Drive to Melbourne…Return to the East Coast
The drive from the house I was staying at in New Orleans to my grandparents house in Florida is a measly 711 miles. According to Google Maps, this takes about 10 hours and 45 minutes. That is NOT a short drive, no matter how you look at it. I was a little, actually, very, amazed that I had made it all the way down to New Orleans in my car. I was the furthest away from my home in NY then I had ever been in my car and there was a mixture of excitement and anxiety about that notion. New York was nowhere near me. I couldn’t just drive back to NY in a day…the drive was 1400 miles. I guess there was some ease in my mind for most of the stops I had made because I never felt that I was that far from home in case I needed to return for some reason. However, when I was in New Orleans, even though I had no desire in returning to New York, I felt some urge to make it back to the East Coast because I had to be back in New York by the end of July to see Suz. I guess I felt a little heat on the trip and I just felt more comfortable if I was at least on the coast.
So after waking up with everyone in New Orleans, and as everyone prepared for another day of mudding and building, I packed my suitcase, grabbed my guitar, which I never even opened, threw my stuff in my car, and off I drove to my grandparent’s house in Melbourne, FL.
I was considering driving all the way to Miami, thinking to myself, “Hell, if I’m driving 700 plus miles, might as well drive 900 and make it to Miami Beach because things are supposed to be exciting in Miami, right? This was actually a serious consideration in my mind, but after spending a few days with friends and people close to me in age I had this urge to be around familiar faces because I wasn’t totally over something that had been bothering me for the past week and I thought it would be best if I saw my family. I also thought that it would be ridiculous NOT to drive to my grandparents house since they were practically in the “neighborhood” of New Orleans. Yea, that’s how my mindset was working on this trip. Florida was literally right around the corner from New Orleans…haha.
It didn’t take long to get out of New Orleans and make my way to Mississippi. Things seemed pleasant and green in the state, but before I knew it, I was already entering Alabama.
Personally, I’ve never had much reason to think about Alabama and most of my thoughts about the state tend to be negative because of my stereotypical belief that I was in serious southern America. The treatment of Blacks during the Civil Rights movement, as well as an unfair assumption of the lack of a strong educational system within the state has made me feel that Alabama may be one of the most backward states in the country. The sad thing is that I really don’t know why I feel this way about Alabama, because I don’t have many stereotypical images about most states in the US other than the “hard-working, crazy businessmen/women lives of New Yorkers,” and the “laid back, easy-going surfers” of the West Coast. I can’t forget, the “farms, pastures and Amish countries of the Midwest.” O yea, there’s also the “Native American, cowboy clashes in the Wild West,” the “volcanic, black sand beaches” over in Hawaii and the “ice caps, polar bears, penguins and eskimos” in Alaska (which I know are nonexistent in Alaska). And finally, the “bikini bathing, topless beaches, tanned women” in Florida and the “depressingly wet and rainy weather” in the Northwest. Other than those stereotypes, I really try not to have too many pre-determined notions of any place in the US or any area in the world I visit. It really allows me to approach the world with an open mind….
I made it through Alabama without being lynched or persecuted for my religious beliefs, and before I knew it the weather immediately turned warmer, the sun was out, the palm trees grew along the highway, orange trees were blossoming, if that’s what orange trees actually do, and the most beautiful women were walking around with bikinis. I knew I was in a new land, I was back in Florida…
Of course this wasn’t the most realistic or truthful image of what I saw or experienced, but just like the rest of my travelogue, it was mostly true, or I had good intentions when trying to describe what I imagined Florida should look like.
I trekked along I-10 East for a few hundred miles driving across the pan-handle of Florida, something I’d never done nor seen before, and slowly, but surely made my way to Melbourne.
The one “highlight” from my drive which I can remember was when I noticed a long backup of traffic on I-10 and I still had a few hundred miles to go so I veered off I-10 and drove over one of those “No U-turns” streets and bolted back a few miles before exiting and finding a gas station. Something inside my mind was telling me that there had to be another way to get across Florida. I had to avoid this traffic because I just couldn’t afford to sit in gridlock for hours. I still had around 500 miles to drive.
After the “U-eeey” I found a gas station near the exit and was told to cut across Florida using this other Interstate. I got the directions, found the interstate with the assistance of my GPS that also provides a map of nearby streets and began a much quicker pace across Florida before jumping back onto I-10 about 50 miles later. I felt proud of myself because I didn’t waste much time in traffic and I was still making good time to my grandparents, but I also wondered why I never considered doing something similar during some of my drives to Kenyon or back to New York where I would get backed up on I-80 for hours. It just seemed ridiculous that I had never tried to find an alternate route to Kenyon. Perhaps the desire to return wasn’t strong enough for me to get there any sooner than was necessary.
A side note about Kenyon…I have a love/hate relationship with my former college. For the most part I really loved my experience at Kenyon and the people I met and the classes I took. I had a really great college experience, however Kenyon didn’t provide everything I thought I needed for me to become the best student or person I felt I could be. I felt landlocked in Gambier/Mt. Vernon and I had difficulty finding outlets that would excite me and I became frustrated with the repetitiveness of parties and the night life that seemed rather dull after a year in London. I’m really glad I went to Kenyon and have many great memories, but I was frustrated with numerous aspects of the college, but I still think that attending Kenyon was the best decision I could have made. Going abroad and living in London opened numerous doors in my mind that Kenyon couldn’t provide because of it’s location in the middle of nowhere, and I felt that if I was able to combine the calmness and beauty of Kenyon as well as the academic classes I had with the extracurricular excitement of London and traveling I would have fallen madly in love with that school, but I don’t know if a school exists. It probably does and it probably required a 1500 on my SAT, so I couldn’t have even gone to it anyway. O yea, the girls at Kenyon always frustrated me, and when there’s only a few hundred of them at your school in very small confines they talk about certain guys, like myself, and before you know it, you’re known by all of them. That doesn’t really happen in large places…
So after feeling great about my ingenious decision to probably break a few driving laws but find a different route to make it across Florida I drove a steady 75 mph cutting through the Florida Highway, paying tolls every 5 minutes, and probably not paying a few tolls b/c I learned a few tolls too late that my EZ Pass doesn’t work in Florida…oops!
However I eventually made my way to east-central Florida and couldn’t believe that I had just driven to my grandparents house! This was big news for me since I’ve always lived in New York (except for hiatuses in Ohio/London) and driving to Florida was NEVER a consideration in my mind. I must have flown to Florida around 50 times in my life and there had NEVER been any mention of ever driving there. So this was too good of an opportunity to pass up. I could also say to myself that I drove to Florida from New York (via Chicago/New Orleans) but I was extremely excited to see my grandparents as well as my younger cousin RB and my aunt. This was the perfect antidote to some of what had been on my mind for a little and I’m glad I got to see familiar faces after spending a few days in New Orleans with my college roommates.
When I drove up to my grandparents house I just couldn’t believe I was at their house. I still have difficulty accepting this fact, but I was back on the east coast and I knew that getting to New York would be too easy now. It was time to cruise and enjoy the rest of my trip.
Tags: Summer 2007 Road Trip, Travel
