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Saturday, June 11, 2005

Road Trip Story

A Physical and Mental Escape From a Dreary Lifestyle

James Glavin
Period F
12.15.99
English

It was 6:00 AM. As I packed my car with clothes and other various supplies, I had an epiphany. I stopped what I was doing, and began removing everything from the trunk but essentials. If we were going on a road trip, we weren’t going prepared. That was for damned sure. I left the toolbox and other supplies for the car, because I knew that something was going to go wrong with it. I drove an early eighties Saab. It was stereotypically notorious for breaking down whenever it wanted, which seemed to be often. Consequently, I normally carried around such everyday supplies as a case of motor oil, a whole toolbox, jumper cables, and a whole crate of little spare parts, fuses, and various fluids. So, even though I decided not to prepare myself, I took all of these things, just because I always carried them around.

I got in the car and drove away as quickly as possible with only three shirts and an extra pair of pants. As I made the comparatively long trip from Gay Head to Edgartown to pick up my friends, I became giddy. I realized that I would be getting more driving hours in the next few weeks than I had gotten in the last few months. I could barely contain my ecstacy while I drove, singing loudly along with the music.
When I arrived at Alex’s house, him and Chris and Dan all came out carrying large bags, apparently filled with clothes. I told them that I had only borught three shirts and a pair of pants, and they blatently disagreed with me, insisting they get to bring all their stuff. They jokingly asserted that I was going to be sleeping in the car once my clothes started smelling really bad.

I drove up to the Ferry Terminal in Vineyard Haven, holding the reservation that my parents had arranged for me. This was it. After we got off the boat, our destiny was in our hands. We had absolutely no idea where we were going, except that it wasn’t going to be Boston, like we had so calmly assured our parents. A cranky Steamship employee was carelessly waving me onto the boat when I looked up from the reservation, and I felt embarrassed for a second as I sped towards the ramp.
The fact that we were finally doing what we had fantasized about for so long hadn’t really set in yet. We sat at a table and stared into our boat coffee, still too hot to bring even close to the mouth without burning your tongue. As we crossed the Vineyard Sound, and drank our coffee, we slowly began to gain energy. “Hey we’re finally free, at least for a while,” I said, trying to evoke a response from someone.
“I need to call my Mom when we get to Woods Hole. I think I left my computer on,” Said Alex, ironically right after my statement.

“Yeah, hey, does anyone have a calling card? My Dad told me to call him when we get to “Boston,” Dan said.
“But, what if we go across country? It doesn’t take three days to get to Boston,” Chris said.
“Yeah, stupidass. That’s why I’ll call from wherever we are in three hours.”
“Did anyone hear what I said? I said we’re finally free. Can’t we just not call, make them worry? What does it matter? Are they going to start a nationwide search for us? Come on, guys.” I was awake now. I could tell that the trip had to be handled carefully, or we might end up at each other’s throats by the end of the day.
“Well, I guess you’re right,” Alex said. “I guess it doesn’t really matter. She’ll realize it’s on eventually, when she starts renting my room out.”
“Hey, at least your parents aren’t like mine, they would realize it was on when they grabbed it and threw it out the window,” I interjected, “But that’s OK, because I’m not thinking about them. I’m going to do my best not to let it bother me. We’re going on a road trip, and we’re gonna have fun.” A unanimous “Yeah!” came from the rest of the table.
We debarked from the boat. “OK, we’ve got a full tank of gas, and a good fast car,” I said, “Where are we off to?”
“Let the road take us, man,” Dan said, “I say we go west.”
“West sounds good,” Chris said.
“OK, we go west. Everyone down with that?” No complaints, and we were off.
The first two or three hundred miles was a blast. Loud music, open windows, and caffeine kept us going through state after tiny Eastern state. Massachusetts turned into Rhode Island, which turned into Connecticut, then New York. It was what I had always dreamed of. Straight road that went on, and on, and on, as far as you could ever want to go. I was so excited at first that I was tingling.

We had left the state of New York, and were somewhere in Pennsylvania. It was late afternoon, and our previous excitement had painstakingly bled out of us. The music was turned down, the windows were up, and everyone was silent. It seemed that we were now ready to get there. I made a resolution to myself: I would drive my car until either I was too tired to stay awake, or I lost interest in the actual driving, whichever came first. Just then, Alex, sitting next to me, turned towards me.
“How long are we driving for?” He asked.

“I’m driving until I can’t drive anymore. I don’t know how long it will take, but we’ve been through two tanks of gas already, and I’m not there yet.”
“OK. I’m sure glad I brought a pillow.” He pulled out a small airline pillow, and leaned over. Soon, all three were asleep.

I drove through the night. I’m not sure how, but I managed to make my way through Ohio and part of Indiana. I was nearing the state line when the sun came up. Alex woke up. He simply looked over at me, then back at Chris and Dan, who were both sleeping, and leaned back over.

Towards noontime, I began to get hungry. So, I stopped at a McDonald’s. When I shut off the car, all three of them woke up simultaneously.
“Are we there yet? Wait, I mean, where are we?” Asked one of them.
“I think we’re in Illinois. I’m hungry. I’ve been driving for almost 30 hours straight, and the last thing I ate was that donut on the boat for breakfast yesterday. We’re having lunch.” No one had any complaints. We ate a lot, and we ate it quickly. I went to the bathroom, and went across the street to the convenience store for food to bring in the car. I knew that we wouldn’t be stopping for a while.

