December 22 – Travel
How did you travel in 2010? How and/or where would you like to travel next year?
(Author: Tara Hunt)
I traveled quickly in 2010 - lots of last minute trips. I went to the beach, to Las Vegas, to Sacramento, to Chicago. I wanted to go to London for the 25 year "Les Miserables" anniversary, but I think I chickened out. I wanted to go to New York to see a friend, but timing was poor.
For 2011, I hope to get to New York, to Sacramento to see my friends. I want to go to the beach for a week or so, maybe to Dave Walley's again? I think I might want to go on a road trip. Not too far, but maybe somewhere I've never been. Stay in a nice hotel and do some photography experimentation. I'd like to go visit Teesha Moore's art studio in Seattle - maybe a train trip up. I think I might want to go to JournalFest next year, but I'm not sure. Maybe I won't be ready. If I'm not, that's okay, but someday, I will go.
from REVERB 10 (I'm not sure I know what this is...){Future Tool: New Year’s Goal Questions for No-Goals Creatives from Jeffrey Davis. For the next 10 days as you round out your year, we’ll share one tool each day to help you plan your year ahead.}
Showing posts with label road trip. Show all posts
Showing posts with label road trip. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Ghost of Road Trips Past
So, a friend of mine did a play here in Portland and it was a HUGE success. The person was not from the Portland area and when the play was done, he went back home for a few months. I missed him terribly. Then, he was hired to recreate the role in Los Altos, California (I believe). This was in the fall of 1990. I really wanted to see him in the play, but the world hadn't really progressed to the kinds of commuter flights that Southwest provides now (read: CHEAP) or I didn't know about it if they did offer them. After some discussion with a friend of mine, we decided to drive down to San Francisco (past it to Los Altos, really).
Some back story: I worked for the school district as an educational interpreter during the previous school year. During the summer, I worked for the same coffee company I had worked in when I was in college. That summer, I pinched my sciatic nerve and experienced excruciating pain in my back and down my leg (it actually went on for more than a year, but that is a whole other story). Fast forward to the first week back working for the school district. I was in so much pain, I limped when I walked and I had to drive using my left foot on the brake and accelerator because my right leg was in so much pain. Brilliantly, my friend and I decide to drive to Los Altos - 15 hours in the car, each way.
My friend and I had never traveled anywhere together and I was just 23 years old and hadn't realized yet that traveling with someone can make or break a friendship. We got a rental car on Friday afternoon and started off. My friend was not comfortable with me driving, so she drove the whole way. We had both made mixed tapes, but our tastes in music were REALLY different - particularly for a road trip. I was having trouble sitting for that long and finally fell asleep which upset her greatly - "You are supposed to keep me company!" I asked her if we could put some music on. Since she was the driver, I thought it was fair to let her choose the music. The tape she had was James Taylor and Kenny Loggins, I believe. Now, I love them both but NOT WHEN WE ARE DRIVING FOR 15 HOURS!! I could not stay awake. I felt badly but I just couldn't do it. When I'm tired, I like to listen to rowdy, fun music that you can sing and groove to - James Taylor just doesn't fit the bill. He is too mellow for me in the car. Let's just say it was a LONG drive down.
The other point of interest in this story is that my friend would only eat at nationally known restaurants (I seem to know a lot of those people). During that trip, we ate at Denny's 6 times in 3 days. I could go 10 years and not eat at Denny's that many times. Her rationale was that you could always predict what the Denny's food was going to be like - every Denny's had a Grand Slam or pancakes or a Ham and Cheese omelet and they would pretty much taste the same, no matter which Denny's you went to. Now, in my mind, this is precisely the reason you SHOULDN'T eat at Denny's, but I didn't win that argument, either.
So, we drove for 15 hours, arriving in Los Altos at our "Fiesta Style" Holiday Inn. We went into the hotel room and went to bed exhausted. A few hours later, I woke up because my friend had thrown a pillow at me and told me to go sleep in the bathtub because I snored. I was PISSED. I told her, "If it bothers you so much, why don't YOU go sleep in the bathroom?" and I went back to sleep. It wasn't meant to be - the phone rang a couple of hours later and it was the California Relay - my actor friend was calling to see when we should meet up.
