American Road Trip: Sometimes the Best Sightseeing is Done on the Way There

I would like a T-shirt. One that says "I visited 12 states in 23 hours and survived!" It all started a few days before Thanksgiving in 1999 when my mom's best friend invited us down to Orlando, Florida for a vacation. We were to leave the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and be back the Monday after. The plan was to drive straight through from our home in Massachusetts, following Interstate 95 the whole way. Sure it sounds
crazy, but I love an adventure. We started at 6pm Tuesday night, and made it to Virginia 12 hours later.

I happen to love road trips. I can look out the window for hours, taking in the sights and wondering about the stories behind them. It's like an ever changing canvas, from the dazzling cityscapes of New York, Washington D.C.,Baltimore, and Richmond, VA, to the inky black night sky that swallowed us up in the rural areas of Maryland, Delaware and Virginia. I even saw the Milky Way in Delaware. It was a reminder of what the bright lights of city life hide from us. Most of us are so used to the muted orange glow that fills the night sky in the urban areas we've forgotten how beautiful the real night sky is.

We greeted the dawn in Garysburg, VA and stopped for breakfast at Dennys. My mom was charmed by the waitress, who kept calling us "sweetheart" and "honey", and wondered why there were grits and chicken fried steak on the breakfast menu. (It was just good ole southern hospitality and down home cooking, Mom!). Afterwards we set off down 95,in rural Virginia. The soft morning light revealed miles of fields dotted with battered shacks and farm buildings. Driving by a tiny run down shack with a rusty tractor next to it makes me wonder what stories it has to tell. Who lived there? What did they do, what were they like? What did they grow? We passed fields of cows in every shade of brown, black and white you can imagine.

Once we got into North Carolina, billboards screamed about fireworks for sale. It appears to be big business down there, from Robbies Fireworks World to The Fireworks Supermarket. More rolling fields and rivers greeted us. The bridge crossings, from Delaware all the way down, were spectacular. The rivers and waterways dotted with boats and surrounded by fields and forests were beautiful. At one bridge, a drawbridge in Delaware, we had to wait while a boat passed through. We were entertained by the driver in front of us, who took the opportunity to let her cocker spaniel out for a walk.

As we made our way through North Carolina, the calendar seemed to roll back to summer. We northern gals had dressed sensibly for the November we knew in jeans and heavy sweaters, only to end up sweltering in the 70 degree temps of North Carolina. By early afternoon we welcomed the lush fields of Savannah, Georgia. Having never been further than Washington D.C, I was stunned by the beauty of the South. Imagine, green trees, palms and flowers blooming in November!

We arrived in Orlando, Florida about 6pm, 24 hours and 1300 miles later. Along the way we passed Yankee Stadium, Camden Yards (Baltimore Orioles), Jacksonville Arena (NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars) Jack Kent Cook Stadium (NFL's Washington Redskins), saw the Washington Monument and the Capitol across the mirror like Potomac, and saw the sun rise over the farmland of Virginia and set over the palm trees of Florida. Even the
radio was an adventure. Up north the dial is crowded with rap and top forty stations, but down in the South all you can find is Country, Gospel and Blues stations. Refreshing, actually. Some of the commercials are startling though, especially the one we heard in South Carolina for "Bob's Firearms World". They were having a sale on the Ladies Smith and Wesson .357 Magnum. Um, okay Dorothy, you're not in Kansas anymore. Life
is sure different in the South!

Orlando was pleasant. Disney World and Disney's Animal Kingdom were awesome, and I have 10 rolls of film to prove it. But the changing canvas outside the car window is what really stayed with me. We are all so used to our little slice of the world it's hard to remember the beauty of the rest of it. It just goes to show that when you go looking you never know what you'll find.