Apparently Matthew drives with his eyes closed, so kitty watches the road for him.

April 29, 2010

My back hurts! I can feel a golf ball on the right-side of my lower back. It must have been the whole being out of shape & sleeping in the car combination. Despite the pain, I took to the wheel again and drove us out of Allegheny National Forest. The air was cold and damp, but the sun started to warm up the top of the water and created a beautiful fog over the top of the lake. I was sad to leave the area. It’s beautiful, and I would make this a regular hangout if I lived in the area.

At about 11 am we crossed the Ohio state border and instantly things changed. Rolling hills of forest green were replaced with flat lands of corn fields, sandy and tan colored, not yet turned over for the coming planting season. At noon we stopped at a park to have lunch before entering the city of Cleveland.
The breeze, green grass, and warm sun made it too difficult to move on, so we decided to lay out the sleeping bag and take a nap under the shade of a norfolk pine. At 3pm, well rested and relaxed, we drove into Cleveland. The eastern part of Cleveland was a ghetto (at least what we saw of it on route 6). 25 miles per hour (40 kilometers an hour) speed limit really gives you a chance to look around. Many fast food food joints and stores had gone out of business and we saw exactly three white people: a well-dressed man walking into a health clinic and an acid wash jean couple at the White Castle – Church’s Chicken drive thru (which Mateo insisted on going through, by the way).
One of the things I remember about living in Ohio was the existance of vitural segregation. There was the black neighborhood and then there was the white neighborhood, with the occassional asian (student) or mexican (restaurant worker). I can’t say my experience this time was much different.
Downtown Cleveland had a few neat buildings and some cool bridges, followed by mile after mile of sterile, expensive mansion-like homes on the water. Of note: not a single car in the driveway except for those of the lawn maintenance companies.
At last we made it out of Ohio. Yes, we were eager to get out of Ohio.

Hello Indiana! First thoughts: maybe Ohio isn’t so bad. Second thought: no wonder people like watching Nascar and eating KFC bowls… there is nothing out here! We were back into the land of corn and HEAT. My goodness. It was 75 degrees after dark. We went from freezing our fat butts off to sweating. The sweat, the back pain, the whole of everything had us both insisting we stay in a motel/hotel. We ended up choosing one based on the fact that it had free internet, a hot tub and was pet friendly. La Quinta Inn turned out to be perfect. What strikes me every time I enter a U.S. hotel is the size of the rooms. I am so used to tiny quarters in Europe, shared bathrooms, no amenities, etc. It, again, seemed excessive, but it was an indulgence that (this time) I adored and took full advance of. The carpet was worn, the windows in the pool area had bug poop on them, and the towels were rough, but the hot tub was the hottest one I’ve ever been in! The indoor pool was also heated, but just enough to make it enjoyable. The beds were comfortable, I had a ton of pillows to choose from, and we both slept like logs. At 9:30am I opened one eye and realized we had slept through breakfast. Normally we wouldn’t have minded, considering we can make coffee in the room and have a stash of supplies in the car. However, last night we noticed a waffle iron in the breakfast room, so we knew this continental breakfast was a step up. We threw on shoes and a sweater to cover the fact I wasn’t wearing a bra and hoped they still were in business. To our joy, there was a senior convention going on downstairs. With everyone moving slowly and managing wheelchairs and walkers in cramped quarters, breakfast hours had been extended that morning. Who stops serving breakfast at 9am anyway?!

-CB

April 28, 2010 - Pennsylvania cont.

