The Trip - Day 6 - April 27th
The Trip - Day 6
I'm writing this from an outlet mall just inside Massachusetts. My god, it's busy in here.
After watching Dr. Phil yesterday morning, I should've guessed that it would've been a strange day. Plus, right across from my hotel in Ithaca was a place called the Manos Diner. I wonder if they serve The Hands of Fate on the menu.
Now that I'm on the east coast, my travel situation has changed from one of long drives and occasional bits of interest to very short drives with interesting and yet navigationally challenging large cities.
I wasn't set to meet xamses until sometime after regular work hours, so I decided to spend some time on Syracuse, NY, seeing the local culture. On a suggestion I headed towards Armory Square. After some small difficulty in finding the place I managed to make it to a small starbucks where I was able to get some piss-poor hot chocolate (baristas never make it right) and a free wifi connection.
Unfortunately, given the time I'd already wasted, I didn't have the time to see the science museum, as I had to press on to the mall. Actually leaving Syracuse was much more difficult than entering, as none of the main streets I found provided proper street signs to the freeway. Fortunately, I eventually found my way out and about, and headed to the mall. The Carousel Center mall is huge, and I only saw part of it. I can quite easily believe that they could out do the Mall of America were they to expand a bit.
I met xamses at the mall, where I managed to get a moderately good steak at Ruby Tuesday's and afterwards see a showing of Hot Fuzz. It was an amazingly good comedy, something I'd recommend to everyone. Oh, and I saw a nicely trashed beater in the parking lot, with a hood secured by three inch cotter pins. Check out the picture below.
After that I made the long slog to Rensselaer to check into my Econo Lodge. It was originally only supposed to take a couple of hours, but thanks to a lack of proper instructions from Google maps, and pretty much the hairiest street layout I've ever been through, it took me an hour and a half to find myself across two miles of serpentine insanity to find the hotel, which wasn't even in the town that I'd been told it would be in. God bless the modern road system.
To muse philosophic for a moment, a few thoughts occurred to me.
First, I feel less like I am going anywhere, and more that I am simply changing my position in space and time. It's interesting seeing the country and taking pictures, but I much more enjoy going to interact with my friends. I may expand upon this should I ever travel overseas, but for America, it really does seem like we're all the same. Large cities tend to make me act out of fear or boredom, and I'm extremely unhappy with either emotion.
Second, I would like to speak about traveling, and the idea of the mother road. I-90 has been good to me, almost too good. If you're lost, she'll show you where to go. If you're hungry, she'll feed you, and if you run out of fuel, well, there's gas all over the place. This ease of travel gives me a sense of peace on the road, which coalesces into a force that impels me to keep moving, to not stop for anything. I feel like a traveler. And not in the gypsy sense.
However, traveling this much does present difficulties. I miss my family. I miss my friends, even those I've only just met. Right now I'm thinking how great it'd be to go to the thai joint in Ithaca that gillan introduced me to, even though he's probably still spending 16 hours a day meditating. There are physical side effects as well. I've lost a couple of pounds, and been dehydrated at points during this trip. If I drive too long, I develop some sore of motion sickness that makes me feel like I'm riding the freeway even when I'm standing still. I feel like I need to get my land legs back.
All in all, I'm looking forward to stopping for a couple of days when I hit SC, where I'll relax, unwind, and in general, remember how to enjoy life.
The Pictures:
Highlights:
- Getting lost in Syracuse, NY sucks.
- Getting lost in Albany, NY sucks even more.
- I managed to keep myself from telling a hotel employee to go screw himself after arriving at my hotel at 1:30am local time.
- I finally got a chance to slow down, and didn't need to leave as soon as I got up.
- What I enjoy most on the road: Hygiene. Spending the end of the day just sprucing myself up feels good in a way it never has.
- What I hate most on the road: Dehydration.
