road trippin
written on the plane back to China January 19
I had originally planned on doing a daily journal during my cross country trip just as I always plan to make more regular journal entries. So here I am, truly on the final leg of my trip, on the plane back to China trying to collect weeks to months-worth of thoughts. I blame ADD.
So why did I drive cross country? Was it worth it? What did I hope to accomplish? These are the common questions that I got. But, honestly, it’s not that deep. I just wanted to do it. I wasn’t even extremely compelled to do it. There was no particular reason. I wasn’t “soul-searching” (a meaningless cliché term). The idea sounded more fun than just staying at home for 2 weeks. I wanted more interesting experiences, have cool stories to tell- just for conversational purposes, to make my life more interesting. I don’t know if I’ve really accomplished that. The experience was great. I don’t regret it at all, but nothing amazing happened. I don’t have any stories that would really wow even a casual audience. Maybe it’s because I discredit a lot of my experiences as unremarkable. Maybe it’s because I just don’t know how to embellish my experiences enough to make an interesting story. I didn’t get attacked by bears, have a threesome with supermodels, or have a paranormal encounter. I just drove a lot. I don’t know if I’m disappointed by that or not. I think had I gotten laid at least once, I would have had a much better time. I’m cranky after a month long dry spell.
My ride was a 2003 silver Toyota Highlander SUV - not a bad cross country vehicle especially since it was free to use. Finding the Auto Driveaway service was fortunate, because the other options - convincing someone else to use their car and go cross country with me or buying a clunker and fixing it up were much less likely to happen. Otherwise, I probably would have ended up staying home. I set out on Saturday January 4, much later than ideal, because I hadn’t prepared shit - a common theme during this whole trip and my whole life, for that matter. I think I even crashed at a friend’s since the previous night was spent drinking at a Korean bar with a bunch of friends. So I rush home after pho, shower, haphazardly pack, and head up towards Philly with New York.
Philadelphia - Yida and I meet up with Justin and 2 of his friends at their cool downtown apartment. We get really high, drink beers and get some really good food at Prohibition. Brisket sandwich was bomb. We head up to New York in Yida’s car.
New York - We get to Peter’s place in the financial district. It’s a sweet bachelor pad, I get high and pass out while Yida heads out to meet a lady at a bar. I tell him to get some pussy and not come back that night. He comes back. The next day, Peter is off to see his lady friend. Yida and I meet up with one of his friends for dimsum at Golden Cow. We get coffee, see Central Park and the MOMA, then check out a ceviche restaurant/bar for the redskins game. The ceviche was literally 5 small slices of fish for $17. Fuck that shit. Yida leaves again to chill with his lady friend. The scene at the bar was just a bunch of unattractive people - too weak and I’m too awkward for to stay there. I go searching for a Redskins bar, get confused on the subway a bit and get there in the fourth quarter when the skins have blown their first half lead and lost. It’s too crowded there, so I just take a piss and leave. My NY contacts are either unavailable or flake on me. So I just head up towards Times Square which was cool to see. It’s a lot smaller than I imagined. I eat some Chicken & Rice in the middle of it and people watch. Yida’s finally done and meets up with me to head back to Philly.
Philadelphia 2 - We get back to my car and I realize I left the dome light on for 2 days. The car starts up with no problem, luckily. It’s late in the evening and I hit up Justin for a place to crash. His place is unavailable so I check my poker app and find a lively game at Parx casino nearby. I play poker there until around 3am. The cocktail waitresses are hot and I fantasize about hitting on the Asian one in hopes of banging her and getting a place to stay the night to boot, but I know my game Is week and focus on the poker. I get sucked out on in some big pots and am down a couple hundred bucks really quick. I rally back and end the night up $40. I’m tired, horny, and dirty. I was hoping to win more to justify getting a hotel or finding a massage parlor for a shower and a handy. It’s too late in the night for that anyways, so I just start heading west. I get to Carlisle and decide to just pass out in the car in a diner parking lot. The sun’s up already and it’s cold as shit, but I’m exhausted so I still manage to get a few hours of sleep. I wake up for some McDonald’s breakfast, brush my teeth in the restroom, and get going.
