Day 1!
Sometimes you’re just driving along through some amazing scenery and the music you’re listening to is just so perfect, you realize in that instant that it’s like you’re in a well-directed and edited movie. Today was absolutely not that, but the music and scenery were great.
I got kind of a late start, because I let the folks at Jiffy Lube convince me I needed more stuff done to my car. I’m always more susceptible to that kind of pressure before a big trip. So I finally got out of Lincoln around 11am (after leaving yesterday at 7 and getting back this morning around 10).
It didn’t really feel like I was on a trip until I got out of Nebraska. Before leaving Nebraska, it just felt like a mistake. The scenery change into Wyoming helped a lot, especially with building that excitement of knowing that I was doing more than driving to Kearney or something.
But I’ve been on this big kick lately of getting back in touch with music from the past, and the musical theme today was the late 80s and early 90s UK indie dance stuff. I listened to some of “Screamadelica” by Primal Scream, “Queer” by the Wolfgang Press, “Spartacus” by The Farm, and “This is the Day, This is the Hour, This is This” by Pop Will Eat Itself. I also listened to a Rick Emerson show podcast, which reminds me of another thing I’m looking forward to on this trip: getting to hear the Rick Emerson show live, over a radio, rather than delayed via iTunes, which I have not done since 2003.
I tried to take a lot of photos today, but I was taking them as I drove with the windows up. So I ended up with a lot of photos with blurry scenery and sharply focused bug spots on the front windshield or the reflection of my pants through the side windows. I will try to take better photos as the trip goes on, but today and tomorrow are pretty much hardcore driving, so I don’t want to take too much time out for sightseeing.
That said, Wyoming was really pretty. The last time I drove through was in 2001 when I was moving west. The land’s all mountainous and whatnot, but the way the rocks and brush cover the landscape makes it look like the earth is covered by the crumbs you find on apple crisp.
I also passed a biker that, at first glance, looked like Destro driving a motorcycle. The guy was wearing a black leather jacket and a silver helmet and something I can really only describe as a bright red life jacket. The combination made him look a lot like Destro, especially from the back. At first I thought it was someone in some kind of costume, but then I realized it was just coincidental accessorizing.
I called it a night here in Evanston Wyoming. I was hoping to make it into Utah, but there’s some curvy mountain driving up ahead and a storm was coming. I didn’t want to do the curvy mountain driving in the dark with wet roads. This newfound adherence to safety is a sign that I have perhaps matured since past roadtrips.
In my quest to travel as much distance and spend as much time without shoes, I traveled 813 miles today with my shoes off. Out of the 12 hours and 11 minutes between departure and arrival, I was able to spend all but 51 minutes of that time barefoot. Shoes (in today’s case, flip flops) were only worn when standard “No shoes, no shirt, no service” rules would apply.
I am now going to go to sleep in a non-smoking room that smells like someone honored the policy, at least in terms of smoking tobacco, if you catch my drift.