Texas On A Whim

In order to fight off a nasty case of winter blues, Maggie and I felt like we should get away for the weekend. At first we were debating between Philadelphia, Upstate NY somewhere, or Atlantic city… until Wednesday afternoon when we suddenly decided to drive to Texas.

TEXAS!

Wednesday:
3pm: Decide to drive to Texas to visit my brother and cousin, check out SXSW, and get away.
3:30 pm: Rented a car on priceline.4 pm: Tell work “Yeah, i’m not going to be here tomorrow, friday, or… monday”
5 pm: Got a bunch of maps from AAA, went home, and packed up..
8 pm: Left on a train for Newark, NJ (car rentals were cheaper in NJ than NY)
9 pm: On the road!

Thursday
3 am: Harrisonburg, Virginia (400 miles in). Stopped for the night.
9 am: Shoney’s breakfast buffet isn’t as good as I remember.
11 am: Quick stop at the natural bridge in southern virginia, followed by a lovely speeding ticket.
12 pm: Are we crazy? Are we really going to drive to Texas. Called cousin Andrew and revealed our plan. Yup, we’re doing it.10 pm: Memphis, TN. Ordered a pizza, picked it up, and ate it.
11 pm: We’re on the road again.

Friday:
1 am: Maggie can’t drive anymore, thinks we should stop. I think otherwise, and take over.
9 am: We arrive in Austin. I want to die. Sleep for 5 hours.
4 pm: I scare the hell out of Roger, by ambushing him in his kitchen, when he’s convinced we’re in Georgia.
7 pm: Eat sushi.
9 pm: Hang out talking to Andrew.
11 pm: Sleepy time.

Saturday:
9am: Hanging out.
11am: At Fry’s Electronics, buying a new camera (to document the trip, of course)
2pm: Hanging out.7pm: County line Barbecue!
9pm: At SXSW. It’s a frickin zoo, but cool.
12am: We’re lame, tired, and have to drive home in the morning. We go home.

Sunday:
7am: Damnit. Time to leave.
8am: Roger and Candice cook us breakfast.
9:30am: On the road. We take a new route through the southern states, which puts us on some back roads in East Texas. Damn, poverty in NYC and poverty out in the country are worlds apart.
9pm: Jackson, MI. Outback steakhouse is pretty good. I never knew.

Monday:
1 am: Birmingham, AL. The Hampton Inn isn’t familiar with the concept of marking down rooms the later it gets in the night, like Holiday Inn Express is.
7:30am: On the road again!
12am: Back in NYC.

I’ve got video and pictures from the trip I’ll try to post soon. Here’s a map of our crazy insane trip.

15 states covered. 3500 miles traveled. 76 hours in transit, 55 hours in the car… 48 hours in Austin.All in all, the trip was very cathartic. It was great putting life on pause for a while, and just driving. It’s quite a change being in the bright lights of New York city one minute, and not seeing a light for an hour while driving through Arkansas the next. Although 55 hours of driving isn’t your typical relaxation/rejuvenation technique… I feel refreshed.