Road tripped

My roadtrip (mentioned here and started here) has officially ended. Actually, it officially ended a month ago, I just wanted to write my travels down when I had time and, sadly, that hasn’t been until today.

For the first half of my journey, I relied exclusively on MapQuest!, but something about their map was simply. . . odd: ((Hey, did you notice that the Mapquest! map said ‘Fuck Google Maps’? Isn’t that strange?))

so I switched to Google Maps instead.

It was a much smoother journey:

As I grow older and travel more, my friends begin displacing themselves all around the world. It makes it harder and harder to see everyone you want to see in a short amount of time. So I decided to go on a final road trip to visit all my friends who are currently stuck in the eastern United States.

To accompany me on my journey, my former R.A. Sandy from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania flew down.

While Sandy was visiting, I showed her around Las Cruces and Old Mesilla. I took her to both Mexican restaurants and “Mexican” restaurants. Then, I took her to Mexico. Our final night in New Mexico, we decided to go camping with my friend Daniel, my cousin and her boyfriend.

Sunday, we drove ten hours to see my ‘friend’ Jayna. On the way, I was pulled over going 88 in a 65. If I’d had any plutonium and been Marty McFly, that wouldn’t have been a problem because I could have thrown the plutonium through his car window.

Monday morning Jayna took us out to eat and we drove off shortly thereafter. . . only to be pulled over again and given another fine for speeding. For the rest of the trip, I didn’t drive at all.

We arrived at Sandy’s friend Naheed’s house that night. He gave us a chicken sandwich, then let us stay in his room while he slept outside in his car. ((Apparently it’s a Saudi tradition.)) The next day we met up with Sandy’s brother Daniel. He was cool, but he was no chicken-giving, self-flagellating Naheed…

We finally arrived in Indiana, Pennsylvania the next day, which was cool. I called my friend Trumpie, and we drove up to Erie to visit our old friend Cassie. Since she was no longer going to school, I was afraid I’d never get to see her again. Cassie is really, really cool, but we ended up staying at Trumpie’s girlfriend’s house instead… And that was when I met my first ever Christian Apologist. He said “I’m sorry” a lot.

I stayed at Sandy’s house for the next two weeks (with a few nights at Trumpie and Robbie’s place) for two weeks while I visited old friends and tried to find myself. I had a blast, but, as I’d agreed to visit my friend Jess that weekend, I left without knowing where I was. Staying at Jess’ was perhaps my best experience ever staying at anywhere. Jess is the greatest host ever and possibly the best person I’ve ever met. She’s smart, funny, gorgeous, fun, caring, a great listener, and just a bit quirky. One day, I’ll write an Ode to Jess, but first I must kill her. She understands.After the weekend at Jess’ house in New Jersey, I drove to North Carolina to spend a week with my brother, to Texas to visit an old high school friend, and finally back to New Mexico. Oh, yeah, and I couch surfed in Birmingham too. But I’m trying to forget this, as my host took me dancing and eventually tried to sleep with me.

… 😯

My roadtrip (mentioned here and started here) has officially ended. Actually, it officially ended a month ago, I just wanted to write my travels down when I had time and, sadly, that hasn’t been until today. For the first half of my journey, I relied exclusively on MapQuest!, but something about their map was simply.…