Insouciant (East is east)
Somewhere on a mainly deserted two-lane highway, sometime between California and Oklahoma, someone was driving a dark red Jeep east across the country.
Just another week and another two thousand miles on the clock to add to on top of a ten week epic journey – all alone.
Google latitude has been turned off, there’s only been a dribble of tweets, and deliberate non-specific location statuses on facebook. This is Geoff, driving back to Charleston. East.
I don’t feel like I have to blog. I certainly don’t have to shoot, edit or produce videos, and I don’t have to update a Google map plotting my progress every day. I can just … head east, anyway I want, at my leisure with only me to tell me where to go. It feels nice, I am insouciant.
Of course, at any other time a 2,000+ mile coast to coast roadtrip would (normally) be a big thing. This is an exception. Now it’s just a bit of a pain-in-the-arse extension to get back as soon as I can so that I can stop wearing the same three t-shirts in rotation every six days. And if you think that’s gross, you definitely don’t want to know about the state of my underwear.
Driving six hours a day for six days in a row is somewhat dull, but in America perfectly possible. Couldn’t imagine doing that in England, where more congested roads and a generally more dense feeling would make it a chore. It’s not entirely pain-free here, but for stretches I put the cruise control on, wind the window down hang my arm (and sometimes left leg) out into the sharp breeze and drive. East. Always east, against the time zones.
At one point, I’m on a highway running parallel to the interstate. I am going faster than traffic that is on it, and “overtake” several trucks. At one point I slow down to 50mph … but that’s because I want to wave at and take a photo of the the train that’s running alongside me to my other parallel side.
When I was down and out in Vegas last week, I got vaguely excited one day (on the drive out to Rachel and back) when I realised I was going to (in effect) have another mini-roadtrip adventure all to myself, and started plotting touristy places to go. It made me happy – but that’s not what’s happened. Instead of going to Roswell and Austin, all I’m doing to make me happy is just piling on the miles, heading in the one pure direction … east. Never ending.
Big, wide, open, American stretches on. Its relentless endless highways, oily gas stations with a (much loved) coffee stench are everywhere, and it still excites me.
“So what did you learn from your road trip?” I have been asked in slightly different ways from slightly different people. Well … that those Californian’s like to get everywhere is the flippant answer – I see more of their plates ‘out of state’ than any other. Oh, and Verizon’s cell coverage is much more extensive than AT&T’s would be another obscure, but factually correct answer.
And on … east. Be it rocky mountains, or scraggy desert, cornfields, suburban sprawl, trains, more highways, oil-fields, rivers, plains, meadows, canyons, herds of cows, rusty junk yards of cars, people, towns, lights and sometimes … just big vast expanses of sheer nothing, all out there to look at and consume and breath and devour – added to the mine of information already inducted into my little brain over the past two plus months.
It’s going to take some some time to process it all.
Despite being ‘off’ as I drive back, it’s not stopped me adding a few more photos to my galleries on facebook. The Route 66 specific gallery is here, and the Abandoned America one is here.
Follow: My Underground : USA Twitter feed here, and view the Facebook group, or see all the photos that I’m posting on it – even if you’re not on facebook or don’t want to join the group.
After living in London for the first 33 years of my life and working for the 
So for ten weeks in June, July and August 2009, I drove 20,000 miles around the the lower 48 contiguous states of the USA visiting towns and places that shared the same name as places on The London
i. East is East, is both a novel and a movie. Take your pick.
ii. American roads are fine… right up until night draws in. Then – piss poor lighting at intersections and badly lit junctions means i got all over the place, even with a GPS. One thing I like about English roads.. they know how to light them well.
If you’re following the fastest route between LA and Charleston as plotted by Google maps, you’ll go right past the motel I was staying at during my trip to Alabama. (Exit 14 on US 78 / I-22, near Hamilton.) There are very few good places to stop between Tupelo, MS and Jasper, AL, so keep on driving. I was working at one of my company’s plants nearby, otherwise I would have not stayed there.
You’re right about Californians – they’re everywhere. I regularly see California plates on cars here in Minnesota. Illinois plates are probably the next most common – too many darn Chicagoans traveling everywhere.
paul – that’s funny. i had no idea, but yes .. i think i’m gonna come straight down that road! although i am trying to drive fast highways, and not all the interstates.
everything east of Texas looks.. well.. a little boring and dull to me, yup. the landscape is not as interesting, and the folks more weird. i counted 27 cowboy-wearing hat people in my motel that i’m staying in tonight (Oklahoma), apparently there is a Rodeo in town. Welcome back to the South Geoff …
I see a lot of Florida plates too. don’t forget that all those nice retired people like to get out during the summer and roam the country too!
geoff, this is beautifully written. you HAVE to write down your journeys into a book!
I think Geoff has already indicated that a book is in the making. Good luck with that. The first musical I ever saw on stage was ‘Oklahoma’. I was 14 at the time, and thought that was how all Americans were, farmers, ploughboys, cowboys, singing & dancing. We didn’t have T.V. so I knew nothing else.
So enjoyed the journey as an armchair traveler…. I want to know how you can drive with ‘one leg out of the window” Driving back should be like a mini vacation because anything goes and there are no rules..I will miss the blogs and video. But you were great and we all throughly enjoyed.
What a great trip! I’m happy I got to meet you and follow you on your blog as you traveled
You’ve taught me a lot about my country. I’m also glad you’re getting home safely, well you’re almost there!
See you made it home about half hour ago. Welcome back, get a bath, and jump into a cosy bed and sleep for a while. You deserve it!!
“you definitely don’t want to know about the state of my underwear.”
OK…This is when I know you’ve really become a Yank… using the word ‘underwear’ instead of pants or knickers!
Welcome back home Geoff!
Are you missing the footie?
“Tottenham, Tottenham, no one can stop them”
10 Well, not until yesterday, that is!