LCNE Road Trip: 1 August 16, 2008

Friday, August 15

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6:15am
The alarm goes off. Good times, great oldies. Actually more sleep would be great. Only one slap of the snooze bar this morning, in spite of probably not falling asleep until at least 12:30am. Time to get around, pack up the car, eat something, and throw those last minute things in the small gaps left in the trunk. Plus, I have to leave my apartment decent looking, so the realtor can show the house and not be embarrassed. Meh.

7:48am Miles: 0 Temp: 66 degrees
Ok. Here I go! Checking the map for the back route I know is there, at least save some miles and make it a more interesting drive. Since I’ll be covering about 900 miles, I’m going to try to keep as much of it as Google-mappily possible not on the highway.

Although, driving down Fenway in Boston and *not* getting lost in Providence should be enough of that.

9:49am Miles: 80-ish-something Temp: 62 degrees
I have crossed the Pocono Mountains, or most of them, or something. First major highway lays ahead but sweet wonderful Walgreens here has a lovely, clean bathroom that I must explore first.

10:53am Miles: 100 something Temp: 68 degrees
Since I didn’t get a morning snack after my normal pitifully small but healthy breakfast, it’s time for Wendy’s. Somehow got off at the wrong one of the double-teamed A/B exits… but realized it after only a mile and easily turned around. Blerg. This fast food will sit in my stomach for hours, and I won’t want any more for many, many days… but, I don’t want to make a lot of stops, so sit-in-stomach is good! Finish fries while driving… this is too exciting to sit and eat fries.

12:01pm Miles: Forgot to note Temp: 70 something.
Welcome to Connecticut! Woo! Is there a term for a Connecticut resident? Like, New Yorker, Pennsylvanian, Texan…? So far, very smooth driving. I have some great music and comedy to listen to, thanks to the magic of good friends and Pandora.

I found myself thinking, the highway always looks the same, even when I cross the state lines. Derrr they’re just political boundaries. When the highway passes near/through cities, they all look very unique. It’s those long boring stretches when you can only see trees and some bland scenery that could be any of these states I’m passing through. Yeah, I know that ended in a preposition. It’s my trip. It’s my blog. Cry me a river.

12:10pm Miles: 238.5
Wow, my first highway stoppage of the whole trip. Suppose it was bound to happen.

Am somewhat surprised to not feel alone right now, and also smiley… hmmm…

12:16pm
Out of traffic already! What is that. Who does that. Shaw.

12:33pm
Spoke too soon. Slowness again. Hmm.. my left heel is asleep…

12:38pm
Heh, out of it again. Strange. PS Demetri Martin kills me in the good way.

2:46pm
AAACKKK! My exit is closed for getting into downtown Prov! They are doing a gorgeous renovation or construction of a park and a walking/biking bridge (I think… it’s hard to tell from down here) over the highway.

Never been here before… very picturesque, and other than the unexpected road construction, very calm. Is calm the word I want? I’m not schvitzing myself thinking about driving here, so whatever the word is for that, then, that’s what I mean!

Pulled off at a park after the first detour sign and flipped to the Prov detail map on the good ol trusty paper maps… I think I have my bearings… took a few seconds to memorize the three street names I need to look for to find Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Ok let’s do this!

2:56pm
Ok, I think I found it. The detour signs were pretty good, and RISD is right downtown. It’s right on the river/inlet/narrow body of water that juts into Prov, then is built up a steep hill. Score, I even found free parking for one hour… that should probably do it. My legs are stiff and need to do some zoom-zoom instead of having my car do it. First impression of Prov continues to be very positive…

3:49pm
Hmmm… very nice city. RISD appears to butt up against Brown, where there was an orientation or accepted students’ day or something. I must look like I fit in because someone stopped and asked me for directions!

So, some words to describe Prov that came from my brain:
Clean, smells like ocean, steep (the part I was able to scope on foot), academic/classy, older than I’m used to, in a constant state of reconstruction/repair/rebeautifying, charming, interesting, not too confusing. Also I have had more run-ins with polite drivers while driving and walking than non-polite/impatient.

Don’t know if they marked my tire to time me for an hour… but sadly I must be on my way anyway. I covered several blocks, it’s a very pedestrian city, but one that would not be intimidating to have a car, I don’t think… we’ll see what happens on my way out!

3:54pm
WOW holy road construction, Batman. It was pretty well marked… I got back on the highway just a couple minutes ago and it is hardly moving, but it IS moving.

Noting that it only took me 5 minutes to hit the highway out of the city, which is nice.

4:02pm
Ok, 3 lanes goes down to 2 up here, that’s the cause of slowness.
Aaaaand here are the crazy drivers. Oh look. The all have Mass license plates. Heh. Let’s just say they’re cementing the Masshole stereotype right now.

4:25pm Weather: still gorgeous.
Already made it to UMass Dartmouth. It is a very random location, in a residential/suburban=like setting, there it is.. And the campus is built like a mall. There is a road that (conveniently for snoopers like me) goes all the way around it, with signs and roads leading in to various buildings/parking lots. It is surrounded by… nothing. Fields, brush, a small athletic complex, outside of that, houses with decent lot sizes.

