The Beach Boys- Feel Flows
Anya Marina - Whatever You Like
The Ramones- Outsider
No Doubt- Let's Get Back
Yes- I've Seen All Good People
Cam'ron - Oh Boy ft. Juelz Santana
Monday, June 4
Friday, June 1
Day 2 (April 31st)
So I had this idea that I would take pictures of each "Welcome to _______" sign, for every state. I would put them together at the end. This idea turned out to suck.
I'm used to driving to Nags Head/ Kitty Hawk/ Outer Banks via some lil highway, and you enter NC on a 45 mph stretch right near the south of the border gas station. There is a stop light in front of the station I believe. I took little roads like that for some of my trip, but almost every time I was entering a state, I found myself on a major interstate going like 85 miles per hour.
As I entered NC, it was like 2 o clock in the morning and I saw the sign! I was stoked. Leaving Virginia seemed like a major milestone in my trip. I wasn't going to let the conditions of my sighting ruin my picture plans. I braked heavily, pulling to the side with blinkers, although there was literally no one in sight on the road. When everyone is going at least 70 deserted at the moment means very little. I put on hazards, got out, locked the car, and watched trucks round the corner and whiz by. How would I not end that sentence with a preposition.
At this point, as I'm walking back towards the sign, I mentally acknowledge that I am doing something very dangerous, potentially illegal? probably, and most of all just dumb. Just not worth the picture. But the walk feels good, the night is crisp, the moon is bright, so I ignore all of that. A fourth of a mile later I got what I want and back on the road.
Later on the phone my best friend asks if I've done anything crazy yet and I don't tell her this, simply because it's not actually thaaat risky and also because it's not a great story, because I don't get hit or kidnapped, or even run out of film or lock the keys in the car. I just take the damn picture. And it came out shitty once I had it developed anyway.
About this I wrote in my rose spiral: "Photo of entering NC sign! the sheer size of trucks, the moon, the speed of machines passing me alarming. free"
haha. awww I romanticize
I realized that I included some NC in Day 1, but that's really a midnight/ 1am distinction. So after that Henderson, NC wafflehouse I mentioned, I continued on with the target of Chapel Hill. I was getting a little mentally tired, but physically knew I could make it. Stopped at a hotel so close to my target just to have somewhere nice to rest. Told the clerk I was waiting for my mom, and that she was late. He was like my age and super nice. Definitely believed me %100 but also definitely wouldn't have cared if it had occurred to him that I was lying. I couldn't get into the pool, which was my only regret. From the lobby I wrote: "made it to Durham thanks to the Promise Ring. In a Hampton lobby. lies. nap was approved yet I'm not...will though. and also got a movie plan"
(my idea that instead of paying for hotels I would see movies and moviehop late in the day, paying $8 or whatever and then taking like 3 consecutive 2 hour naps in different movies, then continuing to drive around 1am. I never did this but it was a great plan. Can't really take an in the dark nap in the car during early evening hours)
Anyway I stayed there forever reading and chilling and then finally continued on to Chapel Hill. I stalled enough between the two that the sun was coming up when I arrived, so I napped in a parking lot from like 6-8 and then walked around. I met someone from Chester. Always a pleasure.
"Chapel Hill is like a clean smart Richmond with a better college, no downtown, and fancy giant sorority and fraternity rows instead of Monument Ave. mansions. I want to live in one. I got into a planetarium to see Wildest Weather in the Solar System- methane cycle rather than water cycle on Titan! Methane storms!"
For Day 2 my target was Boone, where my friend Logan lives. I made it there but slept sooo much as soon as I arrived, so I'll include that in day 3, since I did very little on that first day.
I'm used to driving to Nags Head/ Kitty Hawk/ Outer Banks via some lil highway, and you enter NC on a 45 mph stretch right near the south of the border gas station. There is a stop light in front of the station I believe. I took little roads like that for some of my trip, but almost every time I was entering a state, I found myself on a major interstate going like 85 miles per hour.
As I entered NC, it was like 2 o clock in the morning and I saw the sign! I was stoked. Leaving Virginia seemed like a major milestone in my trip. I wasn't going to let the conditions of my sighting ruin my picture plans. I braked heavily, pulling to the side with blinkers, although there was literally no one in sight on the road. When everyone is going at least 70 deserted at the moment means very little. I put on hazards, got out, locked the car, and watched trucks round the corner and whiz by. How would I not end that sentence with a preposition.
