We do not take a trip; a trip takes us.
by Caroline(title from Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck)
This is where I drove, roughly but for the most part accurate.
Since my brain became independent, my family’s car trips have taken us south and west but never east, leaving me with no real impression of the northeastern United States past what I gleaned from school and pop culture. This was, of course, grossly inaccurate.
Genghis described Indianapolis better than I would have — he says that with most cities, you approach from far away and the city looms larger and larger. With Indianapolis, what you see from far away is what you get up close: “It’s to scale,” Genghis says. This phenomenon of faraway approach only really applies to cities in flatlands though, and it does not get much flatter than the drive from Chicago to Indianapolis. I stayed at a Best Western.
The drive from Indianapolis to the Erie area crosses Ohio, where I saw at least 20 state troopers behind stopped cars or radar guns. Once in Edinboro, an exurb populated mostly by an art-heavy state university, I saw just how heavily western Pennsylvania resembles the rural midwest. It looks a little poorer and has more empty shops along the road; it’s also a little hillier. Otherwise these towns could be in Illinois where I grew up.
On the way to Tarrytown (New York suburbia), I-80 started to look like the road to El Dorado, winding through mountains and absurdly picturesque valleys. The Tappan Zee bridge from New Jersey to New York gave a very solid endpoint to the drive — I literally crossed over to my destination and ended up booking a room at a Comfort Inn in Hawthorne.
After a night of no sleep, Scrabble, and bad movies (including the abominable Trust the Man and something also with Steven Seagal) with an old friend, I staggered through some crunchy suburban traffic to Paramus, New Jersey. Check-in at the Marriott Courtyard wasn’t for a few hours so I saw Hamlet 2, uneven but very funny in case you were wondering, at the Garden State Plaza mall.
Saturday meant driving back to Edinboro, where I stayed at the brand-new Comfort Suites. At some point in New Jersey I-80 became a gummed-up mess with miles of backed-up traffic, and I veered off onto county roads. This might be my favorite part of the drive.
Sunday the sun shone directly on my left arm and leg for the entire six-hour drive, which means it turned into a seven-hour drive as I pulled over to rehydrate and avoid heat stroke. (No A/C in this kid’s 12-year-old starter vehicle.)
Crossing the Tappan Zee Bridge cost $4.50. The drive back through Ohio cost $6.00 and Indiana cost $6.75. Finally, the Chicago Skyway — another bridge welcoming me to my destination — was $4.25. Chicago, unlike Indianapolis, is a city you see for a while. It overwhelms with its bigness as you approach, and I drove up Lake Shore Drive through Sunday holiday-weekend traffic just to revel in the energy of the homecoming. My city! So nice to see you and to finally stop scanning the radio for something good.
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