Last week, My wife and I took a vacation. It's good to get out and see and experience other parts of the world.
We drove to Boston and back (also stopping for a couple of days in Newport, RI), which is a pretty long drive - nearly 1,000 miles in each direction. Driving long distances is a fairly new thing for us; for most of our adult lives, we would have flown to a city as far away as Boston. But we started taking driving vacations during the pandemic, and to my surprise, I discovered I really like them. Airline seats are really uncomfortable for me; the only way I can fit into an economy airline seat is to jam my knees against the back of the seat in front of me, and it can be an agony for me to have my legs immobilized in that position for several hours. By contrast, our current car, a 2021 Toyota Camry hybrid, is very comfortable - being able to drive or ride without that pain was one of my prime criteria for purchasing that car.
Also, I've learned that it's good for my mental health to have to spend an entire day doing nothing but driving, talking to my wife, and listening to music or other audio entertainment (e.g. NPR or podcasts). My normal days are busy and stressful workdays, with many problems and worries buzzing around me. I've learned that long distance driving - if the traffic isn't too stressful - is a great way to decompress from the burden of daily cares.
We've learned that driving also is much better than flying for appreciating the geography of the United States. One can't drive from Illinois to anywhere on the East Coast, whether it's New England, the mid-Atlantic states or the Southern states, without having to pass through the massive wall of the Appalachian mountains. The Appalachians aren't nearly as tall and splendid as the Rockies or some of the other Western mountain ranges, but in their own way, they are both imposing and beautiful. On this trip, we drove west to east across New York State on the way to Boston, and then east to west across Pennsylvania on the way back from Newport. Much of both drives involved wending our way through different ranges of the Appalachians. Even Massachusetts (the Berkshires) and New Jersey (not sure what theirs are called) seemed to have mountains. Had we flown, we wouldn't have appreciated that wonder and beauty nearly as much, even if we had bothered to look out the plane's windows.
As with geography, so with people. Flyers hop from one metropolitan airport to another. Drivers pass through, or at least pass the off-ramps to, many small towns between the starting point and the destination. We pulled off the road at a few of them, either for meals or to stay in local hotels for the night. It is both interesting and quite sad to see the small towns of the United States. They are not doing very well. They are old, and shrinking, and falling apart. The global economy doesn't have much use for them or their residents. And yet they are still there, with their people still trying to find ways to live good American lives. One can understand how dissatisfaction and resentment can fester in such places, and those attitudes recently have been spilling over into our country's politics.
We drove out and drove back on the weekends, stopping over at midway points for the Saturday nights and then resuming our trips on the Sundays. On the way out, we stayed in Buffalo, NY. On the way back, we slept in a small town in Pennsylvania just over the border from Youngstown, OH. On the Sunday mornings, I went to mass at local parishes before getting on the road. As with getting away from work and its cares, it's good for me to go to mass outside my regular parish and just sit anonymously in the pews. On the one hand, the mass is (mostly) the same everywhere, so one can participate. On the other hand, the music is different, the presiders and homilists are different, and the people are different. Going to mass elsewhere gives me a bit of a broader view of the church, and also helps me to appreciate the good things about my own parish.
Jim, glad you enjoyed your drive. I did a thousand miles from Philadelphia to Alabama when I was in my 40's. Nowadays, 500 miles is my max. My dance friend's son took trains to Seattle, then flew back. That's another way to see the landscape. I loved train trips as a child, no matter where they went. Sometimes, like my trip to Miami at age 9, better than the destination.
ReplyDeleteWe've talked in the past about taking train trips - in fact, a trip similar to your friend's son's trip. Amtrak has viewing cars to maximize the sight-seeing. And it can be pleasant to let the engineer do the driving. But Amtrak can be expensive, and Amtrak is not very reliable about adhering to its schedule - which can be a problem for viewing cars: if one passes through the mountains at nighttime, one can't see the mountains. We've discussed in the past that the US isn't serious about rail service. I suppose the European model, which tourists love, is to subsidize the rail services. The traditional American model would be to let firms compete in order to improve service to consumers. Amtrak sort of is neither.
DeleteI wanted at one time to take Canadian rail across that country. But I believe an uninterrupted rail trip is no longer possible. In Europe, I only travel by rail. The autobahns with their unlimited speed scares the heck out of me. I did it once. That was enough.
DeleteI gave up flying more than twenty years ago when I retired from work. As part of my work, I annually went to professional meetings at which I usually gave either a policy or research paper. Since I rather than my employer chose the meetings, I would go to favorite places (Toronto, Boston, Tampa, D.C., Minneapolis).