I had no idea that it was already 9am when we finally woke up. My head was buried under inside my sleeping bag, hiding from the cold, so I thought it was still o’dark hundred. Mateo confessed he thought the same thing. Kitty was awake though. She was sitting upright on the pillow. I swear she looked just like me after an all-nighter: her hair disheveled, eyes puffy and red. I suspect that after our “there’s something outside” episode she did not go back to bed. At around midnight Kitty and I were both frightened and woke Mateo up when we heard scurrying outside. I was convinced it was a predatory animal, but somehow I was able to go back to sleep. Kitty stayed up and pulled security watch all night. So she slept like a peaceful kitten all day in the car as we traveled through Pennsylvania.
PA is picturesque. There are lots of forest lands, eagles, quaint old towns, and tourist traps centered around the mining industry and farming. We drove through rolling hills, past rotting barns, frolicking lambs and drive through liquor stores.“I always think ‘GREAT AMERICAN STEEL WORKS’ when I see these rusted and painted metal bridges. They’re works of historical art. Though I wish I could see an old wooden, covered bridge.”15 miles later we came across one.
It was clear early on that we weren’t going to make it past the PA-OH border. So, we took our time, stopping to take pictures of barns and see the Grand Canyon of PA! By late afternoon we had burned through all of our rations of random food items and didn’t have a drop left to drink, so we stopped in a SurFine grocery store for supplies. It’s amazing how easily you can spend $100, even when the store is short on what you’d consider viable supplies! (It was a small store, with a large fresh meat section, which we avoided due to lack of refrigeration.) I was able to get:
a bag of apples
grape tomatoes
salad mix
one onion
trail mix
granola
brown rice pasta
spaghetti sauce
Chef Boyardee beefaroni
Campbells Vegetable beef soup
chicken broth
Grandma Brown’s baked beans
refried beans
bean salad
canned apricots
canned tropical fruit salad
whole wheat tortillas
Polish leek sausage
Ziploc bags
New York sharp cheddar cheese
sliced Provolone cheese
Italian seasoning
a couple gallons of water
baby wipes/wet wipes
paper towels
four whole wheat bagels
jar of peanut butter
coffee
canned spinach
frozen peas

I am curious what would you have picked, considering you have limited space, only one burner and one small cooler? It needs to be enough food to last about two weeks and easy enough so that you entirely avoid eating fast food or at restaurants. I thought we could use the tortillas for sandwich wraps and burritos, instead buying bread which squishes in a packed car. I figure we’ll stop to buy fresh salad mix, ice and water every few days.
I also plan on buying chicken to cook in the broth with tomatoes, onion, peas, italian seasoning and some carrots and sweet potatoes that I already have.

After unloading the car to assist in loading all our new groceries, we attempted to find state hunting lands to camp on for the night. All of it was closed. So we parked on a dirt road and set up the kitchen to cook dinner. We felt like real “On the Road” hobos, although I’m sure none of the beatniks or hobos would have fresh sausage for dinner with their beans.

I took behind the wheel and drove us to an empty parking lot in the Allegheny National Forest a few hours away. We slept in the car and woke up with ice over all the windows (on the INSIDE and the OUTSIDE!) This time I woke us all up at 6am and got us on the road no later than 7:30am.

-CB

Regarding April 27, 2010:

Yesterday (the 27th) we drove for 8-9 hours and made it out of Connecticut, through New York and into Pennsylvania. Just after crossing into Pennsylvania we stopped at a visitors’ centre in Hawley, PA. I have to say it is the best visitors centre I have ever visited. It’s new, has spacious, clean bathrooms, lots of pamphlets, free maps and friendly service. There is even a fireplace, two couches, historic pictures hanging on the wall, and a porch overlooking the river. At the visitor’s center we picked up some free Route 6 postcards and a guidebook/magazine about Route 6 and its attractions through the entire state.

Equipped with a map, we decided to take a two hour drive south OFF of route 6 to visit a ghost town, Centralia. If you haven’t heard about Centralia, you should look up more information about it. In 1962 a trash fire accidentally hit a patch of coal and set fire to the whole underground system of it running beneath the town. The fire effectively shut the town down. It's still burning to this day.

Sure enough, we saw streets overrun with weeds , sink holes, and smoke emerging from the ground in spots. Unfortunately our pictures didn’t show the smoke very well, and all the abandoned houses had been more or less torn down, not visible. There is still signs of habitation here and there and an amusing sign posted by some of the residents to the Governor of the area: "Governor Rendell - you rushed to Scauykill county to help an illegal immigrant. Why won't you help these 'american citizens' whose rights are being violated by the DCED."

When it started to snow in the late afternoon I figured we should secure our sleeping area.