At this point, as I'm walking back towards the sign, I mentally acknowledge that I am doing something very dangerous, potentially illegal? probably, and most of all just dumb. Just not worth the picture. But the walk feels good, the night is crisp, the moon is bright, so I ignore all of that. A fourth of a mile later I got what I want and back on the road.
Later on the phone my best friend asks if I've done anything crazy yet and I don't tell her this, simply because it's not actually thaaat risky and also because it's not a great story, because I don't get hit or kidnapped, or even run out of film or lock the keys in the car. I just take the damn picture. And it came out shitty once I had it developed anyway.
About this I wrote in my rose spiral: "Photo of entering NC sign! the sheer size of trucks, the moon, the speed of machines passing me alarming. free"
haha. awww I romanticize
I realized that I included some NC in Day 1, but that's really a midnight/ 1am distinction. So after that Henderson, NC wafflehouse I mentioned, I continued on with the target of Chapel Hill. I was getting a little mentally tired, but physically knew I could make it. Stopped at a hotel so close to my target just to have somewhere nice to rest. Told the clerk I was waiting for my mom, and that she was late. He was like my age and super nice. Definitely believed me %100 but also definitely wouldn't have cared if it had occurred to him that I was lying. I couldn't get into the pool, which was my only regret. From the lobby I wrote: "made it to Durham thanks to the Promise Ring. In a Hampton lobby. lies. nap was approved yet I'm not...will though. and also got a movie plan"
(my idea that instead of paying for hotels I would see movies and moviehop late in the day, paying $8 or whatever and then taking like 3 consecutive 2 hour naps in different movies, then continuing to drive around 1am. I never did this but it was a great plan. Can't really take an in the dark nap in the car during early evening hours)
Anyway I stayed there forever reading and chilling and then finally continued on to Chapel Hill. I stalled enough between the two that the sun was coming up when I arrived, so I napped in a parking lot from like 6-8 and then walked around. I met someone from Chester. Always a pleasure.
"Chapel Hill is like a clean smart Richmond with a better college, no downtown, and fancy giant sorority and fraternity rows instead of Monument Ave. mansions. I want to live in one. I got into a planetarium to see Wildest Weather in the Solar System- methane cycle rather than water cycle on Titan! Methane storms!"
For Day 2 my target was Boone, where my friend Logan lives. I made it there but slept sooo much as soon as I arrived, so I'll include that in day 3, since I did very little on that first day.
Wednesday, May 30
Sleepy drunken ~thoughts~
I used to want to own land more than anything, for 3 or 4 dogs to enjoy, but now I'd much rather buy an RV. I still want dogs def but I bet they would love camping. Recreational Vehicle is code for fun on the go obviously
Wednesday, May 23
8 hours to go
From Day 1 to day like 25 or something. Oooops. I'm at the Grand Canyon, staying practically in the park with some tour guides. New plan for updates is to eventually just type up everything I've written in notebooks and post with pictures, once I've developed them. I never want to be on a computer when I'm surrounded by nature or fun and have had a full day. But here is a quick peek at the itinerary I've followed:
Richmond
Chapel Hill
Boone
Asheville
Chattanooga
-night in Talladega, Alabama bahahaha
Birmingham
New Orleans
Houston, sort of
Austin
-night in a ghost town. Muleshoe, TX/ Texico, New Mexico/ Clovis?
Santa Fe and Albuquerque
Gallup, New Mexico
Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon
Next San Diego for a week or so and then San Francisco!
After this trip I feel like why did I ever want to go to Europe or even Asia?!? I'm staying here forever!!! There's so much more to see.
Richmond
Chapel Hill
Boone
Asheville
Chattanooga
-night in Talladega, Alabama bahahaha
Birmingham
New Orleans
Houston, sort of
Austin
-night in a ghost town. Muleshoe, TX/ Texico, New Mexico/ Clovis?
Santa Fe and Albuquerque
Gallup, New Mexico
Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon
Next San Diego for a week or so and then San Francisco!
After this trip I feel like why did I ever want to go to Europe or even Asia?!? I'm staying here forever!!! There's so much more to see.
Friday, May 4
Day 1 (April 30th)
I didn't leave til about 6pm Monday. Tying up loose ends and generally freaking out. But once I finally got on the road and starting listening to the Beastie Boys I got pretty relaxed and stoked.
Going south towards 85, I had to down 95 first for about 35 minutes. This means I passed Chester, home from ages eight to eighteen, and next I passed through Colonial Heights, home from ages 2 and a half to eight, and then through Petersburg to 85. It's sappy but I felt like I was traveling backwards through my past into the future.