Pittsburgh - I see signs for Pittsburgh and decide to stop by with absolutely no plans. I’m trying to reddit, yelp, google things to do there while I’m driving, but nothing really intrigues me. I’m still thinking about getting a AMP table shower and handy, because I’m alone, horny and fuck it, no one’s there to judge me. The city of Pittsburg looks awesome. I really like the architecture of the bridges. I randomly drive into the city and spot Heinz field and just go towards that. I see signs for a casino right next to it and find that they’ve got some poker games going. I nap in the parking garage for an hour or two. My FB from China txts me and we chat a bit. I sense some drama brewing. I’m probably not in a good state of mind to play considering I’ve slept so little and have been driving for so long, but whatever, it doesn’t take that much brain power to beat the low limit games - or so I think. Most of the players are ok, not good, but not terrible. I’m card dead and run like shit and lose 2 buyins, my stop loss. Again, was hoping to win a little bit to justify staying in a hotel or getting a massage, but that doesn’t work out so I hit the road again for Chicago.
Niles, Ohio - Decide that I really need some more rest so I download the priceline app for a cheap motel. I stay at the Days Inn which was really not bad. The outside of Niles was very quaint and cute, with just one main road, a lot of churches and older buildings. I should have taken some photos. I get some Arbies for dinner, and relax in the hotel. I call up the chick that I met clubbing a few weeks earlier, in hopes of fucking her when I get to LA, but realize that she is boring as bricks. I shower in the morning and head off to Chicago.
Chicago - I get to Wesley’s place, aka “The Castle” in the city which is just awesome. It’s a little outside downtown in the south of the city in the Hispanic area. He’s converted a huge garage into a workshop for building mopeds. Above the shop is gritty area where drifters will come and stay as well as a mini skateboard ramp, so gnar. There are dozens of bikes strewn about outside the shop. We climbed the ladder to the roof where there’s an excellent view of the city skyline. The actual living area that he shares with various artsy people is modern, clean and comfortable. I enjoyed staying here and may consider moving in if I can find something to do in Chicago in the near future. The people there are really nice, even the cops. We got pulled over for speeding through a school zone and got let off with a warning. The fuck. I’ve never been let off with a warning my entire life. Wes is his usual self, energetic, talkative and a bit crazy. Hanging out with him is entertaining. We split some weed and get high for a couple of days. We get some good BBQ (brisket sandwich again), pork chop sandwiches, and polish saussages. We hit up some bars and a barcade full of 90s arcade games. We play some turtles in time, Simpsons, Mortal Kombat, and pinball machines. I get like 5 free games in a row playing pinball, after going a lifetime without ever winning a free game. The games are also cost less quarters than they did back in the day. That was really nostalgic. Wes is doing well for himself and I’m glad to see it. His FB is hot and claims that he’s getting all kinds of pussy including a Hispanic stripper as his last gf. Awesome. A little jelly. My sister finds a friend for me to stay with in Colorado so I’m off.
Breckenridge, Colorado - I drive 15 hours straight towards Colorado. Driving through Nebraska was just pure thick fog. During the drive I was endanger of running out of gas in some remote areas, but lucked out, running into gas stations just in time. When I was just an hour away, I ran into a whitewash snow shower on the mountain. That jolted me awake as I was pretty afraid for my life at that point since I couldn’t even see the road. When I got to his place, I slid down the icy driveway and hit his friend’s car. Luckily there wasn’t much damage. I slept for a few hours and all the dudes there lent me a bunch of gear and discounted lift ticket and did a couple runs at Breck. I was beat from driving, underdressed and cold, and wasn’t adjusted to the elevation yet so I only did about 5 runs. I had an awesome pork loin meal while there. The dudes there are huge potheads. They were doing hits of hash oil all day. They also had about a hundred plants growing in the basement, legally I might add. They shared a jelly candy with me which had me ultra stoned. We watched Trailer Park Boys. Tommy took me to the dispensary the next day to pick up some edibles for myself. I wasn’t allowed in the actual weed room, but had a glimpse in to see all different kinds of weed stored in separate glass jars like an old fashioned candy store. And then I was off. Then I realized I forgot my hat, went back, got it, and then I was off to Salt Lake City.