Would definitely be commuting to this place. Campus isn’t real attractive, but that might be because I just took in the old world charm of Prov, RISD, and Brown. However, UMassD is easily accessible in its isolation…

4:38pm
Yeah, should have included a small map when I printed this set of directions. It’s one of those where it says “travel NE on this road toward this other road.” Gee, thanks. Because I asked you for directions because I know where the obscure roads are, not the major beltway. Oh well, I’m doing fine for time.

4:44pm
Not sure where the direct roads would have taken me, but I found a gas station, and I needed it! 420 miles on this tank of gas, and my warning light still hasn’t come on, but I want to drive straight to the Cape so I better fill up here. Nice lady working behind the sliding glass window gave me the best route back to 195E, and I’m only “5 or 6 minutes ‘way!”

And SHABLAM I got 37.89 MPG on that tank of gas. First trip since I got new tires, and it shows. Now I am less down about them taking a little of the spunk out of my zoom-zoom. Very happy with both purchase of car and tires right now.

Not feeling very excited about UMassD… I don’t have an issue with the general location, but it could turn out to be hard to find housing nearby… and they don’t grant assistantships until your second year… and Prov was so much swankier… sigh, decisions… … … and this could all still never happen too.

But that’s why I’m here. To see. To observe. To reflect. To take a break. Maybe I’ll figure out what I’m supposed to be doing.

Ok, back to the highway.

5:30ish
So I had originally planned to camp down at the thick end of the Cape, but I figured, I am already driving this far… so I looked up two places all the way at the end. Just now realized that it’s just over 60 more miles, but, hey what are Life Crisis Road Trips for?

Noticing that the surroundings are slowly becoming sandier and there is a weedy grass that has a very neat purple hue to it.

Traffic is thick, but moving.

6:15ish
Blerg I am ready to be out of my car. Road has narrowed to one lane each direction. Lobster Shacks and T-Shirt Stores becoming more numerous.

Just passed a place selling/renting kayaks and had some wonderful calming memories.

Also noticed that my neck and back aren’t cracking nearly as much as they do when I sit all day in my chair at my awful desk.

6:50pm
WOW I just drove to the very driveable end of the Cape. That was neat. Campground is back a crazy little windy road, got a site and the old lady looked at me funny when I said I was by myself. Finally getting hungry and feeling like something pizza/calzone-ish. Going to scoot back to town to grab something before setting up camp.

7:20pm
AAACKK!!! While waiting in a very fun, very blue, very Cape-Coddy pizza place for – get this, how perfect – my PIZZA CALZONE (score), It has started to sprinkle! So hungry. But need to set up camp.

Tent went up in record one-woman-assembly-time. Showers seem to have died off. My site has a firm but sand-covered ground and a nice, red and blue painted picnic table. It’s just big enough for my car, tent, table, and probably enough room to squeeze another small tent. It’s a nice size, surrounded by a variety of brush and brambly trees that give surprising privacy for only being a few feet from your neighbors.

7:38pm
Pizza calzone = amazing. Totally hit the spot. Still no more showers. Didn’t finish calzone, so I rewrapped the leftovers and set them on the rubber mat in my car in case it leaks or something. My car is going to smell like it for a while.. mmm wonderful air freshener.

7:52pm
Heard my neighbors pack up and drive to the beach… which I want to check out, but I am feeling ready to crash. Switched to flip flops and took a 10 minute walk around the campgroud, now my legs feel better.

Got back to tent, opened car.. can’t decide what to do now. Beach now? It’s getting dark quick. But, beach..

And in this moment of indecision, I am bit by no less than 7 bugs.

Decision made. I’m on vacation. I need a shower badly, and now is the time.

8:48pm
Put things I’ll need in the tent before heading to the metered showers. Had to go get change from the nice but incredulous of my aloneness woman.

“Are you ok over there?” she asked. She gave me a site that is literally 50 feet from the office building.
“Yep! I’m all set up already.”
“You don’t mind being out here alone?”
I am surrounded by people in this crowded vacation spot… “Nope, sometimes it’s better that way.”
“Wow, I’d never camp alone.”
…I wonder, what do I have to be afraid of? People in this campground and in town have been polite or distant, and most of them openly gay, so no one’s interested in me!

9:15pm
All settled, and a little embarrassed by the loud Mac chime when I turned my laptop on to type all this up.

In many ways I still can’t believe I’m here. Very glad I am, very glad to be slightly out of or near the edge of my comfort zone, which is an invaluable place to be for certain periods of time or in certain instances.

Wait.. was that thunder? Or a plane? or a truck? Hmm.. It stopped.

Anyway, I don’t think I’ll ever see an open door without getting out of my comfort zone. Besides, most of the ones in my comfort zone have shut in the past year, and many in the last couple of months. Can’t help to wonder where I’ll be and what I’ll be thinking in 3, 6, and 12 months.

Just now feeling kind of lonely. But I guess some things you have to do yourself. But can’t help wonder if ending up taking this trip alone means everyone I know now will become distant if everything I know and everything in my life changes from the result of this trip. Was out too late having ice cream with friends back home last night, and this thought physically hurts me when thinking about the good times.

10:01pm
Yes, that was thunder. And now it is gently raining. Definitely time for bed. By far the most interesting day in a very, very long time.

11:08pm
Too many thoughts. Not sleeping.

11:42pm
WOW amazing storm! So loud and bright it makes me jump. It sounds different that other storms… maybe I’m hearing it echo off the ocean…