ReplyDeleteFor the February /March meetings in Tampa, I would fly into Tampa early rent a car, attend the meeting then drive to the East coast to stay with my aunt several days, then fly home out of Melbourne.
I have often driven the roads between the Ohio-Pa boarder east of Cleveland (we had a cabin there) and Massachusetts, sometimes taking the I-90 route through New York and sometimes the I-80 & I-84 route through PA. Some of the last times I took the I-86 route through Southern New York to connect to I-90 in Massachusetts.
Newport Rhode Island is a favorite place of mine. Besides touring all the mansions, Portsmouth Abbey is there. It has a famous modernistic church. I first stopped off there in the 1970s when I lived in Amherst. It was evening after going to a professional meeting. The bells were ringing for vespers which were still in Latin! But I had sung vespers in Latin as an undergraduate at Saint John’s during the Council. So, I motioned to one of the monks and asked for the Monastic Antiphonal which contains the office. I got invited to a buffet style luncheon afterwards which resulted in a standing invitation to come and stay whenever I wanted. So about once a year, usually in the summer I did that. I would sing with the monks in the choir stalls.
Since I have gotten my balance problem, I have given up long distance driving. I rarely go out of the Cleveland area. I miss the long distance driving, though I do not miss the flying which was always a chore. Most of the drives were about eight hours; I found I could stop at a rest stop and take a fifteen minute nap in the car and wake up very refreshed.
Jack, yes, exactly - we took I 90 through NY, and came back over I-80 through PA. Coming back from Newport, the route did take us close to NYC - we crossed the Hudson at White Plains, if IIRC, and then started veering west. That NYC-area traffic was the most stressful part of the drive back.
DeleteI understand your point about needing a rest stop and a nap. Having a companion on the trip is a big advantage, as we can trade off driving; the passenger can (and does :-)) doze. But having a companion also is a big help for navigating - even with Google Maps and similar services that tell you exactly where to go and what to do (but still manage to confuse us
If you took I-90 from Chicago to Boston, you passed within two miles of me. Lake County is the stretch of I-90 East of the Cleveland I-271 beltway. That stretch of I-90 is relatively scenic; it is hard to image the suburbs along the Lake directly to the North of the interstate. Our exit is the Ohio 44 exit which goes North to Headlands Beach. I am less than two miles from the exit.
DeleteIf any of you folks drive through Stroudsburg, PA on Route 80, you and yours are invited to stop for a breakfast, lunch or dinner with me and on me. I'd cook myself but that would be unchristian.
DeleteJack, Stanley - many thanks for mentioning this. I thought of both of you on the trip, but was a little fuzzy as to where you each were located, and frankly wasn't organized enough to plan ahead. We'll try to do better next time.
DeleteAnd btw, if any of you ever come through Chicago, or even just have a layover at O'Hare, please let me know and I'll do my best to try to meet up. I met Gene and his wife that way a few years ago.
Thanks, Jim. Will definitely keep that in mind.
DeleteNow you’ve done it. This will be in two parts.
ReplyDeleteGood for you, Jim. You’re hit on a topic dear to my heart! Driving trips are absolutely the best way I know of to really grasp the vastness and the amazing natural landscapes in our country. From sea to shining sea - the mountains, and the prairies, the swamps and the deserts. It’s also possible to see how we are shaped as a people by the landscapes where we grow up. And even gain a few insights into how and why we are so divided right now. Rural v urban. Diverse v mono- ethnic. Growing up where floods, hurricanes, wildfires, tornados, blizzards, droughts or earthquakes are part of normal life. Signs ranging from alligator crossing warnings to bison crossing warnings.
Long distance driving has always been part of our family’s vacations. My husband and I used to drive to New England often before the sons arrived. Once they were born we still did, eventually adding annual trips to Florida too. When our boys were young, we flew to Florida to stay on Sanibel Island for Easter, renting a car at Tampa airport for the week. We fell in love with the island and bought a timeshare there. After that trip, when the boys were growing up, we drove from our home to Sanibel almost every spring - 1000 miles each way. We left here with bare trees and weather that was still a bit wintery. As we drove south, spring would appear, then summer. Coming home we made a point to visit different locations of interest - Savannah, Charleston SC, plantations, civil war battlefields, barrier islands in South Carolina and Georgia. The menus changed too. We knew we were in the south when the fast food places had sweet tea and grits on the menus. Every summer we headed north to Massachusetts or Maine, not quite as far - usually 8-9 hours or so before stopping. Lots of great seafood meals on harbor front docks, especially lobster and clams in various forms. Portuguese bread in Boston and Rhode Island. Whale watching trips, visits to many historic areas throughout New England. Gentle beaches with dunes covered with wild roses in Massachusetts, and pounding surf against rocky cliffs in Maine. Lighthouses! A favorite of the sons.