The saddest part is that I barely remember the play or the time in Los Altos - we were only there for a very short time. I remember being at the house where my actor friend was staying - GORGEOUS!!! We went to the play - it was good, but I was biased for the Portland production. It was so great to see my friend again (he later moved to Portland). After the play, a bunch of the actors, my friends and I went to a bowling alley for a few hours where we ate and bowled a few games. It was fun, but not that memorable. Then, back to the hotel for a few hours of shut eye and up by 7am to get on the road.
By the time we got back into the car on Sunday, neither one of us were looking forward to the ride home - we had kind of had it with each other. We talked some and then went into another round of James Taylor. I think, at the time, I was into dance music and had been hanging out at The Embers and CC Slaughters downtown with my Deaf friends, so I probably had stuff like Dead or Alive, Prince, Erasure, Madonna...I don't even know what was popular at that time, but it was NOT James Taylor. We stopped at a few Denny's on the way but I was so irritated, I almost couldn't eat. I remember that when we stopped in Grant's Pass on the way home, I ended up eating, paying and going out to sit in the car until she came out. I'm sure the ride home was no fun for her either. Meanwhile, I'm in massive amounts of pain from my back...
When we arrived home, we said our goodbyes and barely ever spoke to each other again. Really. Almost never. And sometime in the middle of that year, she quit her job as an interpreter and then we didn't even have that in common anymore.
I like to think that if something like that were to happen now, I would be smarter about it, but I guess if I did the same thing again, it would have a similar outcome. I have seen that friend a few times since, but really, that road trip was the end for me. I know it probably doesn't sound like much here - I don't have a lot of clear memories of what we said or did, just visual images, residual feelings. I have learned that traveling with friends takes a lot of work and that you should really know the person pretty well before you EVER get in a car with them for more than say, 2 hours.
Some back story: I worked for the school district as an educational interpreter during the previous school year. During the summer, I worked for the same coffee company I had worked in when I was in college. That summer, I pinched my sciatic nerve and experienced excruciating pain in my back and down my leg (it actually went on for more than a year, but that is a whole other story). Fast forward to the first week back working for the school district. I was in so much pain, I limped when I walked and I had to drive using my left foot on the brake and accelerator because my right leg was in so much pain. Brilliantly, my friend and I decide to drive to Los Altos - 15 hours in the car, each way.
My friend and I had never traveled anywhere together and I was just 23 years old and hadn't realized yet that traveling with someone can make or break a friendship. We got a rental car on Friday afternoon and started off. My friend was not comfortable with me driving, so she drove the whole way. We had both made mixed tapes, but our tastes in music were REALLY different - particularly for a road trip. I was having trouble sitting for that long and finally fell asleep which upset her greatly - "You are supposed to keep me company!" I asked her if we could put some music on. Since she was the driver, I thought it was fair to let her choose the music. The tape she had was James Taylor and Kenny Loggins, I believe. Now, I love them both but NOT WHEN WE ARE DRIVING FOR 15 HOURS!! I could not stay awake. I felt badly but I just couldn't do it. When I'm tired, I like to listen to rowdy, fun music that you can sing and groove to - James Taylor just doesn't fit the bill. He is too mellow for me in the car. Let's just say it was a LONG drive down.
The other point of interest in this story is that my friend would only eat at nationally known restaurants (I seem to know a lot of those people). During that trip, we ate at Denny's 6 times in 3 days. I could go 10 years and not eat at Denny's that many times. Her rationale was that you could always predict what the Denny's food was going to be like - every Denny's had a Grand Slam or pancakes or a Ham and Cheese omelet and they would pretty much taste the same, no matter which Denny's you went to. Now, in my mind, this is precisely the reason you SHOULDN'T eat at Denny's, but I didn't win that argument, either.
So, we drove for 15 hours, arriving in Los Altos at our "Fiesta Style" Holiday Inn. We went into the hotel room and went to bed exhausted. A few hours later, I woke up because my friend had thrown a pillow at me and told me to go sleep in the bathtub because I snored. I was PISSED. I told her, "If it bothers you so much, why don't YOU go sleep in the bathroom?" and I went back to sleep. It wasn't meant to be - the phone rang a couple of hours later and it was the California Relay - my actor friend was calling to see when we should meet up.