Salt Lake City - I contacted my students from China over QQ and they welcomed me to stay with them. They made dinner for me when I arrived and we talked a little bit. They’re still not extremely talkative, but it was good seeing them again. Amy insisted that I meet up with her to hang out. I didn’t know how to feel about that since I was still bitter about not hooking up with her. I was still getting mixed signs the whole time. She was enthusiastic about seeing me, but wouldn’t invite me over to her place. At this point, I have dubbed myself the friend-zone king. SLC had gotten dumped on just days before I arrived and the streets still had mountains of snow on the sides from plowing. It has a small time feel there, probably because it actually is pretty small. The bars have mixed crowds: bros, hipsters, old geezers etc. We went to a cool sports bar to watch the Falcons Seahawks game, I ate one of the jellies and gave Amy a small piece also. We were soon stoned off our asses and she wanted to go home. I also shared a gummy with the bouncer. I probably should have just kept those to myself, but I’m such a nice guy. Amy and I still should have fucked. I literally told her that when we were hanging out in VA, she still wants to hang out. Why aren’t we fucking? Fuck! She has a double chin anyways. My students have been complaining that American food sucks, so I find a good Mexican restaurant on yelp and treat them to dinner. It was tough because most places are closed on Sundays, but it was a good choice. They seemed pretty satisfied with their meals. The gummy had kept me stoned all day. Got some rest, took Eric and Lily to class early in the morning before heading towards Portland. I forgot my hat again.
Portland - the 11 hour drive to Portland was absolutely beautiful. I drove through just about every type of terrain. I saw mountains, canyons, plateaus, rolling hills, plains, and lakes. Getting into Oregon, Mt Hood is always visible in the distance. I gave the car a quick wash and delivered it to the lady. Portland seems like a cool little city. A lot of fixies, too bad I didn’t stay there. The lady took me to the airport where I stayed overnight. The fucking Frontier desk was closed by the time I got there so I couldn’t get my boarding pass that night. I had a hot dog, tater tots, and tea at the airport restaurants. The staff there was really nice. I talked to the tall, dark haired cashier chick for a while. I would have considered trying to fuck her, but she looked like a high schooler. I crashed on a bench with no armrests in the airport. I probably would have gotten decent rest had it not been for the vacuum that came around every hour. By 6am the airport was busy with passengers so I was up by then. After checking in I chilled in the library like area with free wifi. What a cool airport.
I had originally planned on doing a daily journal during my cross country trip just as I always plan to make more regular journal entries. So here I am, truly on the final leg of my trip, on the plane back to China trying to collect weeks to months-worth of thoughts. I blame ADD.
So why did I drive cross country? Was it worth it? What did I hope to accomplish? These are the common questions that I got. But, honestly, it’s not that deep. I just wanted to do it. I wasn’t even extremely compelled to do it. There was no particular reason. I wasn’t “soul-searching” (a meaningless cliché term). The idea sounded more fun than just staying at home for 2 weeks. I wanted more interesting experiences, have cool stories to tell- just for conversational purposes, to make my life more interesting. I don’t know if I’ve really accomplished that. The experience was great. I don’t regret it at all, but nothing amazing happened. I don’t have any stories that would really wow even a casual audience. Maybe it’s because I discredit a lot of my experiences as unremarkable. Maybe it’s because I just don’t know how to embellish my experiences enough to make an interesting story. I didn’t get attacked by bears, have a threesome with supermodels, or have a paranormal encounter. I just drove a lot. I don’t know if I’m disappointed by that or not. I think had I gotten laid at least once, I would have had a much better time. I’m cranky after a month long dry spell.
My ride was a 2003 silver Toyota Highlander SUV - not a bad cross country vehicle especially since it was free to use. Finding the Auto Driveaway service was fortunate, because the other options - convincing someone else to use their car and go cross country with me or buying a clunker and fixing it up were much less likely to happen. Otherwise, I probably would have ended up staying home. I set out on Saturday January 4, much later than ideal, because I hadn’t prepared shit - a common theme during this whole trip and my whole life, for that matter. I think I even crashed at a friend’s since the previous night was spent drinking at a Korean bar with a bunch of friends. So I rush home after pho, shower, haphazardly pack, and head up towards Philly with New York.
Philadelphia - Yida and I meet up with Justin and 2 of his friends at their cool downtown apartment. We get really high, drink beers and get some really good food at Prohibition. Brisket sandwich was bomb. We head up to New York in Yida’s car.