I’ve also driven coast to coast 7 times in the last 25 years. Sometimes with a son going to or from college in California, a couple of times with my husband,, most recently winter 2020-21 in Covid times. Different routes. The highlights of those drives were west of the Mississippi. One year we took I70, through Kansas to Denver, then over the continental divide, through the Eisenhower Pass at 11,000 ft, through Glenwood Canyon ( literally breathtaking), to the red rock country of Utah. Driving through our country taught me to truly understand what is meant by the word awe-some.
Part 2. So many awesome natural wonders in this country. We had never seen such uninterrupted flatness before driving through Kansas. After 6 hours of an incredibly featureless landscape (mile after mile of fields without even farm buildings in sight), we felt like Dorothy when she first caught sight of the Emerald City in Oz when suddenly the Rockies rose from the flat tableland in front of us. After 6 hours of flatness, at first it looked like a mirage. Driving through the SW - Utah, New Mexico and Arizona especially - a whole different world. We’ve driven through a landscape that looks like the moon in Nevada - nothing but sand and rock - nothing living, not a blade of grass - then through the incredible Tetons, Yellowstone, braking for bison and moose, going for hours headed east through Wyoming towards South Dakota, seeing no more than half dozen cars in the valley between two mountain ranges, visiting towns where cowboy boots and hats are the daily business dress of the locals. When we would see signs for casinos on these mostly deserted highways we knew that we were on Native American land - this was before the entire country succumbed to feeding gambling addiction. We saw different kinds of farm structures - not just barns, silos, grain elevators and chicken houses - and couldn’t always figure out what they were used for. We went into many off- highway restaurants without seeing a single person who wasn’t white. Not even in the towns.
ReplyDeleteDriving from LA to San Jose for 5 1/2 hours a couple of times every year we see the citrus and almond groves, the miles of grape vines and strawberry fields, and an entire community where garlic is king. You can smell it before you get there. The whole country benefits from the produce of California (2/3 of the supply for the entire nation) . This is because of the thousands of Latino pickers, backs hunched over for hours at a time in the high heat, with no shade except their big hats, a mile or more walk to the closest latrine ( and they only exist because of government intervention), and to get a glass of water, working at minimum wage if here legally, and at sub- minimum wages when illegal. Our country would collapse in some sectors without all of the brown and black immigrants, legally here or not. Overworked, under appreciated, and too often hated and resented. Bit essential to our economy.
During our 50 year marriage we’ve driven most of England during many different trips, as well as made multiple long drives in Germany. Belgium, Italy, France, Czech Republic, Poland, Croatia, and Montenegro. It amazed me to realize that we could tell when we had crossed into a new country just by how the architecture changed! Before the landscape itself changes. The really long drives are harder now, but we still do them. But with an extra stop or two when heading coast to coast. One of the very few times I’ve agreed with Ross Douthat was a column he wrote about taking the family on a road trip to the west a couple of years ago - Yellowstone etc. Covid pushed a lot of people into visiting areas of the country they had never seen.A good thing.
I have good memories of road trips when I was a kid. One time we went to Yellowstone. We had relatives in Wyoming and Colorado, and visited them. We lived in New Mexico for three years in the early sixties, and often went for Sunday drives to see ruins and local scenery. Back then most cars didn't have factory AC, we had "four-sixty" air conditioning; four windows rolled down, sixty miles per hour.
ReplyDeleteI've always been an anxious passenger. I wish I enjoyed road trips now, but I don't. In 1995 we were in a bad car wreck. The car was totaled, and we were lucky we weren't killed. Miraculously we didn't sustain any life threatening injuries, but they were injuries, and I still have physical reminders of them. My husband had a concussion and doesn't remember much about the accident. I remember everything. I don't have quite as severe anxiety now, but getting on the road requires some psyching up. Mostly I have to tell myself that I'm shirking my duty if I don't venture from home. I'm much less anxious if I'm the driver.
I don't mind driving in our town, or in the country. It is peaceful in the sandhills on the country roads. Interstates and city driving are hellscapes (well maybe not quite that bad, but almost).
I love plane travel the few times I've done it. For some reason I'm not anxious being 30,000 feet in the air! I wish there were passenger trains here like there used to be.
Katherine, given what happened to you, your anxiety is very understandable.
DeleteNobody in our family has been injured in an accident, but one of my kids, when a teenager, totaled one of our cars. She wasn't injured, but the other driver sued her (she was a teen but legally an adult). Lawsuits are a different kind of hell.
I hear you about lawsuits! Definitely a kind of hell. Glad your daughter was not hurt.
