Kooky ideas involving wanderlust... yet again...

[pseydtonne]

I've never driven across the United States, but I keep thinking about it. It's a very American desire to reproduce Manifest Destiny on a personal scale. What if some town or state feels more like home than any other place one has been before?

There are plenty of reasons why this doesn't happen much. While there is a single expressway from Boston to Seattle (Interstate 90), it's one mile shy of 3100 from end to end (nearly five megameters). It takes several days to cross the country, at least four if I could cover 750 miles in a day. I've done 600 miles in a day several times, usually because I left late and then something caught my eye at about the halfway mark.

I'd still need to sleep, and sleep in a real bed at least every other day. I've slept in the shotgun seat of my old car many times, usually by propping my legs up with my luggage and wheeling the chair back nearly flat. I can sleep for about three hours this way, then do it again after a few hundred more miles. After that, I need a truck stop shower (five bucks, always worth it) and a real sleep surface the next night.

Then I got to thinking about all of the people I'd like to visit. I started conceiving a circuit:

1. Boston to Cleveland (634 miles): say hi to fanw;
   
2. Cleveland to Iowa (608 miles): my aunt lives in Fairfield.
   
3. Iowa to Denver (845 miles): one my best friends from IBM moved back there and it'd be very good to see him.
   
4. Denver to Calgary (1,101 miles): I've never been to Western Canada, so why not?
   
5. Calgary to Vancouver, BC (604 miles): See above.
   
6. Vancouver to Seattle (140 miles): I could visit sugarvagina, whom I haven't seen in this decade.
   
7. Seattle to Portland (175 miles): not that far, and then I could both Sean from high school and mkhobson on her turf;
   
8. Portland to San Francisco (635 miles): say hi to bluepapercup;
   
9. San Francisco to Tuscon (866 miles): Gigi is at school at the University of Arizona;
   
10. Tuscon to Austin (892 miles): this would be my second visit to freshwater_pr0n.
    
11. Austin to South Carolina (1,180 miles): I haven't seen graciana since she got married;
    
12. South Carolina to DC (478 miles): hello again, tckma;
    
13. DC to NYC (220 miles) to see lots of people;
    
14. NYC home (222 miles).

Total distance: 8,600 miles. A drive of that nature would require at least three weeks, preferably four or five. It'd involve at least two oil changes.

I'm not saying this will happen this year, although I'd like that. The new car would be ideal for this situation... cuz it's new and it did really well driving through a winter storm from Montreal.

Those are rough mileages, by the way. I let Google Maps give me rough values and only made a couple tweaks.

Scheming about this is what kept me awake at work today. I already finished all of the weekend work during the first half of my Saturday. I can spend Sunday studying details of this, fleshing out problems.

Comments

[rednikki.livejournal.com]

Dammit, if you're coming to SF, come two hours south and say hi to us!

Seriously, you won't regret it. This is, hands down, the prettiest part of the continental US.

[lightcastle.livejournal.com]

It is very pretty there. And this is a hell of a plan, and worth pursuing, but you need to plan a while in advance, methinks.

[pseydtonne.livejournal.com]

Obviously. Thus this post to get suggestions and lots of time.

Crossing the Rockies slash McKenzies in the winter? No way. April or June, perhaps. Next year, possibly.

[pseydtonne.livejournal.com]

Wilco, cap'n! How could I resist such an offer?

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

i've driven seattle/boston one way or another maybe five times?

it's been fun. i loved thunder bay in ontario, and my weirdly homey other city was madison, wisconsin.

[tckma.livejournal.com]

I'd suggest at LEAST a month to do cross-country. I did it in two and a half weeks and I always felt rushed -- I got to places I wanted to see right after they had closed and oh well can't wait till tomorrow because I've got to get to San Francisco tomorrow and I'm in Arizona.

Let me know when you'll be in the area.

[miekec]

It's been on my wish-list for a few decades. With partner-in-crime having persistent hippie-dreams about a VW camperbus, that will probably be the vehicle. It will definitely make traveling more comfortable (and possible) in a few ways. Better, easier, always available sleeping. Retrofitted toilet. Fridge. Computer(s) with web-connectivity. Chicken wire separating the cabin from the cockpit (ahem).
Now you have me daydreaming...