Filed under: South Carolina | Tags: highway, miles from home, motel, self portrait
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Where were we? It didn’t matter, I just wanted to get home. I wanted to sleep in my bed, do a load of laundry, watch crime shows, eat anything but something fast. Car fever had set in, we drove around looking for an adventure, but the little town off the highway shut down early, even on a Friday. We bickered about where we should go for dinner, then laughed when we found ourselves at Shoney’s. Jeff dared me to order their seafood buffet and I did, but later regretted it when tiny hives erupted on my cheek. We crossed the street to our temporary home for the evening. The pool glowed a shocking green, almost fluorescent as the sun set and I started to cry. A sunset over the open road tugs my heartstrings every time.
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Filed under: North Carolina, South Carolina | Tags: amusement park, i-95, roadside america, south of the border
photo illustration by jeff
Traveling on I-95 is mind-numbingly boring. Like, so boring that the birch beer and buffalo cheese curds sitting in the backseat cooler had lost their magic way back in Jacksonville, and the sign promising old junk at exit 33 couldn’t jolt us awake. By South Carolina, Jeff could hardly bend his arms, his fingers frozen into lobster claws. We failed at the alphabet car game because we could barely remember letters. And then, in the distance, a giant black cloud hovering over a needle-like tower: South of the Border, our kitsch oasis on the highway desert. We could postpone weaving lanes to avoid tractor trailers, eat some dogs, play a few rounds of skeeball to get those arms moving again. We never did figure out what caused the fire that slowly enveloped SOB, but it just topped the evening before our long drive home.
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crossing the border to north carolina
Filed under: South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia | Tags: flatwoods, giant elephants, papa joe's fireworks, summer vacation, wytheville
Jeff and I took off for 10 days to visit his parents in Florida. This is the trip we tried to do in December, but never made it because of the snow. We did two days’ worth of driving, stopping in Virginia on our first night and Georgia the second. I’m proud to say that after thousands of miles of being in the car, I think I’m getting over my fears of highway travel – at least as a passenger.
The beginning of a journey is much like the beginning of dating – every little thing is exciting. The first junk shop in West Virginia where the two of you find a Flatwoods monster statue for your living room desk. Lunch in Bulk Foods, sharing a bottle of ramp wine. The green, crisp smell of Wytheville’s mountain air as you lounge Motel 6-pool side, thinking about all the awesome sex you’ll have with your loved one when you go back to your room, and holy shit – cable TV!
This was the first two days. Even the idea of living out of our car for the next twenty years held romantic possibilities.
road out of Flatwoods, WV
car hood = tripod substitution
kicking it in South Carolina
Counts Drugs - Wytheville, VA
ephelants
we were looking for breakfast, but nothing was yet open
just like Christmas during 4th of July weekend
doggie in the motel 6 window
contemplating the long drive south
can I have it?
we waited for the green monster. no dice.
