COWS: Farmers are not evil monsters who want to feed you crap. I saw PLENTY of delicious looking grass fed beef in EVERY state I went to. You want cows to live in beautiful pastures eating what cows are supposed to eat before they become your steak and farmers want to provide it. We can do this man... two step process. PAY MORE FOR YOUR MEAT AND EAT LESS OF IT.
ORLANDO: I have seen the dark side. Orlando is a concrete jungle that was once open space. Until 1971 when a vacation resort opened. I have never seen so many strip malls selling junk in my entire life.
ALLIGATORS: Are awesome and my friends.
GAS: In NJ you cannot pump your own gas. I asked the gas station attendants why and they weren't sure. Jobs maybe? None the less, gas makes road tripping not cheap, but if you own an efficient car it won't kill you and there's a lot to be said for the highway system that allows us to travel so easily around this country. This is a HUGE damn country.
PEOPLE: I've driven through 14 states (and all of the original 13 colonies, though not NH on this trip, but c'mon I live on the border) and can happily tell you that no matter where you go people are individuals and not stereotypes. I was treated politely by dozens of strangers and had great conversations with a few. Never once did anyone in my travels say anything disparaging about a woman traveling alone. Although I had to explain to the folks at Orlando Hyundai a few times that I am in fact in town FROM Boston, not that I had moved from Boston. I saw only one Mass plate after Virginia. I was rare fruit.
HYUNDAI: My Accent is a magical dream machine that takes me where I want to go and does not ask many questions. I love you, Little Accent, I promise I'll change your oil and take you to the car doctors more often. Your hatchback makes me so happy.
SKYLINE DRIVE: Driving Skyline drive through Shenandoah early in the morning needs to be on your life checklist. The views are amazing. The road is peaceful and beautiful. And it's basically a DEER SAFARI!
The most beautiful state though? My apologies to all the rest, but...
NORTH CAROLINA: Or as I like to call it "the Motherland". The Blue Ridge Mountains are as close to heaven as I'm ever going to get, and the BBQ in NC is a far cut above the rest. The only decent cup of coffee I found below the Mason-Dixon was in Asheville, NC and coffee makes everything more beautiful. Asheville in general is just a nice, relaxed, liberal community set within the most awe inspiring mountain range.
PARKS AND CAMPING: State and National parks are the coolest. We can just drive on in somewhere, pitch a tent and spend the night. It gave me a chance to see the wildlife of the state I was in and rise with the sun to get more of my day in. However there are downsides, camping is not particularly social despite being around many people, and I did not always sleep well while camping and I recommend taking a break and staying a hotel or hostel to get a good nights rest while road tripping.
HOSTELING: Hostels are great places for like-minded travelers to gather. I stayed at Bon Paul and Sharky's in West Asheville, NC and it was simply lovely. The people there were kind and jovial and the accommodations were clean and nice. They even had a hot tub! Which I took full advantage of. On future road trips I think I will stay in more hostels.
THE RADIO: One of my favorite thing to do on a road trip is browse the local radio stations. It gives you a great idea of the demographics of the area without even leaving your car. Also, I found this fucking kick ass blues hour playing on a jazz station in the NY/NJ area. It made for one pleasant hour of driving, they were playing all my blues favs. I also got to listen to some crazy fucking Pentecostal radio show in PA. They were literally having a deep discussion on speaking in tongues, you couldn't make this shit up.
Stay tuned for the second half of the state of the East Coast!
Wow! Sounds like a terrific trip. Thanks for sharing it with those who stayed home.
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