New York - We get to Peter’s place in the financial district. It’s a sweet bachelor pad, I get high and pass out while Yida heads out to meet a lady at a bar. I tell him to get some pussy and not come back that night. He comes back. The next day, Peter is off to see his lady friend. Yida and I meet up with one of his friends for dimsum at Golden Cow. We get coffee, see Central Park and the MOMA, then check out a ceviche restaurant/bar for the redskins game. The ceviche was literally 5 small slices of fish for $17. Fuck that shit. Yida leaves again to chill with his lady friend. The scene at the bar was just a bunch of unattractive people - too weak and I’m too awkward for to stay there. I go searching for a Redskins bar, get confused on the subway a bit and get there in the fourth quarter when the skins have blown their first half lead and lost. It’s too crowded there, so I just take a piss and leave. My NY contacts are either unavailable or flake on me. So I just head up towards Times Square which was cool to see. It’s a lot smaller than I imagined. I eat some Chicken & Rice in the middle of it and people watch. Yida’s finally done and meets up with me to head back to Philly.
Philadelphia 2 - We get back to my car and I realize I left the dome light on for 2 days. The car starts up with no problem, luckily. It’s late in the evening and I hit up Justin for a place to crash. His place is unavailable so I check my poker app and find a lively game at Parx casino nearby. I play poker there until around 3am. The cocktail waitresses are hot and I fantasize about hitting on the Asian one in hopes of banging her and getting a place to stay the night to boot, but I know my game Is week and focus on the poker. I get sucked out on in some big pots and am down a couple hundred bucks really quick. I rally back and end the night up $40. I’m tired, horny, and dirty. I was hoping to win more to justify getting a hotel or finding a massage parlor for a shower and a handy. It’s too late in the night for that anyways, so I just start heading west. I get to Carlisle and decide to just pass out in the car in a diner parking lot. The sun’s up already and it’s cold as shit, but I’m exhausted so I still manage to get a few hours of sleep. I wake up for some McDonald’s breakfast, brush my teeth in the restroom, and get going.
Pittsburgh - I see signs for Pittsburgh and decide to stop by with absolutely no plans. I’m trying to reddit, yelp, google things to do there while I’m driving, but nothing really intrigues me. I’m still thinking about getting a AMP table shower and handy, because I’m alone, horny and fuck it, no one’s there to judge me. The city of Pittsburg looks awesome. I really like the architecture of the bridges. I randomly drive into the city and spot Heinz field and just go towards that. I see signs for a casino right next to it and find that they’ve got some poker games going. I nap in the parking garage for an hour or two. My FB from China txts me and we chat a bit. I sense some drama brewing. I’m probably not in a good state of mind to play considering I’ve slept so little and have been driving for so long, but whatever, it doesn’t take that much brain power to beat the low limit games - or so I think. Most of the players are ok, not good, but not terrible. I’m card dead and run like shit and lose 2 buyins, my stop loss. Again, was hoping to win a little bit to justify staying in a hotel or getting a massage, but that doesn’t work out so I hit the road again for Chicago.
Niles, Ohio - Decide that I really need some more rest so I download the priceline app for a cheap motel. I stay at the Days Inn which was really not bad. The outside of Niles was very quaint and cute, with just one main road, a lot of churches and older buildings. I should have taken some photos. I get some Arbies for dinner, and relax in the hotel. I call up the chick that I met clubbing a few weeks earlier, in hopes of fucking her when I get to LA, but realize that she is boring as bricks. I shower in the morning and head off to Chicago.
Chicago - I get to Wesley’s place, aka “The Castle” in the city which is just awesome. It’s a little outside downtown in the south of the city in the Hispanic area. He’s converted a huge garage into a workshop for building mopeds. Above the shop is gritty area where drifters will come and stay as well as a mini skateboard ramp, so gnar. There are dozens of bikes strewn about outside the shop. We climbed the ladder to the roof where there’s an excellent view of the city skyline. The actual living area that he shares with various artsy people is modern, clean and comfortable. I enjoyed staying here and may consider moving in if I can find something to do in Chicago in the near future. The people there are really nice, even the cops. We got pulled over for speeding through a school zone and got let off with a warning. The fuck. I’ve never been let off with a warning my entire life. Wes is his usual self, energetic, talkative and a bit crazy. Hanging out with him is entertaining. We split some weed and get high for a couple of days. We get some good BBQ (brisket sandwich again), pork chop sandwiches, and polish saussages. We hit up some bars and a barcade full of 90s arcade games. We play some turtles in time, Simpsons, Mortal Kombat, and pinball machines. I get like 5 free games in a row playing pinball, after going a lifetime without ever winning a free game. The games are also cost less quarters than they did back in the day. That was really nostalgic. Wes is doing well for himself and I’m glad to see it. His FB is hot and claims that he’s getting all kinds of pussy including a Hispanic stripper as his last gf. Awesome. A little jelly. My sister finds a friend for me to stay with in Colorado so I’m off.
