The Epic Drive to DC
Even when you’ve been on the road for four weeks and driven over 4,000 miles a 500 mile drive is still a daunting challenge and something that I tried to avoid at all costs after my miserable drive to Niagra Falls on my first day of the epoch road trip. However, I needed to make my way back towards NY because I had a deadline to return to NY….August 1, and I couldn’t miss it because Suz would be really upset with me. So when I finally got into my car and left the Great Smoky Mountains National Park I was somewhat excited to head back towards NY, and I’d be visiting another large city, and I’d be seeing college friends, but the length of the drive, and my fatigue from already driving on the Blue Ridge Highway really dampened my spirits. The only thing that really kept me excited was my desire to stop at a Hooters along the way…it had become a regular stop on the trip.
After driving for an hour so I felt as if I hadn’t put a dent into the 500 mile drive. That’s the annoying thing about long drives…even when you drive for a very long time, like 3 hours, you still have more than half of the trip to drive. It’s a really depressing realization, and as I looked down at my GPS navigation system after three hours I saw that I had entered Virginia, but was still nowhere near DC. In order to allow the time to pass as quickly as possible I went into my regular long-drive routine. I sat back comfortably in my seat, grabbed my cell phone, and started calling my friends and family. I didn’t know how else to kill the time, because you feel kind of lonely when you’re driving by yourself for that length of time. My regulars for these phone calls consisted of Suz, Chris, Bry, my siblings and my mother. Each conversation would last around 30 minutes, so if I got through 4 calls, I’d knock out a couple hours as well as around 100 plus miles…I guess if there was a downer to the road trip, it’d be the amount of time I spent driving, and how often I made phone calls. I never in my life spoke on the phone more often than when I was on my road trip, and this drive to DC epitomized the craziness of driving solo through the States.
I knew I wasn’t going to be arriving in DC until midnight, if not past midnight, and this made me feel terrible, because I didn’t want to keep the girls up waiting for me because they had work…like regular people, and I didn’t want to become a nuisance. Fortunately, the girls were extremely patient with me, and let me know that it wasn’t a problem if I arrived later than expected.
The only other things I can say about the drive to DC other than its length, was that you’re always surrounded by trees, forests and the sight of the Appalachian Mountains, until you start getting closer to DC, but fortunately I didn’t have to deal with DC traffic since the girls were living outside of downtown, and this was great for me because I wouldn’t have to pay for parking.
After 9 hours or so I finally arrived in DC dead tired, disheveled, and probably looking like crap. I felt somewhat embarrassed how I must have looked, but the day was kind of crazy, and I can’t imagine many people feeling very good after sitting on their ass for 9 hours driving.
However, I was very happy to see the girls and even more excited to see a futon for me in their apartment. Life was awesome, and I was so happy to realize that even though Kenyon was over, I still had close enough connections with my peers to be able to stop by and see them along the road trip. Seeing my friends and family were definitely the highlights of the road trip, and my week in DC epitomized this feeling.
Tags: Summer 2007 Road Trip, Travel