Statistics:
Distance Covered: 226 miles
MPG: 42mpg
Elapsed Time: 6 hours
Driving Time: 5 hours
I'm writing this from an outlet mall just inside Massachusetts. My god, it's busy in here.
After watching Dr. Phil yesterday morning, I should've guessed that it would've been a strange day. Plus, right across from my hotel in Ithaca was a place called the Manos Diner. I wonder if they serve The Hands of Fate on the menu.
Now that I'm on the east coast, my travel situation has changed from one of long drives and occasional bits of interest to very short drives with interesting and yet navigationally challenging large cities.
I wasn't set to meet xamses until sometime after regular work hours, so I decided to spend some time on Syracuse, NY, seeing the local culture. On a suggestion I headed towards Armory Square. After some small difficulty in finding the place I managed to make it to a small starbucks where I was able to get some piss-poor hot chocolate (baristas never make it right) and a free wifi connection.
Unfortunately, given the time I'd already wasted, I didn't have the time to see the science museum, as I had to press on to the mall. Actually leaving Syracuse was much more difficult than entering, as none of the main streets I found provided proper street signs to the freeway. Fortunately, I eventually found my way out and about, and headed to the mall. The Carousel Center mall is huge, and I only saw part of it. I can quite easily believe that they could out do the Mall of America were they to expand a bit.
I met xamses at the mall, where I managed to get a moderately good steak at Ruby Tuesday's and afterwards see a showing of Hot Fuzz. It was an amazingly good comedy, something I'd recommend to everyone. Oh, and I saw a nicely trashed beater in the parking lot, with a hood secured by three inch cotter pins. Check out the picture below.
After that I made the long slog to Rensselaer to check into my Econo Lodge. It was originally only supposed to take a couple of hours, but thanks to a lack of proper instructions from Google maps, and pretty much the hairiest street layout I've ever been through, it took me an hour and a half to find myself across two miles of serpentine insanity to find the hotel, which wasn't even in the town that I'd been told it would be in. God bless the modern road system.
To muse philosophic for a moment, a few thoughts occurred to me.
First, I feel less like I am going anywhere, and more that I am simply changing my position in space and time. It's interesting seeing the country and taking pictures, but I much more enjoy going to interact with my friends. I may expand upon this should I ever travel overseas, but for America, it really does seem like we're all the same. Large cities tend to make me act out of fear or boredom, and I'm extremely unhappy with either emotion.
Second, I would like to speak about traveling, and the idea of the mother road. I-90 has been good to me, almost too good. If you're lost, she'll show you where to go. If you're hungry, she'll feed you, and if you run out of fuel, well, there's gas all over the place. This ease of travel gives me a sense of peace on the road, which coalesces into a force that impels me to keep moving, to not stop for anything. I feel like a traveler. And not in the gypsy sense.
However, traveling this much does present difficulties. I miss my family. I miss my friends, even those I've only just met. Right now I'm thinking how great it'd be to go to the thai joint in Ithaca that gillan introduced me to, even though he's probably still spending 16 hours a day meditating. There are physical side effects as well. I've lost a couple of pounds, and been dehydrated at points during this trip. If I drive too long, I develop some sore of motion sickness that makes me feel like I'm riding the freeway even when I'm standing still. I feel like I need to get my land legs back.
All in all, I'm looking forward to stopping for a couple of days when I hit SC, where I'll relax, unwind, and in general, remember how to enjoy life.
The Pictures:
Highlights:
- Getting lost in Syracuse, NY sucks.
- Getting lost in Albany, NY sucks even more.
- I managed to keep myself from telling a hotel employee to go screw himself after arriving at my hotel at 1:30am local time.
- I finally got a chance to slow down, and didn't need to leave as soon as I got up.
- What I enjoy most on the road: Hygiene. Spending the end of the day just sprucing myself up feels good in a way it never has.
- What I hate most on the road: Dehydration.
Statistics:
Distance Covered: 226 miles
MPG: 42mpg
Elapsed Time: 6 hours
Driving Time: 5 hours