Anyway, then I stopped at the Pamplin Park exit, fueled up, got a Dr. Pepper and a Blowpop, accidentally left with the bathroom door locked from the inside, and chatted on the phone with a friend who will be in Las Vegas as I'm passing through.
45 minutes down. 48-ish hours to go.
In Rawlings, VA there was nothing but a huge gas station with a smoking lounge. I met a mute and blind guy who was dressed like a classy baller, red bandana and suit coat and sweet kicks, etc etc, and kept playing Michael Jackson tunes on the jukebox. Clearly he staked out the lounge daily because everybody who passed through chatted him up in a sort of routine manner. He bought me a pizza and then I had to tell him I was vegan. Pizza rejection is always tough because I do love fun a lot, but this time was THE HARDEST. We could have had a cute date right there in the smoking lounge in the gas station in Rawlings. Dammit.
I entered NC, stopped at a wafflehouse in Henderson, played some country classic jukebox jams, rode my bike into the town and explored, and snapped some pictures. I could see that the town was really suffering, with most buildings shut down and all the stores advertising big blowout sales despite being mostly empty of merchandise inside. I sat down at a picnic table on the main road and watched zero cars pass for an hour. I thought Richmond was small but 4 days into my trip, I have discovered that I am wrong. In Henderson I had just begun accommodating the perspective of not crowded. I have been absorbed in Richmond for too long. American country has a lot more to offer than I gave it credit for.
So I looked up a statistic. As of 2000, 166,215,889 citizens live in 153 American urbanized areas that have populations over 200,000. That's 58.274 percent of people living in cities like Richmond, within the city limits.
Wikipedia says that as of 2008, 82% of people live in cities and suburbs, making the US highly urbanized. But I don't think the suburbs count really, and that is including cities with populations as low as 2,500 people, calling them "urban clusters". So to me anyway, that is a misleading statistic. My high school had 2,000 people in it. That is not a city. I'm sure the requirements are complicated or globally standardized or whatever but bottom line is almost half, or roughly 40 percent of Americans, live in cities smaller than Richmond. I'm trying to meet them!! Anyway the country is cool. This is getting boring. Peace yall
Going south towards 85, I had to down 95 first for about 35 minutes. This means I passed Chester, home from ages eight to eighteen, and next I passed through Colonial Heights, home from ages 2 and a half to eight, and then through Petersburg to 85. It's sappy but I felt like I was traveling backwards through my past into the future.
Anyway, then I stopped at the Pamplin Park exit, fueled up, got a Dr. Pepper and a Blowpop, accidentally left with the bathroom door locked from the inside, and chatted on the phone with a friend who will be in Las Vegas as I'm passing through.
45 minutes down. 48-ish hours to go.
In Rawlings, VA there was nothing but a huge gas station with a smoking lounge. I met a mute and blind guy who was dressed like a classy baller, red bandana and suit coat and sweet kicks, etc etc, and kept playing Michael Jackson tunes on the jukebox. Clearly he staked out the lounge daily because everybody who passed through chatted him up in a sort of routine manner. He bought me a pizza and then I had to tell him I was vegan. Pizza rejection is always tough because I do love fun a lot, but this time was THE HARDEST. We could have had a cute date right there in the smoking lounge in the gas station in Rawlings. Dammit.
I entered NC, stopped at a wafflehouse in Henderson, played some country classic jukebox jams, rode my bike into the town and explored, and snapped some pictures. I could see that the town was really suffering, with most buildings shut down and all the stores advertising big blowout sales despite being mostly empty of merchandise inside. I sat down at a picnic table on the main road and watched zero cars pass for an hour. I thought Richmond was small but 4 days into my trip, I have discovered that I am wrong. In Henderson I had just begun accommodating the perspective of not crowded. I have been absorbed in Richmond for too long. American country has a lot more to offer than I gave it credit for.
So I looked up a statistic. As of 2000, 166,215,889 citizens live in 153 American urbanized areas that have populations over 200,000. That's 58.274 percent of people living in cities like Richmond, within the city limits.
Wikipedia says that as of 2008, 82% of people live in cities and suburbs, making the US highly urbanized. But I don't think the suburbs count really, and that is including cities with populations as low as 2,500 people, calling them "urban clusters". So to me anyway, that is a misleading statistic. My high school had 2,000 people in it. That is not a city. I'm sure the requirements are complicated or globally standardized or whatever but bottom line is almost half, or roughly 40 percent of Americans, live in cities smaller than Richmond. I'm trying to meet them!! Anyway the country is cool. This is getting boring. Peace yall
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