The Furious Spinner

Mario and I drove over 7,000 miles during our recent five week trip. Most people we met thought we were crazy, crazy people, except for an occasional young person who thought what we were doing was "cool." But really, the trip was great, and Mario and I are convinced it was because we used The System. Now since we were on a long car trip, we had lots of time to figure out how what we did could fit into the letters of "system" so that we could have an acronym. Aren't we clever? We tried to make this trip as sustainable to the environment and ourselves as possible on a road trip where we're using exploding dinosaurs as fuel. We have a good car which gets decent gas mileage (although still obscenely low, about 35 mph). We took it to the dealer before we left to get it all tuned up and checked over. Okay, with that, I give you our system. Drum roll please.

S: Sustenance. Make sure you've got good healthy food with you. Eating junk along the road might initially be fun, but you'll feel like hell before long, or at the very least your energy level will be all screwy. For about a week before we left, I cooked various dishes, mostly bean dishes, and then I froze them. Just before we left, we made steamed veggies and quinoa to take along. We put all these into the cooler just before we left. (We used gel packs, by the way, not ice. Ice makes too much of a mess.) We also brought some raw veggies, sandwich fixings, and a few healthy canned soups. I had planned and brought food for fifteen meals which was how many meals we'd need on the trip to D.C. We also googlemapped all the food coops along our route (and Whole Foods when we couldn't find coops). That way we could stop and get lunch or freshen up our stash of food along the way. And except for the last day of our trip, Mario and I did not snack or graze constantly on junk or anything. We ate regularly: breakfast, lunch, dinner. We put together a little kitchen for the trip, too. In a small suitcase, we put a pan and a pot, flatware, a turner, can opener, garlic press (yes, that's right), bamboo cutting board, strainer, steamer, bowls, dish soap, and a burner. We set this up to make our breakfasts and dinners. Part of sustenance, too, is water. We had a pitcher filter to clean the water from the hotels. We put the filtered water in two big non-leeching recyclable plastic bottles. You gotta stay hydrated. Keeps you sharp and keeps away headaches from dehydration.

Y: Yakking. Okay, that's all we could think of for Y. The yakking did not involve Mario and me. Mario and I have lots of great conversations, but we were driving for days. Neither one of us expected the other to entertain or be intellectually scintillating over the course of 7,000 miles. When Mario drives, he doesn't talk much. When he's the passenger, he falls right to sleep. I don't sleep when I'm a passenger (or when I'm driving, knock wood), so I wanted some entertainment besides my own crazy thoughts. In the past we've taken books on tape, but that usually only lasts for one book. We never count on the radio because if you've travelled by car for any distance you know that there are three things you can always count on hearing: Rush, Christian shows, and country music. I don't like any of those things. So this time we decided to get satellite radio. As I told you before, we looked at XM Radio and Sirius radio. We decided to go with XM Radio because Sirius radio calls its conservative wingnut station "patriot talk," implying that Progressive radio was not patriotic. And we went with XM Radio because it carries Air America. Buying XM Radio is one of the best purchases we've ever made. It was great. We listened to Air America all across the country. We also listened to Public Radio, although their public radio station has got to do something about their sound engineering. It really sucks. Half the time we couldn't hear the person speaking. We were shouting, "Talk into your mic, buddy!" We also listened to C-Span and every once in a while, we listened to one of their many, many music stations. It was great. And right now I've got it in the house and I'm listening to Ed Schultz while writing this.

S: Sustainable lodging and sustainable sleep. Before we left, we searched for "green" lodging along the way. For us, green meant that they couldn't use pesticides in their hotel. If it did other green things (recycle, reuse, reduce, etc.) then that was a bonus. This really made our trip more memorable as well as safer for us than it would have been if we just stayed in chain hotels. For instance, we would never have gone to Boonville, Missouri if it hadn't been for Hotel Frederick, which we loved. If I could find hotels like this all over the country, that is where I would stay. (Mario says I have a crush on Hotel Frederick, and I think he's right.) We also worked to get enough sleep, which was very important. We started our drive very early every morning because then by noon we were halfway through our driving day which felt great. We tried to stop every night by 7:00 p.m. at the latest, although that didn't always work. And we went to bed early.


T: Teamwork in driving. We each only drove for an hour at a time. When the hour was over, we pulled over and switched drivers. This was absolutely essential for this trip. We couldn't have done it otherwise. My friend Barbara and I figured this out when we were driving back from Santa Fe last year. We switched at every rest area, which was about every 45 minutes. We drove from Ogden to our town that way which was a 10 hour drive (if you drove nonstop). We did that drive easily and weren't exhausted. So Mario and I decided to try it, and it was great. Thinking about driving for 10 hours sounds exhausting, but then we'd think, "Oh wait. I've only got to drive five hours," and that sounded possible. Even if we were a bit tired, we knew we could drive for an hour at a time. We'd never do it any other way now. We also worked as a team in everything else we did. Since Mario carried more stuff than I did (in and out of the places we stayed overnight), I often did more of the cooking.

E: Exercise and elimination. When we switched drivers, we usually stopped to pee and to take a quick walk around the rest area. Hey, you don't want to talk about it but it happens to almost everyone who travels: They become a bit irregular. If you eat right (good fiber, avoid junk and boiled eggs), drink plenty of water, and get some exercise, you'll avoid that problem and you'll feel great. So exercise and you will eliminate!

M: Maps. We had lots of maps. We googlemapped almost every possibility. We googlemapped to each night's lodging. We googlemapped to the food coops or to Whole Foods. We also had a good road atlas. Maps are essential.

Okay. That's our system. Hope you find it useful!

I'm leaving on another short trip tomorrow, so I've got to start cookin'! See ya later, gators.

Labels: travel

2 comments

2 Comments:

A brilliant system indeed. I like the idea of switching drivers every hour. Welcome home! and thanks for the travelogue - loved following along with you.

By  joanna, at 9:43 PM  

I'll remember elements of this should I be able to take my trip to Virginia this coming May.

PS. I enjoyed your "dispatches".

By  James, at 5:50 PM  

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