The saddest part is that I barely remember the play or the time in Los Altos - we were only there for a very short time. I remember being at the house where my actor friend was staying - GORGEOUS!!! We went to the play - it was good, but I was biased for the Portland production. It was so great to see my friend again (he later moved to Portland). After the play, a bunch of the actors, my friends and I went to a bowling alley for a few hours where we ate and bowled a few games. It was fun, but not that memorable. Then, back to the hotel for a few hours of shut eye and up by 7am to get on the road.
By the time we got back into the car on Sunday, neither one of us were looking forward to the ride home - we had kind of had it with each other. We talked some and then went into another round of James Taylor. I think, at the time, I was into dance music and had been hanging out at The Embers and CC Slaughters downtown with my Deaf friends, so I probably had stuff like Dead or Alive, Prince, Erasure, Madonna...I don't even know what was popular at that time, but it was NOT James Taylor. We stopped at a few Denny's on the way but I was so irritated, I almost couldn't eat. I remember that when we stopped in Grant's Pass on the way home, I ended up eating, paying and going out to sit in the car until she came out. I'm sure the ride home was no fun for her either. Meanwhile, I'm in massive amounts of pain from my back...
When we arrived home, we said our goodbyes and barely ever spoke to each other again. Really. Almost never. And sometime in the middle of that year, she quit her job as an interpreter and then we didn't even have that in common anymore.
I like to think that if something like that were to happen now, I would be smarter about it, but I guess if I did the same thing again, it would have a similar outcome. I have seen that friend a few times since, but really, that road trip was the end for me. I know it probably doesn't sound like much here - I don't have a lot of clear memories of what we said or did, just visual images, residual feelings. I have learned that traveling with friends takes a lot of work and that you should really know the person pretty well before you EVER get in a car with them for more than say, 2 hours.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Memories Of Car Trips
Tell us about a memorable car trip you took as a kid. (Prompt from Nablopomo)
When I was a kid, we took A LOT of car trips. People didn't fly around with their kids as much back then (well, I don't think they did...we didn't). Some highlights from memorable car trips:
1. When we lived in Aurora, Colorado, my dad would sometimes get us all in the Scout on Saturdays. We would get all excited, "Daddy, where are we going?" He would say, "Crazy" and proceed to take a long winding drive on some backroad somewhere that wasn't paved. Usually, we would end up at Target. I was too little to read, so I thought that the store that had the red target was called "Crazy". I loved going there because we usually got to pick out a new book. I found out later that my dad took those drives to keep his leg bent for a period of time - he had to do that to keep range of motion after getting run over and being in and out of the hospital in traction for a year right after I was born.
2. We drove from Denver to Chicago the summer before we moved to Wiesbaden, Germany. We were visiting all the relatives. I had just turned 6 at the time. I remember I had this multi-colored, striped bathing suit. The first night we were at my aunt Betty's house, I remember running around in that bathing suit until I finally just lay down in the middle of the living room and fell asleep. That was the trip they had a terrible hail storm and one of the dads ran out to their car with a metal garbage can lid over his head. He got hit on the head (via the can) with a hailstone and got knocked out. The other dads had to run outside and drag him back in. I have never gone outside during a hailstorm...
3. I remember driving all around Colorado when we went camping and fishing. Back then, no one really brought beverages with them when they were in the car. When we went on a long trip, my mom would pack up the cooler and put it in the back of the scout. When we got hungry or thirsty, we would pull over to the side of the road and have a PBJ sandwich and a little dixie cup full of Pepsi. We never really drank pop when I was a kid - just sips from my mother's cup unless we were traveling. I have a slide of one of these little roadside picnics, but I haven't been able to get the scanner/printer/slide transfer option to work on my printer. I'm working on it, so hopefully, I will get some photos in here soon-ish.
4. When we came back from Germany in 1976, it was December. We flew from Frankfurt to London where we had a LOOOONG layover. There had been a problem with the first plane and we had to wait hours and hours before being diverted. We landed at La Guardia in NYC (which, by the by, closes at midnight due to noise ordinances in the city) after 2:00am, so we couldn't get a flight to Pittsburgh where my grandparents lived. We stayed in the airport Holiday Inn with $10 in vouchers for all 4 of us to have some food in the morning. Even in 1976, $10 was not adequate for 4 people in NYC in restaurants in or around the airport. I remember my mother exclaiming about the $5 hamburgers on the menu. We finally arrived in Pittsburgh where we stayed a few days and my parents bought a Pinto. There. I said it. I'm sure it was what we could afford...After a few days, we piled all our belongings into the Pinto and put all our CHRISTMAS gifts on top of the Pinto and started our trek to Dallas, Texas to visit my aunt. I remember driving across the Mississippi River on some bridge and sending up a childish prayer not to let our gifts fly off the car and into the river. I was only 9 at the time, so I think I can be forgiven in light of the chaos of moving to a different country. The gifts survived and we made it to Texas just fine. By New Year's, we had driven from Dallas, Texas to Panama City, Florida where the beaches actually looked like snow.
