Across The United States In Five Days

Monday 25th August, 11am

We made it to the Biggest Little City in the World. In 5 days, across the U.S. in 2800 miles (click here for the route map). That was some drive. 3 points of note: one, stopped in Chicago and met some nice people; two, picked up some hitchhikers; three, Salt Lake City. On a more general note, sleeping in the back of the Jeep with the seats down just about enables me to stretch out fully, diagonally across. My girlfriend is luckily several inches shorter so fits in beside snugly. Also, the back windows are blacked out adding some degree of privacy, which is nice in a truck rest stop.

So we left Trumansberg last Wednesday, stopping to buy a wheel nut that was missing. The first couple of days were fairly slow going, making it to Lake Erie on Wednesday night. Thursday evening we were passing Chicago and I couldn't resist working hard to convince my girlfriend to take a stop for a beer.

What's been great about this trip so far is how many song lyrics begin to fall into place and make sense on discovering their roots. Bombin' the L by the Fun Lovin' Criminals of course refers to the eLevated train that circuits downtown Chicago and the graffiti artists that frequent it. I found this out from a friendly couple we met just before we gave up looking for a bar at a random stop off the L. They were sitting outside this university building drinking wine out of plastic glasses. The lightbulb flashed above my head and we tracked the free bar down immediately. Our friends were also crashing this uni schmooze event and we hit it off. They later took us to a club on Clark St called Metro, for a dubstep night. Maybe it was just the DJ, but it seems like the style is much lighter, funkier, than dubstep at home. The same is true of the techno we've seen/heard so far.

Seeing our new friends insobriety coupled with the knowledge they were driving home was a chilling thought. I took stock of my 2 drinks over 3 hours and felt comfortable with this, but I can't help noticing that EVERYONE drinks and drives here. Everyone. I guess that having the infrastructure and road system of towns, cities and states built around the car makes alternative forms of transport lurk in the shadows. The primacy of the individual, freedom and choice is fairly axiomatic with the independence of the automobile. And when you're the driver, and drinking and driving is socially acceptable, walking really is a tough option to take. I guess that it comes back to one of my favourite chestnuts, normativity. Back at home, when cycling was the norm for me (I cycled everywhere), I would balk at those that offered me rides for short distances. But now, driving around everywhere, to walk anywhere just seems counterintuitive. I suppose this is why I want to try to show, even just for myself, that flying is not a norm that I want to be a part of my life and so to eliminate it altogether to prevent its creeping frequency becoming normalised and therefore legitimized.

Back on the road again that next day, we drove past a couple of guys walking along the Freeway (which I believe is illegal in Iowa). By the time I thought to pick them up, we were half a mile down the road. My conscience itched, and I got to scratch it only half an hour later in the next town. As we stopped to pick up some more bits and pieces, we saw them in the car park. They saw our New York plates and came over and asked for a ride to California. Well, we took them to the border, over 4 states and about 1600 miles.


Monty and Abel had been riding freight trains, got caught 6 miles before when we saw them on the road, then got picked up by State Troopers and taken to the next town. Monty's best tip was that to orientate yourself with a stationary train, the red lights indicate the back end of the train, that won't be coupled with before leaving. That way you can be sure to go in the right direction.


By Saturday, having crossed Nebraska (flat and boring - except for a majestic footbridge over the road) and Wyoming (beautiful mountains on the border in and out) in a day, we reached Salt Lake City. This heavily industrial city reeks of chemicals, and we passed through it fairly rapidly in order to 'camp' beside the lake just outside the city. After convincing our hitchhiker friends that we weren't going to strand them, they hunkered down in the sand as we tried to make ourselves comfortable in the Jeep.


The excitement grew as we crossed the Nevada border on Sunday morning, and blazed across to Reno. We arrived by dusk, having stocked up on rum, tequila and gin, and parted company with our hitchers. I feel dreadful that we missed our rendezvous with them afterwards - I must've forgotten to wind my pocketwatch as it was running half an hour slow making us late for our meeting under the big scary clown at 11. Monty, Abel if you read this, sorry guys, we were there, just a bit late!


So having checked in and out of the big posh hotel whose windows won't open, we got comfortable in a motel on the main drag. Very comfortable. There's nothing quite better after 5 days of driving than a bed that does Swedish massage for a quarter for 5 minutes. 5 minutes that seem like the longest, sweetest minutes. After getting up, I can't testify to the physical benefits of such massage, but its soothingness that induced a semi-meditative state relaxed me to a state that I felt comfortable in.

And while I'm on the "semi-" lingo, I apologise. For the anglophile reader, you must of course pronounce this sem-eye. One thing I really don't get - what is a semi-truck? Surely it's either a truck, or it's not. A semi-truck? Oh, I give up.