“Hey, you feel like stopping yet? I could use a good night’s sleep in a motel.” Dan asked, hoping I had grown bored of driving already.
“Hell, no, I’ve got a few more days of good driving before I’ll need sleep. I don’t know how, either. I think I’ve been driving in my sleep.... just kidding.”
“Ha, ha, very funny. I think we should stop soon.”
“No, don’t worry about it. What, you don’t trust my driving?”
“Okay, fine. Drive as long as you want.”
So we drove.

We were somewhere in Kansas, or maybe Colorado, in the mid-afternoon of day three. I was beginning to long for that motel bed. By now, we were well on our way to making it all the way from East Coast to West Coast without staying in any motels. Even though I felt extremely fatigued, I pressed on, convincing myself that it wasn’t that much farther, that I could make it. Only a few more states, a few hundred more miles. Or was it a few thousand? I didn’t care anymore. My diet over the past few days had consisted mostly of gas station coffee, with occasional McDonald’s stops, where I would drink two cups with my scant meal, then take two more with me in the car. As a popped another caffeine pill, I decided that it wasn’t unfeasible that I could make it all the way before I needed sleep.

I drove through that night, and by the next morning, I don’t know if you could say I was driving. All I was really doing was resting my arm on the bottom of the steering wheel to keep it straight, with cruise control set at exactly 100 miles per hour. It seemed like the road had been perfectly straight for the entire night. Then, what little energy I had left in my body was mustered, and I squinted in the distance at a sign that distinctly said “Welcome to California.”

“Hey, guys. We’re almost there. How about that, huh? I didn’t even stop once to sleep. What a feat. I wonder if anyone’s ever done that before.”
Alex looked up, and noticed the sign. “Hey, alright. We’re in Nevada. You’re right, we are almost there. Just this state and then we go across California, and that’s it.”
“Yeah, well, we just passed that sign. Now we’re in California.”
“How is that?”
“What do you mean?”
“What? Did you even read it?”
“Yeah. It said ‘Welcome to Nevada.’ So?”
“Oh, whoops. Yeah, that’s what I meant.” I looked away.

I didn’t know how much more I could take. So far, I had gone through an entire box of caffeine pills, about 50 cups of coffee, and god knows how many Cokes and Pepsis along the way. My body was slowly consuming itself in the driver’s seat of my car. I even wondered if I would be able to get out once we got there. It seemed like my friends spent about 23 hours a day sleeping, and the other hour in a McDonald’s.
It was again mid-afternoon. Day four. The circles around my eyes were darker than the pupils. I glanced nervously from side to side as I drove, in a vain last effort to keep myself awake for just a little longer. Just then, I came to a realization, and rudely awoke the person next to me. “H-h-hey...” I managed to stutter, “w-w-were in th-the city. W-where d-do I g-go?”
“Wow, you need sleep badly. Here, stop at this motel here on the right. We’re sleeping. I don’t care what you say.” I didn’t have the energy to argue. I turned right, and shut off the car.

I could barely stand up. I must have looked drunk. As they aranged a room, I noticed some very confortable-looking lobby chairs. As I walked over to one, the room was ready to go, and I was denied the chance to try out that chair. We went up the elevator, and found our room. I walked in, saw a bed, and collapsed.

When I woke up, it was dark out. I woke up to the sound of my colleagues coming into the hotel room. “What time is it?” I asked. I also wanted to know where we were.
“Don’t you mean, what day is it? You’ve been asleep for more than 48 hours.”
“Where are we?” I asked desparately.
“What do you mean? Don’t you know? You drove us here.”
“I have no idea. As far as I know, we’re in either California or Nevada.”
“Well, we’re in California alright. We made it. We’re in San Francisco.”
“We really made it? Alright! Did you know that I just drove for almost four full days straight?”
“Yeah, of course, we were with you, remember?”
“Yeah. Hey, how’s my car?”
“Oh, it’s fine. It’s got an extra four thousand miles on it, but other than that, it’s the same as it was when we left. It pretty amazing, actually.”
“Yeah, it is. I knew we could make it. Well, when do we go back?”
“Go back? You want to? If we leave today, we’ll get back before the end of vacation. I know we planned to stay longer, but if you really want to go back now, we should, because that way we won’t miss any school.”
“Alright, sure. Why not? Let’s go.” I got out of bed, and began gathering my stuff together.
“But, don’t you want to see the city or something?” Dan was concerned that the trip was a waste.
“Ahhh, maybe some other time. I mean, look on the bright side. I have a good excuse to do this again sometime.”
“Okay, it’s your car.”

As we drove out of the city, I looked into the rear view mirror. What a great place, I thought. I told myself that I would have to come back some other time, so that I could take in the full experience of the place. But no time for that on this trip. I had to hurry back to Martha’s Vineyard so I wouldn’t miss any of the, uh, exciting stuff that goes on all the time here.

1 Comments:

Blogger james said...

Hasty ending. What do you expect for assigned work?

13/6/05 3:50 AM  

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