Breckenridge, Colorado - I drive 15 hours straight towards Colorado. Driving through Nebraska was just pure thick fog. During the drive I was endanger of running out of gas in some remote areas, but lucked out, running into gas stations just in time. When I was just an hour away, I ran into a whitewash snow shower on the mountain. That jolted me awake as I was pretty afraid for my life at that point since I couldn’t even see the road. When I got to his place, I slid down the icy driveway and hit his friend’s car. Luckily there wasn’t much damage. I slept for a few hours and all the dudes there lent me a bunch of gear and discounted lift ticket and did a couple runs at Breck. I was beat from driving, underdressed and cold, and wasn’t adjusted to the elevation yet so I only did about 5 runs. I had an awesome pork loin meal while there. The dudes there are huge potheads. They were doing hits of hash oil all day. They also had about a hundred plants growing in the basement, legally I might add. They shared a jelly candy with me which had me ultra stoned. We watched Trailer Park Boys. Tommy took me to the dispensary the next day to pick up some edibles for myself. I wasn’t allowed in the actual weed room, but had a glimpse in to see all different kinds of weed stored in separate glass jars like an old fashioned candy store. And then I was off. Then I realized I forgot my hat, went back, got it, and then I was off to Salt Lake City.
Salt Lake City - I contacted my students from China over QQ and they welcomed me to stay with them. They made dinner for me when I arrived and we talked a little bit. They’re still not extremely talkative, but it was good seeing them again. Amy insisted that I meet up with her to hang out. I didn’t know how to feel about that since I was still bitter about not hooking up with her. I was still getting mixed signs the whole time. She was enthusiastic about seeing me, but wouldn’t invite me over to her place. At this point, I have dubbed myself the friend-zone king. SLC had gotten dumped on just days before I arrived and the streets still had mountains of snow on the sides from plowing. It has a small time feel there, probably because it actually is pretty small. The bars have mixed crowds: bros, hipsters, old geezers etc. We went to a cool sports bar to watch the Falcons Seahawks game, I ate one of the jellies and gave Amy a small piece also. We were soon stoned off our asses and she wanted to go home. I also shared a gummy with the bouncer. I probably should have just kept those to myself, but I’m such a nice guy. Amy and I still should have fucked. I literally told her that when we were hanging out in VA, she still wants to hang out. Why aren’t we fucking? Fuck! She has a double chin anyways. My students have been complaining that American food sucks, so I find a good Mexican restaurant on yelp and treat them to dinner. It was tough because most places are closed on Sundays, but it was a good choice. They seemed pretty satisfied with their meals. The gummy had kept me stoned all day. Got some rest, took Eric and Lily to class early in the morning before heading towards Portland. I forgot my hat again.
Portland - the 11 hour drive to Portland was absolutely beautiful. I drove through just about every type of terrain. I saw mountains, canyons, plateaus, rolling hills, plains, and lakes. Getting into Oregon, Mt Hood is always visible in the distance. I gave the car a quick wash and delivered it to the lady. Portland seems like a cool little city. A lot of fixies, too bad I didn’t stay there. The lady took me to the airport where I stayed overnight. The fucking Frontier desk was closed by the time I got there so I couldn’t get my boarding pass that night. I had a hot dog, tater tots, and tea at the airport restaurants. The staff there was really nice. I talked to the tall, dark haired cashier chick for a while. I would have considered trying to fuck her, but she looked like a high schooler. I crashed on a bench with no armrests in the airport. I probably would have gotten decent rest had it not been for the vacuum that came around every hour. By 6am the airport was busy with passengers so I was up by then. After checking in I chilled in the library like area with free wifi. What a cool airport.