Day 19

Well - I did it, I traveled around the United States, from the North East, to the North West, to the South West, to the South East, and back up again. It took 19 days and 8500 miles - and parts were pretty painful, but overall it was just amazing. I visited places I never thought I'd go, saw world-renowned landmarks, and met really interesting people.

A few things that pop into my mind - one, I'm really tired. Being away from your home for almost three weeks is draining, especially when you're on the move everyday. I missed my cats, I missed my apartment, and my friends (though I kept in touch along the way). When I first got back into NH, everything felt really surreal - everything I saw was familiar, but after seeing alien territory for 3 weeks, familiarity was the abnormal, its hard to explain. Plus, today was a horrible driving day, accidents all along 495, just a crawl the whole time.

Another interesting thing - I realized this after passing through Washington DC and then NYC - city driving doesn't make me nervous anymore. I never really minded driving in the city too much, but it always made me a bit uneasy - I didn't even feel a twinge of it at all. I actually kind of enjoyed it, it was actually a bit challenging as opposed to driving in a stright line for 7 hours. I think that whole nervous thing can be applied to quite a bit actually - there were some areas I did feel nervous on my trip, but for the most part nothing really bothered me too much psychologically, I think just being thrown out in the middle of nowhere with just my car, a map and some money really showed me that if I've got the means, I can formulate how to get things done, I can figure out how to get to point A to point B, and survive. Its not like I was in a jungle or a forest or something, or without money, but it still takes some calculation, some drive, energy, whatever, to circle the whole country, half of it completely alone.

Another thing that I mentioned a bit but didn't get too much into, I was pretty sick with digestive issues the entire trip, mainly from my diet being altered so much, which got pretty severe around the texas/mississippi leg of the trip. At one point I was considering throwing the itinerary out the window and heading straight for NH. But I was on an adventure - an exploration, and there were areas that i wanted to explore that I had never been to before. And I figured, if explorers of yesteryear had turned back when they got sick we would have never gotten anywhere. I know that sounds kind of melodramatic for just crossing a few states, but it kept me going. I had a goal, and I reached it, I didn't give up - not because I felt I had to live up to the goal, but because I wanted to live up to the goal. I did all of this because I wanted to, and it was awesome.

The trip also gave me a lot of time for self-reflection, just being in a car for hours on end (Something silly like 160 or something btw). And I've always known this, in a large part thanks to my mom, a large part thanks to other mentors along the way, but - you really can do anything in this world if you have the drive and determination. And I mean anything - the problem is you just have to believe you can do it and also have the follow through. You gotta put in the time, but if you're willing to, you can accomplish amazing things - Mount Rushmore showed me that, the films of a once no-name Director Kevin Smith showed me that, hell, the entire nation showed me that. It kind of wrapped it up for me after listening to John Kerry at the DNC, he kind of echoed the same words of accomplishment. The dreamers amongst us, the dreamers with a passion and a drive have all accomplished such amazing things - not because they were smart, or wealthy, or had status - those things certainly didn't hurt in certain circumstances, but they accomplished them because they had a deep love for something, they had a dream, and they were willing to do what was necessary to make that dream a reality, to work for it.

I know this is kind of getting off topic, a bit cheezy and a bit didactic, but I found my mind wandering back to this quite a bit, so I just wanted to mention it. If you've got a dream to climb a mountain, create artificial life, run a marathon, build a castle, become a movie-star, whatever - work towards it. There are no guarantees in life, but most of the time if something is possible, and you dedicate your life to it, you can find a way. And if you still don't make it - you spent your life trying to attain your dream, and what could be better than that? Better than lying on your death bed wondering "what if?"

Anyway, I'll get off my soap box now, I just thought it would be good to mention a little of what was going on inside my mind while I was reporting what was flying by my eyes at 80mph. I've also got to say - I gained more respect for Texas on this trip than I had previously, I'll be wearing my hat with pride. The deep south still kind of scared me a bit in certain places, but thats okay.

My favorite place on the trip? Astoria, OR by far. One day when I'm making enough money to afford it, I'd love to get a little place out there, it was the only place on the trip outside of New England that I felt at home. For the two days that I stayed there I felt a lot calmer than I did the rest of the time. Red Bank was a blast too, it didn't feel too much different than a lot of other smaller NE cities.

Worst place? Not too many places were bad, the endless farms got boring sometimes, and there were a few VERY questionable motels, one being a cockroach infested one in Mississippi, that was a blast.

I got to see my family again which was great, I got to see my not-so-close-to-home-friends. Hell - I got to see the US, a small portion of the world for that matter, got to see people, learn about myself, got cool gifts along the way, and got paid the whole time! Can't beat that.

Anyway, its late, I'm tired, and I'm going to wrap this up. Overall - amazing. Just amazing, I can't describe it. Something I'll never forget, and I'm glad I kept this journal. I will get back to a lot of the places I visited, though I don't know when.

Just a few thanks before I end - thanks to God, whomever She or He or It be, for spawning a Universe that gave rise to such a kick-ass galaxy -> solar system -> planet -> country to visit. Thanks to Lady Luck for not throwing anything too majorly bad my/our way. A big-ups to Poco for making it the whole trip without even so much as a sputter (I mean, lets be honest - Poco was the one who did ALL the work here, I was just sitting down the whole time). Thanks to Kerry for looking after the house and the cats and constructing the ruse of a lifetime to fool the landlord. Thanks to all my family and friends with whom I met up with along the way for showing me your neck of the woods. Christine for joining me along the trip and keeping me from driving off the road. Friends at home for keeping in touch and giving encouragement along the way. My mom for giving me the opportunity to become a person who could take a road trip like this. And THANK YOU DELORME for making the greatest GPS and mapping software ever, the trip would have been like 238432 times harder without it. Oh - and I think I'm done with driving for about the next 2 months. I hope work will understand. ;)