I am a road trip snob. Or a road trip elitist. Whichever.
"That 2 hour drive you made to Town A? Tell me more about what a great road trip it was." "That 4 hour drive must have been reeaaallllyyyyy tough. But good job. Good effort."
Don't get me wrong. I do understand that the literal definition of a road trip is any journey that is done using an automobile. So, yes, technically, a 20 minute drive is a "road trip."
But that's like calling myself a footballer for kicking a ball around the indoor soccer court.
In essence, there are road trips and then there are road trips. My definition of a proper road trip is basically a drive which is at least 6 hours long one-way in one day. There's no spreading out the 6 hour journey over 3 days for 2 hours a day. That's weak. Neither is it 3 hours one-way. That's also weak. No. It's 6 hours, point 1 to point 2, in one day.
A fair question to ask is, "Dude, who the hell are you to say what's a road trip or not?" Fair point. My defense? It's the difference between watching your favourite basketball team in the NBA Finals and watching your favourite basketball team in some meaningless game in February. Yes, you've watched your team (you've road tripped) but after you've watched your team in the Finals, surely you can't say that watching that meaningless game in February is equivalent.
I've been on 3 proper road trips in my life.
The first was Purdue -> Rochester -> Washington D.C. -> Niagara Falls -> Rochester -> Purdue.
The second was Boston -> Philadelphia -> Raleigh -> Atlanta -> Louisville -> Columbus, OH -> Ann Arbor.
The third was Boston -> Richmond, Virginia -> Jacksonville -> South Beach (took my talents there too) -> Key West ----epic through the night 21 hour drive----> Richmond, Virginia -> Washington, D.C. -> Boston.
I did the first in the summer of Freshman year, the second during the winter of Junior year and the third during spring break of Senior year at College. Effectively, I have covered pretty much all of the East Coast in these trips but have never really gone to the West Coast. The furthest West I've been is essentially, Indiana. Or maybe Kentucky. Which is effectively, not very West.
But now, after a gentleman's agreement, the next road trip beckons! Earlier, at dinner at a burger place (very appropriate), a couple of friends and I agreed to do our Great American Road Trip, achieving it before the age of 30. Why America? Well, for one, the 3 of us and another 2 of our friends (the 5 of us were on the first road trip I took) all studied in the US. Secondly, America is the best place to do a road trip. With stops nearly every mile and cheap motels along the road, it is extremely conducive to road tripping. Thirdly, when you go East to West, you go across tremendous changes in landscapes given the width of the country. You can really only get that in 2 other countries - China and Russia - but I don't speak Mandarin nor do I speak Russian. I'll use a train for those trips.
The route will be based on the map below.
To get the best out of the landscape bit (to me, the most important), we would need to go on either routes 7, 8 or 9. The brief descriptions of the routes:-
Route 7 - The Great Northern - Though many come close, no other cross-country route takes in the variety and extremity of landscape that US-2 does. Dubbed the Great Northern in memory of the pioneer railroad that parallels the western half of the route, US-2 is truly the most stunning and unforgettable, not to mention longest, of all the great transcontinental road trips.
Route 8 - The Oregon Trail - From the wide-open spaces of the West to the dense urban chaos of the East, this route offers the longest and most-involved road trip in this book. Connecting an exceedingly diverse range of places and totaling over 3,200 miles—many more if you count all the potential detours, side trips, and parallel routes—US-20 takes in a little of everything during its two-lane trek from Oregon’s rugged coast to the glorious sea and sand of Cape Cod.
Route 9 - Loneliest Road (sounds fricking cool) - Running coast-to-coast through the heart of America on a 3,200-mile odyssey from sea to shining sea, US-50 passes through a dozen different states and four state capitals, as well as the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C. Along the route are some of the country’s most magnificent landscapes: the Sierra Nevada and the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains, the endless farmlands of the Great Plains, and the desiccated deserts of Utah and Nevada.
The Open Road awaits. And it provides a tremendous avenue for what is perhaps what everyone wants:- "I know these will all be stories someday, but right now, we are alive. And in this moment, I swear we are infinite.”