When I say, “well… at least I didn’t flip out,” it means I’M FLIPPING OUT on the inside. At 6 p.m. we pulled over into a Pennsylvania State Forest to camp. It seems the PA law dictates that as long as you are 300 feet away from any water source, trail, or parking lot, you are able to primitive camp for free for one night in state forest land. “I think we qualify as primitive camping,” I say. And boy did we ever! The cat, Matthew and I cramped ourselves into a pup tent with three sleeping bags, a body pillow, a litter box and several sweaters. It was below freezing outside and just at freezing in the tent. Even the cat, who is usually temperamental about cuddling, crawled into the sleeping bag with us and slept swished between the two of us for most of the night—a furry snake between two soft boulders.

I was petrified and bitterly cold for the first few hours in the tent. I think we all were. I was imagining these three things:

1. Waking up to a frozen stiff cat.

2. Cat scent calling ravenous wolves to our tent.

3. Bears smelling the candy in my purse or the crumbs of cat food in the tent.

4. Getting busted by the sheriff in the middle of the night.

5. Torrent rains.

6. Snakes biting through the bottom of the tent.

And, 7. being unable to get out of the tent because the long drive and hard ground bed reactivated my sciatica to monumental proportions.

Of course, in the end, none of these actually happened, although I did have a hard time getting out of the tent in the morning.

We’ve decided that whatever sleeping arrangements we’ve done thus far, we will never do again. I think we’re running out of options. This evening should prove interesting; we are going to try sleeping in the car.

Connecticut - The Constitution State, The Nutmeg State & The Provisions State

WELCOME TO DANBURY, CT!

Kitty, Mateo and I checked into a Days Inn off of Route 6 in Danbury, CT. It was pouring rain, and at 8pm we had been looking for a decent spot to pull over and camp for at least two hours already. Paying for a motel room, even if we had to charge it to our credit card, seemed positively indulgent and absolutely necessary. We have free wireless internet, a microwave and free breakfast for tomorrow morning.
For our first day we were hoping to reach Pennsylvania, but the rain and a late start thought otherwise. We had to sneak kitty into the room to avoid any possible extra charges or denial of lodging. Naturally this has made me a little paranoid, but I think despite the fear of someone hearing kitty walk around in the room, I'll sleep well tonight. Being a back seat driver is tiring! Plus, kitty is feeling quite snuggly and grateful to be out of the moving car.

Kitty was mildly annoying for the first hour or two, but she settled down after that. Seems she doesn't like city life. Every time we leave a rural area and head into a city she starts meowing again.

We're expecting to cross the New York and Pennsylvania state lines tomorrow, visit a tourist info office, and encounter quite a bit more rain. But, I'm determined to pitch that tent tomorrow and try out our new propane stove... just have to start looking for a campsite a little earlier in the day.

For a little fun: Matthew and I have taken to playing "Dunk Punch." Which calls for someone to punch the other person every time they see a Dunkin' Doughnuts coffee shop. I have to say that New Englanders LOVE themselves some Dunkin' doughnuts & coffee!! Even more than Los Angeles loves their Starbucks. We typically see three Dunkin' Doughnuts for every mile in populated areas. That's a lot of punching!

We clocked some 100+ miles today.

About the things we've seen... there are some beautiful old towns along Route 6 in Connecticut. The picture/postcard above is from 1907, but we passed through that area today and it looks much the same. We also saw some nice forested areas, old farms, and the modern city of Hartford, which looks beautiful lit up at night. Click here to see picture of Hartford during the day, or click here for a picture at night.

-CB

fill'er up buttercup

HESS gas station - Fall River, MA #21226
$2.779 per gallon
half tank = $22.73
Total on gas = $22.73

State Highway Begins

U.S. Route 6 - Provincetown, MA - April 25, 2010

Farthest East point (beginning) of the Route 6, which oddly enough faces West due to the "hooked arm/elbow" shape of Cape Cod.