I've got a million of them... bunches from my childhood, some from my youth, some from adulthood. It's getting late, but maybe tomorrow I will tell you about my trip to SF for a weekend. We drove. It was that trip that helped me develop my one of the first rules of travel: Always stay in a place at least twice as long as it took you to get there.
When I was a kid, we took A LOT of car trips. People didn't fly around with their kids as much back then (well, I don't think they did...we didn't). Some highlights from memorable car trips:
1. When we lived in Aurora, Colorado, my dad would sometimes get us all in the Scout on Saturdays. We would get all excited, "Daddy, where are we going?" He would say, "Crazy" and proceed to take a long winding drive on some backroad somewhere that wasn't paved. Usually, we would end up at Target. I was too little to read, so I thought that the store that had the red target was called "Crazy". I loved going there because we usually got to pick out a new book. I found out later that my dad took those drives to keep his leg bent for a period of time - he had to do that to keep range of motion after getting run over and being in and out of the hospital in traction for a year right after I was born.
2. We drove from Denver to Chicago the summer before we moved to Wiesbaden, Germany. We were visiting all the relatives. I had just turned 6 at the time. I remember I had this multi-colored, striped bathing suit. The first night we were at my aunt Betty's house, I remember running around in that bathing suit until I finally just lay down in the middle of the living room and fell asleep. That was the trip they had a terrible hail storm and one of the dads ran out to their car with a metal garbage can lid over his head. He got hit on the head (via the can) with a hailstone and got knocked out. The other dads had to run outside and drag him back in. I have never gone outside during a hailstorm...
3. I remember driving all around Colorado when we went camping and fishing. Back then, no one really brought beverages with them when they were in the car. When we went on a long trip, my mom would pack up the cooler and put it in the back of the scout. When we got hungry or thirsty, we would pull over to the side of the road and have a PBJ sandwich and a little dixie cup full of Pepsi. We never really drank pop when I was a kid - just sips from my mother's cup unless we were traveling. I have a slide of one of these little roadside picnics, but I haven't been able to get the scanner/printer/slide transfer option to work on my printer. I'm working on it, so hopefully, I will get some photos in here soon-ish.
4. When we came back from Germany in 1976, it was December. We flew from Frankfurt to London where we had a LOOOONG layover. There had been a problem with the first plane and we had to wait hours and hours before being diverted. We landed at La Guardia in NYC (which, by the by, closes at midnight due to noise ordinances in the city) after 2:00am, so we couldn't get a flight to Pittsburgh where my grandparents lived. We stayed in the airport Holiday Inn with $10 in vouchers for all 4 of us to have some food in the morning. Even in 1976, $10 was not adequate for 4 people in NYC in restaurants in or around the airport. I remember my mother exclaiming about the $5 hamburgers on the menu. We finally arrived in Pittsburgh where we stayed a few days and my parents bought a Pinto. There. I said it. I'm sure it was what we could afford...After a few days, we piled all our belongings into the Pinto and put all our CHRISTMAS gifts on top of the Pinto and started our trek to Dallas, Texas to visit my aunt. I remember driving across the Mississippi River on some bridge and sending up a childish prayer not to let our gifts fly off the car and into the river. I was only 9 at the time, so I think I can be forgiven in light of the chaos of moving to a different country. The gifts survived and we made it to Texas just fine. By New Year's, we had driven from Dallas, Texas to Panama City, Florida where the beaches actually looked like snow.
I've got a million of them... bunches from my childhood, some from my youth, some from adulthood. It's getting late, but maybe tomorrow I will tell you about my trip to SF for a weekend. We drove. It was that trip that helped me develop my one of the first rules of travel: Always stay in a place at least twice as long as it took you to get there.
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