"That 2 hour drive you made to Town A? Tell me more about what a great road trip it was." "That 4 hour drive must have been reeaaallllyyyyy tough. But good job. Good effort."
Don't get me wrong. I do understand that the literal definition of a road trip is any journey that is done using an automobile. So, yes, technically, a 20 minute drive is a "road trip."
But that's like calling myself a footballer for kicking a ball around the indoor soccer court.
In essence, there are road trips and then there are road trips. My definition of a proper road trip is basically a drive which is at least 6 hours long one-way in one day. There's no spreading out the 6 hour journey over 3 days for 2 hours a day. That's weak. Neither is it 3 hours one-way. That's also weak. No. It's 6 hours, point 1 to point 2, in one day.
A fair question to ask is, "Dude, who the hell are you to say what's a road trip or not?" Fair point. My defense? It's the difference between watching your favourite basketball team in the NBA Finals and watching your favourite basketball team in some meaningless game in February. Yes, you've watched your team (you've road tripped) but after you've watched your team in the Finals, surely you can't say that watching that meaningless game in February is equivalent.
I've been on 3 proper road trips in my life.
The first was Purdue -> Rochester -> Washington D.C. -> Niagara Falls -> Rochester -> Purdue.
The second was Boston -> Philadelphia -> Raleigh -> Atlanta -> Louisville -> Columbus, OH -> Ann Arbor.
The third was Boston -> Richmond, Virginia -> Jacksonville -> South Beach (took my talents there too) -> Key West ----epic through the night 21 hour drive----> Richmond, Virginia -> Washington, D.C. -> Boston.
I did the first in the summer of Freshman year, the second during the winter of Junior year and the third during spring break of Senior year at College. Effectively, I have covered pretty much all of the East Coast in these trips but have never really gone to the West Coast. The furthest West I've been is essentially, Indiana. Or maybe Kentucky. Which is effectively, not very West.
But now, after a gentleman's agreement, the next road trip beckons! Earlier, at dinner at a burger place (very appropriate), a couple of friends and I agreed to do our Great American Road Trip, achieving it before the age of 30. Why America? Well, for one, the 3 of us and another 2 of our friends (the 5 of us were on the first road trip I took) all studied in the US. Secondly, America is the best place to do a road trip. With stops nearly every mile and cheap motels along the road, it is extremely conducive to road tripping. Thirdly, when you go East to West, you go across tremendous changes in landscapes given the width of the country. You can really only get that in 2 other countries - China and Russia - but I don't speak Mandarin nor do I speak Russian. I'll use a train for those trips.
The route will be based on the map below.
.jpg) |
| America, Fuck Yeah. |
Route 7 - The Great Northern - Though many come close, no other cross-country route takes in the variety and extremity of landscape that US-2 does. Dubbed the Great Northern in memory of the pioneer railroad that parallels the western half of the route, US-2 is truly the most stunning and unforgettable, not to mention longest, of all the great transcontinental road trips.
Route 8 - The Oregon Trail - From the wide-open spaces of the West to the dense urban chaos of the East, this route offers the longest and most-involved road trip in this book. Connecting an exceedingly diverse range of places and totaling over 3,200 miles—many more if you count all the potential detours, side trips, and parallel routes—US-20 takes in a little of everything during its two-lane trek from Oregon’s rugged coast to the glorious sea and sand of Cape Cod.
Route 9 - Loneliest Road (sounds fricking cool) - Running coast-to-coast through the heart of America on a 3,200-mile odyssey from sea to shining sea, US-50 passes through a dozen different states and four state capitals, as well as the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C. Along the route are some of the country’s most magnificent landscapes: the Sierra Nevada and the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains, the endless farmlands of the Great Plains, and the desiccated deserts of Utah and Nevada.
The Open Road awaits. And it provides a tremendous avenue for what is perhaps what everyone wants:- "I know these will all be stories someday, but right now, we are alive. And in this moment, I swear we are infinite.”
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