This post is part two of an ongoing series, “ROADTRIPPING,” where I analyze the origin and developments of the century-old American Road Trip phenomenon against the backdrop of an ever-dimming American Dream.
Missed part two? Click here.
This year, 2020, made me feel a bit like an outlaw even though I wasn’t running/driving from anyone.
Some element of The Road is alive, and it lures rash people like me into thinking I can get anywhere with enough black coffee and Turkish Silvers. Case in point: it’s a long haul from D.C. to Dallas, or Ontario to Montana, but humans were made to adapt, and soon I found myself in the car for 12 hours in a stretch, no problem. Strung out on that much caffeine and nicotine, driving to Chile’s southernmost point doesn’t sound too bad. Invincibility. Hardly. At the end of a long day, I’d zoom out on Apple Maps, and my all-enveloping road trip inevitably morphed into a measly line only a few centimeters long. The odometer sort of hypnotized me some days.
What follows is an abbreviated account of the roadtrip: Tallahassee, FL (Nov. 2019), Leesburg, VA (Jan. 2020), Boston, MA, Toronto, Livingston, MT (February), Leesburg, VA, Dallas, TX, San Diego, CA, (June), Livingston, MT, Santa Fe, NM, Durant, OK, Dallas, TX, Nashville TN, (July), Leesburg, VA, Alpine, TX, San Diego, CA (August).
That 2007 Honda Civic coupe deserves an award.
While on the road, I spent nights with friends, camping, or in Airbnbs. For about six months, I lived in rural Montana with a group of individuals I soon discovered were “sovereign citizens.” I visited families on both coasts, watched a meteor shower in West Texas, saw the sun sink behind the Tetons, attended a wedding in Virginia, etc… all in the throes of an international pandemic.
I did wear masks in all the required settings and followed each city’s sanitary recommendations, but collectively, the nation felt like it was coming unhinged. Rules varied vastly state-to-state, month-to-month. I state-jumped as crisis after crisis erupted. Part of me felt freer than ever—the other part felt like I was on the run.
If you’ve ever been on the road, you know how it gives you time alone with your thoughts. It gave me time to study myself, and in doing so, embark on a small study of America’s Roadtripping History.
(Beartooth Pass, 2020)
(Shoshone, 2020)