-CB

Wanderlust (by Matthew)

I got hooked on the idea of travel and adventure as a child looking at exotic pictures of National Geographic magazine while waiting with my father at the barber shop. I've taken some trips, tripped up and down and all around, but now I'm about to embark upon a trip unlike any that I've had before: An unscheduled cross-country roadtrip on US Route 6. There is only the road and what will happen on the road and what might happen after the road.

Six years ago I was in a dark place in a dark state of mind. To escape I joined the Army. A lot has happened since then: I spent three years in Hawaii, I got married, I was stationed in Italy for three years, I traveled extensively, I finished my masters degree, and a lot more. All the while I experienced an increasing craving for the freedom that I traded in by joining the Army. Essentially, the Army is not the type of environment for a progressive, free thinking, socialist such as myself. So I've packed my bags, cut my losses, and prepared to take my chances in "the real world." My wife and I have no place to live, no money, no job lined up, and no prospects but we have I have my freedom back and that is a tremendously positive thing.

On March 24, 2010, my terminal leave began and we flew back to North America (to my hometown of Uxbridge, Massachusetts) after having lived in Italy for three years. I had been back to the continent only once during the time that I was in Italy and only a few times in the three years prior to that while stationed in Hawaii. Every time I come back I experience "culture shock," especially in a supermarket. I feel like that song Lost In the Supermarket by The Clash. Coral's been having a more difficult time than I have. She didn't grow up on the continent and didn't visit it once during our three years in Europe. For the most part, our culture shock can be reduced to this list:
1. There is so much STUFF. The supermarkets are huge, filled with an insane amount of variety in brands/flavors/sizes. It seems excessive, wasteful.
2. There is great customer service. Perhaps even too much. Salespeople can be aggressive. In Europe, you have to ask for help and pray you get it. Coral literally heard someone say that a perfume would change someone's life and attractiveness. Come on!
3. Obesity really is an epidemic.
4. While the Northern Italians tended to be more cold, aloof, reserved and uniformly kept in appearance, the U.S. is full of talkative, loud, opinionated people with a variety of casual personal style senses.

It's difficult to leave the cradle and it's even more difficult to return to it. My sense of self & belonging as it relates to my hometown is full of contradictions and torment. I don't like it here, but I am of here. I am leaving here, but can I ever truly escape here? Even more so, do I really want to? Can I reject something that was and is an integral part of me?
My comings and goings always have to be epic and melodramatic. Just after officially signing my life away to the Army six years ago, I decided to spend my last couple months of civilian life taking road trips and couch surfing in Californi, influenced by William Least Heat-Moon's Blue Highways. Heat-Moon experienced a divorce and lost his job as a teacher so he decided to take an extended round trip tour of the US. He outfitted an old van into a mini-camper and set out onto the "Blue Highways" of the United States, a term he coined to refer to small, forgotten, out of the way roads connecting rural America (which were drawn in blue on the old style Rand McNally road atlas). In the book he mentioned that Route 6 goes all the way from the tip of Massachusetts straight across the country to California. I've been quite familiar with Route 6 as it is the main artery of Cape Cod where I spent many summers of my formative years. I had never been aware of how extensive the route actually was and upon learning about it, I thought that it would be quite interesting to travel the entire route.
February 2003, I finally packed up my trusty Hyundai Elantra and set out into the figurative unknown on Route 6. It took me about 8 days and 7 nights to make it to California and I essentially did nothing but drive from the time I woke until the time I pulled over to sleep (and I slept in the car every night). It was an intriguing journey and provided a great opportunity to clear my mind and cleanse my soul. In many ways I think that the trip changed and maybe even saved my life.
Now, six years later I'm getting ready to make the trip again. The first time I was heading to (self imposed) indentured servitude, serving in the army stationed in Hawaii. This time I'm heading away from my indentured servitude to freedom as a civilian worker, Hawaii resident. I have already accepted the islands as the homeland that I've always yearned for. The journey to get there this time around will be entirely different, particularly because I'll be accompanied by my wife who won't even consider driving 7 days straight without a shower. I'm looking forward to the trip and I hope that it will be a positive bonding experience that will bring us closer together as a couple. We shall see. The only certainty is the road and my mouth waters just thinking about it.

-MB