There's a saying “it's darkest before dawn”. My spin on it is “it's Kansas before Colorado”.
Since the last post on Nye's mind much has changed. The idea of returning home seized me and within a week I was on a airbus flying across the pacific. Mainland China just wasn't my cup of tea. Ostensibly there are a few medium to long term plans but at the moment I find myself trying to constructively kill time and once again in my element. The open road. There's nothing quite like it to me.
A bit misfortune has been the lack of a/c in my car. One of my many aborted posts to Nye'smind discussed my personal battle with the air conditioning system in my car and the air conditioning establishment. It didn't turn out well. Between that and the current heat wave driving at night has become a necessity. What seems like ages ago an enfeebled old trucker with coke bottle lensed glasses gave me a slew of advice. One bit of it was to drive under the cover of darkness. The reasons he laid out were pretty logical, but at the same time he was also under the impression that I was an escaped convict, so that may have had something to do with his proclivity for nocturnal travel. In retrospect after seeing his face drop upon bursting his bubble I probably should have let him go on thinking his new friend was on the run from Johnny Law. Either way, I still follow most of his advice and for utilitarian driving (for instance, college town to home) he was spot on. Night driving really is the way to go. Easier on the car, less people on the road, no cops and nice cool ambient temperatures. With areas like the Appalachians or Ozarks on the other hand it's a touch heartbreaking to be aware of beautiful scenery you're missing out on.
This isn't my first cross country drive. Every one has taught me that while “America the beautiful” is a fairly accurate account of our geographical circumstances there are exceptions to the rule. These places are striking for a moment, but are vast expanses. Portions of Texas, Oklahoma and most of Kansas. There's just nothing to see except for visions of how mundane the existences of the residents must be. Not that I have anything against small town life. It's just... wouldn't you like some springs to go swimming in or possibly some mountains to climb. Somewhere beautiful to go and cap the night in your more rambunctious years. Alongside sheer boredom, for the roadtripper these places foster feelings of pity and contempt. After doing Kansas once during the day I said never again.
The interesting thing about the instance of Kansas is that driving westward it slowly evolves into this flat expanse. Signs along the highway “no services for 80 miles”, towns that don't have a restaurant and all the while nothing but corn, pwt and a disturbing amount of wind. But then almost immediately after crossing the border something happens. In spring it's nothing short of miraculous. Gentle rolling hills that erupt in purple blooms. Today had no purple blooms. Maybe it's not the season or it could also possibly be the dry spell Colorado's been having. Even without, it's quite picturesque. And then two hours later these massive mountains appear out of nowhere and BAM! you're in a different world.
I used the old trucker's advice and did Kansas by night. It was a hard drive. Stopping for vegetable oil in California Missouri took me pretty far out of the way. Stopping to refuel when the tank runs dry is disgusting and a hassle (I carry 22 gallons on top of the veggie tank). Then I decided to stop at a Walmart in Topeka to change my oil which took a couple hours. Two points of interest here. (a) Topeka has the most amazing walmart you will ever see in your life as well as the largest mean gurth of Walmart customer (b) the security guards in the parking lot of Walmart don't like you doing automotive repairs. Post Wally-world it was powering through back roads in the dead of night until I saw this most welcome of welcome signs:
Since the last post on Nye's mind much has changed. The idea of returning home seized me and within a week I was on a airbus flying across the pacific. Mainland China just wasn't my cup of tea. Ostensibly there are a few medium to long term plans but at the moment I find myself trying to constructively kill time and once again in my element. The open road. There's nothing quite like it to me.
A bit misfortune has been the lack of a/c in my car. One of my many aborted posts to Nye'smind discussed my personal battle with the air conditioning system in my car and the air conditioning establishment. It didn't turn out well. Between that and the current heat wave driving at night has become a necessity. What seems like ages ago an enfeebled old trucker with coke bottle lensed glasses gave me a slew of advice. One bit of it was to drive under the cover of darkness. The reasons he laid out were pretty logical, but at the same time he was also under the impression that I was an escaped convict, so that may have had something to do with his proclivity for nocturnal travel. In retrospect after seeing his face drop upon bursting his bubble I probably should have let him go on thinking his new friend was on the run from Johnny Law. Either way, I still follow most of his advice and for utilitarian driving (for instance, college town to home) he was spot on. Night driving really is the way to go. Easier on the car, less people on the road, no cops and nice cool ambient temperatures. With areas like the Appalachians or Ozarks on the other hand it's a touch heartbreaking to be aware of beautiful scenery you're missing out on.
This isn't my first cross country drive. Every one has taught me that while “America the beautiful” is a fairly accurate account of our geographical circumstances there are exceptions to the rule. These places are striking for a moment, but are vast expanses. Portions of Texas, Oklahoma and most of Kansas. There's just nothing to see except for visions of how mundane the existences of the residents must be. Not that I have anything against small town life. It's just... wouldn't you like some springs to go swimming in or possibly some mountains to climb. Somewhere beautiful to go and cap the night in your more rambunctious years. Alongside sheer boredom, for the roadtripper these places foster feelings of pity and contempt. After doing Kansas once during the day I said never again.
The interesting thing about the instance of Kansas is that driving westward it slowly evolves into this flat expanse. Signs along the highway “no services for 80 miles”, towns that don't have a restaurant and all the while nothing but corn, pwt and a disturbing amount of wind. But then almost immediately after crossing the border something happens. In spring it's nothing short of miraculous. Gentle rolling hills that erupt in purple blooms. Today had no purple blooms. Maybe it's not the season or it could also possibly be the dry spell Colorado's been having. Even without, it's quite picturesque. And then two hours later these massive mountains appear out of nowhere and BAM! you're in a different world.
I used the old trucker's advice and did Kansas by night. It was a hard drive. Stopping for vegetable oil in California Missouri took me pretty far out of the way. Stopping to refuel when the tank runs dry is disgusting and a hassle (I carry 22 gallons on top of the veggie tank). Then I decided to stop at a Walmart in Topeka to change my oil which took a couple hours. Two points of interest here. (a) Topeka has the most amazing walmart you will ever see in your life as well as the largest mean gurth of Walmart customer (b) the security guards in the parking lot of Walmart don't like you doing automotive repairs. Post Wally-world it was powering through back roads in the dead of night until I saw this most welcome of welcome signs:
Immediately after crossing the border I stopped at a the nearest sleezy motel, finally got to sleep around 5am (really 6am because I crossed a time zone) and woke up to beautiful, Colorful Colorado. Morning also brought the full onset of realizing that the first time I did this drive it was in an 8 year old car and now it's in a 28 year old car. The transmission fluid changed from translucent red to a light brown (no mas). Apparently driving from Florida to NYC non-stop is a young car's game. But getting held up in Colorado Springs for two or three days is like getting stuck in an elevator with a lingerie models who didn't grow into her looks until late high school.
Western Missouri is flattish and there's corn, but it's still pretty in it's own way
I'm goin' to...
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