Time And Space
I feel cheated.
Having flown Texas and finding it to look very much like Illinois (at least in the small Section that I saw North of Houston) I come back feeling that I have not in fact traveled to distant parts, but rather was locked in a pressurized tin can for a number of hours only to let ought right where I started. I didn't get to experience the land in between.
I'm a fan of the Road Trip or an Riding the Rails. (The Road trip thing is of course provided that I don't have to drive and my seat has plenty of leg room. A couple hours with the legs all cramped up in a small car isn't a road trip it is torture). I like to see the mile markers pass, to get a feel for the land and make a sort of mental map of the space between. I want to know when we pass from great plains into hills or mountains. I remember the striking rock along the road one road trip down to Alabama back when I was fifteen years old. It was like the road had been just cut right in to the hills and you could see all the rock layers. I remember Nashville and the country music hall of fame not because it was a place we flew to, but a stop we made on the way home from that same trip.
Some of the best road trips are those with a party waiting at the other end. Way back when (spring of 95 I think) I talked a friend into driving to Minicon. I had no idea that Minnesota is easily eight hours from Chicago by car. Look at a map of the United states and you only really see one state North and One state west and hey Chicago is near the top of the state we were starting in. We had to stop and nap at a friends place in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Then it was a weekend of geeks, gamers and booze. It was my first gaming convention. I was almost in a state of shock the entire weekend. I had never seen such a large group of social misfits before (excepting, of course the boy scouts). These were my people. The wore costumes, drank often and took their science fiction seriously. (I think it was also one of my first experiences with Pay Per View. It was Debbie Does Dallas. I couldn't possibly pass that kind of classic movie making up).
It was an expensive trip. We got a ticket in Wisconsin, which had to be paid immediately so they billed my credit card. (the driver had absolutely no cash) Then there was the entire eleven miles per gallon grad prix we traveled in. I was paying for the gas and the fill ups were frequent.
The time I flew to Idaho, I may have missed the space between, but it was like landing in an alien land when I got off the plain in Boise. You can read about a desert and see things on the television, but that is nothing like experiencing a desert town first hand and then driving 3 hours up into the mountains. Mountains are totally disconcerting to a Midwestern soul. One wants the horizon to be distant and level, but in the mountains the horizon is always way to close and way to high. It's a nice place to visit but I don't think I could ever get used to those terrible heights.
In Summary: Road Trips are King (as long as I'm not driving). The geeks are gather this Easter in Minnesota, but I wont be there. A Midwestern plains boy gets jittery in the mountains.
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Having flown Texas and finding it to look very much like Illinois (at least in the small Section that I saw North of Houston) I come back feeling that I have not in fact traveled to distant parts, but rather was locked in a pressurized tin can for a number of hours only to let ought right where I started. I didn't get to experience the land in between.
I'm a fan of the Road Trip or an Riding the Rails. (The Road trip thing is of course provided that I don't have to drive and my seat has plenty of leg room. A couple hours with the legs all cramped up in a small car isn't a road trip it is torture). I like to see the mile markers pass, to get a feel for the land and make a sort of mental map of the space between. I want to know when we pass from great plains into hills or mountains. I remember the striking rock along the road one road trip down to Alabama back when I was fifteen years old. It was like the road had been just cut right in to the hills and you could see all the rock layers. I remember Nashville and the country music hall of fame not because it was a place we flew to, but a stop we made on the way home from that same trip.
Some of the best road trips are those with a party waiting at the other end. Way back when (spring of 95 I think) I talked a friend into driving to Minicon. I had no idea that Minnesota is easily eight hours from Chicago by car. Look at a map of the United states and you only really see one state North and One state west and hey Chicago is near the top of the state we were starting in. We had to stop and nap at a friends place in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Then it was a weekend of geeks, gamers and booze. It was my first gaming convention. I was almost in a state of shock the entire weekend. I had never seen such a large group of social misfits before (excepting, of course the boy scouts). These were my people. The wore costumes, drank often and took their science fiction seriously. (I think it was also one of my first experiences with Pay Per View. It was Debbie Does Dallas. I couldn't possibly pass that kind of classic movie making up).
It was an expensive trip. We got a ticket in Wisconsin, which had to be paid immediately so they billed my credit card. (the driver had absolutely no cash) Then there was the entire eleven miles per gallon grad prix we traveled in. I was paying for the gas and the fill ups were frequent.
The time I flew to Idaho, I may have missed the space between, but it was like landing in an alien land when I got off the plain in Boise. You can read about a desert and see things on the television, but that is nothing like experiencing a desert town first hand and then driving 3 hours up into the mountains. Mountains are totally disconcerting to a Midwestern soul. One wants the horizon to be distant and level, but in the mountains the horizon is always way to close and way to high. It's a nice place to visit but I don't think I could ever get used to those terrible heights.
In Summary: Road Trips are King (as long as I'm not driving). The geeks are gather this Easter in Minnesota, but I wont be there. A Midwestern plains boy gets jittery in the mountains.
More Laters
posted by Rich Rosenthal II at 2:14 AM
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