed together should have made for an absolutely terrible drive,
except for one thing:
I really, really, really love driving this car.
There is just something about Jane. I tend to forget it
sometimes while I’m just putt putting around town. Around town, Jane is more or
less an ordinary albeit somewhat silly vehicle. But on the open road, she is a
different beast entirely. The grocery getter turns into a monster that just won’t
quit, the kind of car that hungrily eats up the blacktop, whipping across the
desolate terrain and rough roads with a kind of ferocity that is impossible to
put into words. When I’ve got somewhere to be, Jane is right there with me, no
babying needed. I’ve never reached the limit of this car, beyond the fuel tank
capacity. And that exhilarating, empowering thought is a big part of how I get
across the expanse of west Texas without going a little loopy.
Driving all day with the intent of just hacking off a
certain number of miles from the distance to your destination can be exhausting.
But the right car takes all of your needs and wants and thoughts and concerns
and balls them all up and throws them right out the window. No time to think
about how hot you are, or how tired you are, or how much your heel hurts or how
hungry you are or how many hours you have left to go. Jane just grabs you and says,
“Drive.”
So I do.
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| I wasn't joking about this wasteland people. |
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| What an oil pump looks like on a "fully sunny but also fully hazy" day in west Texas |
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| Challenge of the day: try to pronounce this town's name without sounding like a Bostonian struggling to say "Florida" |
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| Call me the Pony Express, cus I'm faster than this train! |
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| Bam! |
I got to the 600 mile marker (and my stop for the night)
in 9.5 hours flat. And I even arrived mostly sane (at least, no less sane than
I was when I left this morning)! But the best part about Jane and I’s
industrious longhaul was that it left me with enough time to grab dinner and go
to a local car meet I found out about. It was nice to chat with some locals and
play “show pony” after a long drive.
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| When I stay at a hotel, I make sure to stay at the classiest ones. |
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| Get you a car that can do both. 600 mile drive followed by a car show without any cleaning in between? No problem! |
Anyways, here I am, on the road again, writing this post.
It’s hard to believe that I’ve been doing this for four years running now. What
was initially referred to as a “once in a lifetime trip” is now just a norm for
me, and I’m thankful for that. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow will bring!
Kelly signing out.
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