DeleteKatherine, I can understand that surviving a serious car accident might lead to avoiding high speed roads. Driving across the country I’ve learned that the urban areas are the worst, because of heavy traffic of course. Once away from the cities, highway driving is often less stressful than urban and suburban driving for me. But there are exceptions - I drive home once using part of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. It was 90% huge trucks, and I thought my son and I might get crushed in our smallish car without a driver even noticing. Never took that route again. Driving south on I81, used by many midwestern folk to head
DeleteOne advantage of driving instead of flying is less COVID exposure. I recently flew down to Florida for my goddaughter's funeral. I thought for sure I would catch it one way or another but I was ok. I may get the latest COVID vaccine at my yearly checkup next week.
DeleteHit submit accidentally.Anyway, I 81 south also has a ton of big trucks and we try to avoid it if driving south. Or drive on a Sunday when there is less trucking traffic. Still. It’s not nearly as nightmarish as the PA Turnpike! Out west the highways are wide open with very low traffic and it’s fun to drive those highways.
DeleteFlying has become such a hassle these days,, and also we are now jammed into seats with no legroom or arm room, so we drive if it’s within an 8-9 hour drive. So we drive to New England all the time now instead of flying to Boston or Providence. We’ve only been to Florida once since 2017, and we flew. But Florida isn’t a place where we want to vacation any more. Don’t want to bolster the economy there. Also it’s now called The Gunshine state. Long ago we always drove to New England. Then started flying and renting a car there. But now we’re back to driving there. .
Stanley, our doc recommended new Covid shots before we flew to California in August because it had been six months since the previous. Every seat was filled in both directions for flights lasting 5-6 hours. He said that we should get the new version of the vaccine this winter before flying again. My husband got Covid in the first weeks of omicron. I still haven’t gotten it. I keep waiting for my luck to run out. But we get the shots ( neither of us get side effects) and mask on airplanes when infection rates start rising again. We may drive to California again this winter if Covid infections keep getting worse.
DeleteMy brother and sister in law recently went on an Alaskan cruise. They came home with Covid. I have thought I might like a cruise because you aren't on the road, and not much chance of high speed collisions. But cruise ships are unfortunately floating Petri dishes.
DeleteBoth brother and SIL are vaccinated (but not ×with the most recent version) and have had Covid once. Which is the same with us, I don't think I could talk my husband into a cruise anyway, he doesn't like boats.
We did a lot of sailing on the Chesapeake Bay when we were younger. Not agile enough to hop around a sailboat at our ages now. We have never taken a cruise and have never wanted to actually. The idea of being on an enormous ship with a couple of thousand other people seems like the anti- thesis of what sailing is really all about. But the convenience of not having to unpack and repack frequently is appealing. I have been researching small ship cruises. There is a cruise line in Croatia which takes only about 40 passengers on each ship. Nice staterooms, and the ships are small enough to get into the harbors on the islands. Dubrovnik is gorgeous.Our son took this small cruise line once and said it was incredible. There is a lot to see on the Croatian coast and islands that we didn’t have time for. We didn’t have time for Split and the nearby Roman ruins unfortunately, but the cruises stop there. We’re tempted by this small ship cruise. I am looking for others. Maybe there are some in Alaska, or the fjords of Norway, or even the New England coast. A cousin took a Viking river cruise a couple of years ago that they enjoyed. But we don’t like the lack if freedom with cruises either - one day in a port, and no room to extend, or explore, or change the itinerary. So we’ll probably continue to fly long distances and drive to closer destinations.
DeleteThere are also river cruises in Europe in necessarily smaller boats. I'm not a boat cruise person either. I prefer my own schedule, too.
DeleteStanley, didn’t you go to Alaska a couple of years ago?
DeleteThat Croatian cruise does sound nice.
DeleteMy fear of driving is running into road rage. I can control my own and I do everything to avoid confrontation but if someone goes out of their way to mess with me, I can't guarantee that my survival instincts won't kick in full bore. And that is my biggest fear.
ReplyDeleteIt is true that there are many jerks on the road. To be sure, airline travel has its own varieties as well.
DeleteI subscribe to the popular theory that driving intensifies our personality tendencies: if I have slight or latent Type-A personality traits in the rest of my life, they really come out behind the wheel. As I've matured, I've learned to rein in the Type A tendencies, and to not take dumb risks. Even so, there are situations, such as merging onto the highway, where sometimes I'll judge that it's safer to accelerate than brake. My wife, who more often than not is in the passenger seat (an arrangement that probably is an illustration of my Type A tendencies), is captive to my decisions, and it's not always comfortable for her. But on the whole, I've become a good deal more patient and deferential behind the wheel.