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Jennifer
Rogers
 
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How
to Cap Off Your Graduate Student Career with a Cross-Country Road Trip
 | Con one of your oldest and dearest friends into
agreeing to accompany you on a hypothetical cross-country road trip. |
| Have the trip change from hypothetical to actual
with little or no notice. (Note: This should be a person with whom you
REALLY enjoy talking. It should also be someone that you're SURE you'll
still like after a week in an increasingly cramped and uncomfortable car.) |
| Give away or discard almost everything you own.
Put the rest in the back of your car. (When trying to decide whether or not
to take the huge, discount-store-sized bottle of shampoo that you never
really liked anyway, remember: they sell that in America. |
| If you actually run out of something, you will be
able to buy more, and there's no need to stockpile junk you don't really
want anyway. This was the mantra of our trip: "they sell that in
America." |
| Decide whether you want to go the high, low, or
middle route. Solicit opinions, then do whatever you feel like on the day
you take off. |
| Plan major stopovers at famous places you've
never been to. I chose: · Niagara Falls. |
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It's big. Really, really
big. And wet. Plus, you can wave at Canada and eat Indian food at your
choice of fast food carts.
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Rocky Mountain National Park in
Colorado. You have to go through Estes Park, which is a cleverly designed
tourist trap that slows traffic to a standstill, but the mountains are
incredible, and you, too, can find out how fast you can make your heart
beat by attempting some form of exercise at high altitude. |
As a result of visiting Rocky
Mountain National Park, I learned some bits of family history that I had
never been told,
namely that my dad grew up
in Estes Park 
and
the Big Thompson River washed away my cousin's house in a major flood that
killed several of my distant relatives.
Big Thompson River
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Stop and see everything. You might as
well. This is how you will notice
that the view from the first rest stop coming over the Nevada border into
Tahoe is much more scenic than the scenic view point up the
road. |
Lake Tahoe
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Include impressive things, like Great
Lakes, the Great Salt Lake
(and the salt flats surrounding the Great Salt Lake),
and
Great Salt Lake |
Flaming Gorge.
  
Flaming Gorge
(Yes, I like places that involve water in one way or another.)
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Include bizarre things, like Giant
Abe Lincoln Head.
(in fact, if you go through
Wyoming, plan on stopping at all of the rest stops. I'm not making this
up-- there's a tree growing out of a rock in the middle of the interstate.
Yes, there's a point of interest rest stop in the center divider of a 75
m.p.h. interstate that's a tree in a rock)
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Stop at the the inexplicable Little
America tourist traps, and any gas station in a town with a
population under 5. |
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Believe the locals about good food. |
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Don't believe the locals about what
neighboring states are like. Everyone in Iowa, Nebraska, and Colorado said
that the drive through Wyoming would suck.
Wyoming was my favorite part of the trip. For one thing, I didn't pass any
ConAgra feed lots in Wyoming. And the landscape has an incredible stark
beauty, if you're into that kind of thing (and I am). |
| Just because there has been a Pizza Hut at
every exit for the past 500, that's no guarantee that there will be a
single Pizza Hut in the next 500 miles. The little interstate signs
that tell you what food is available in the area will seep into your
subconscious mind and you will find yourself craving food you don't
normally eat, like Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. |
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Visit every friend you have along the
way. They may be able to offer you
a home-cooked meal or a free place to sleep. It's nice to see all
those folks who haven't gotten their fair share of your attention ever
since you got sucked in to the gaping time suck that is graduate school. |
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Take pictures of everything. If you
can't get the shot you want, buy a postcard. In Utah, stop at an
information booth and get a bunch of free postcards and posters. That way
you'll be able to prove later that there really is a point of interest rest
stop in the middle of the interstate in Wyoming because of a tree growing
out of a rock. |
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Ponder the meaning of America
and wonder if America really is an
imaginary place. Contemplate the difference between the U.S. as a whole and
the bits and pieces that compose it. Feel philosophical. Then get back in
the car and keep going. There are a lot of strange and interesting
stuff yet to see out there. |
Scenic images courtesy of http://community.webshots.com
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