Lent Day 39: Road Trips

My first plane ride was in 7th grade, I went to Washington DC. I had never ridden in a plane before because my family always went on driving vacations. (Stopping at all interesting signs and roadside attractions along the way. See header photo."

To this day I really enjoy a road trip. Packing up the car, checking the map (because I still prefer to use an actual map), and hitting the road.

Here in Alaska we don't have a lot of roads.  I mean, you can only drive half way across the state, east to west, before you just run out of road. But luckily, half way across the state is still a long way.

I have one more Alaska road trip on my list: driving up the haul road all the way to the top.

Postcards and Fleetwood Mac

It's no secret that I love getting mail. It's also no secret that I love weird stuff. So weird postcards are pretty much the best thing ever in my book. I think weird postcards harken back to the era of roadside attractions and trips along Route 66 - the glory days of American road travel. Which, let's be honest, is probably the era I should have been around in.

Circa 1950

Circa 2011

Regardless of which time period I should have been born in, my friends humor my love of weird postcards and send them to me pretty regularly. Here are some of my favorites (and weirdest):

I got this one today. Perfect timing, Sarah!

This week's hot jam is Go Your Own Way by Fleetwood Mac. Really, what's not to love about Fleetwood Mac? My favorite thing about this song is that Lindsey Buckingham wrote it about his relationship with Stevie Nicks and they still performed it together all the time. That had to be awkward, right? Like when two of your friends break up, but insist on still hanging out like everything's normal. I wonder how he introduced it to the rest of the band. "Hey guys, I wrote this really personal song about Stevie and me. But don't worry, it totally won't make anything weird."

Long Drives and The Format

I love long drives, there's something sort of romantic about them. (Not "romantic comedy" romantic, more like "appreciation of bygone eras" romantic.) Sun shining in the windows, music turned up, scenery speeding by...sigh. It most certainly is one of my favorite things.

That's a temporary tattoo on my arm. Not a weird skin disease

I had never been on a plane until I was in 7th grade. (When our America Sings! show choir went to Washington DC to sing at Washington Monument.)

Side note about that trip: I distinctly remember the teachers having us line up at the gate with who we wanted to sit by and then just handing us any ticket. That certainly can't happen anymore.

My lack of plane travel was not because my family didn't go on vacations. Oh no, it's because we drove everywhere. We spent lots of vacations driving to Minnesota and Michigan, along with various other locations in the upper Midwest (even once all the way to North Carolina), so my sister and I got really good at being in the car. On one trip to MN we saw something like 30+ state license plates and 4 or 5 of the Canadian Provinces. We kept track, of course. Our vacation destinations were almost always a campground somewhere and almost always involved a trip to a roadside attraction. My family loves Americana at its finest, bottle houses (see header photo), world's largest/smallest, large fiberglass statues (e.g. Paul Bunyan, animals, etc), funny signs, actually all signs, etc. and we took at a picture at all of them.

We still take pictures in front of stuff. Mom and me at Exit Glacier

I even do it without prodding from my parents

 We also had a tendency to eat squirt cheese on crackers (or not on crackers...) Say what you will about processing and chemicals and preservatives, but it's a road trip must.

Probably due to all those long drives, I became a sign reader. I read every sign I pass when I'm in the car, and it keeps me occupied for amazing amounts of time. Sometimes they are funny. For example, the "Landfill Campground" sign in Eagle River, AK. Apparently the landfill and campground are actually not related at all, but the sign makes me laugh every time. Most of the time I'm the only sign reader in the car, so when I start laughing and repeat the sign to the other people in the car, they never think it's quite as funny as I do. It's the unexpectedness of the weird and funny signs that makes them weird and funny. So let this be a lesson to you, start reading the signs, you might be amused.

Two years ago my friend Adrien C. Mooney and I made the road trip to end all road trips. We drove from Jackson, WY to Anchorage, AK.  Driving the Alcan (Alaska-Canada Highway) is what I think roadtripping was probably like 60 years ago. The road is bumpy, gas stations are few and far between, there is some of the most amazingly beautiful scenery, and there are no billboards (good work, Canada).

The trip was almost 2800 miles and we did it in 4 1/2 days. We made it to Anchorage with only one tiny crack in the windshield and one near-miss with a caribou. Next time I drive the highway I want to take at least a week and a half. There is so much we didn't get to see because we had to get to Anchorage. But that didn't stop us from stopping at all funny signs and the few roadside attractions on the way.

Hot jam of the week is She Doesn't Get it by The Format. The Format is one of my top 5 favorite bands. They opened for Something Corporate when I was a junior in high school and I've loved them ever since. She Doesn't Get It is a fun, poppy song with fabulous lyrics. I'm tempted to post them all because I love them so much, but if you really care you can go look them up yourself.  But some of my favorites are:

-All the girls pose the same for pictures/all the boys got the same girls' hair
-Four books look across your sofa/I thought your coffee table was more clever than that
-Suddenly between sheets and eyelids I am reminded why I don't do this/I fall in love far to quickly/I never want you to forget me

I've seen them play live a bunch and they are always great, unfortunately The Format has since broken up. (But you can still hear Nate singing in his new band Fun.)

A lot of The Format's songs involve synchronized clapping and this is one of the reasons I think they are producers of hot jams.


Fun fact: In high school my friend Sarita and I did our senior English project on Tie the Rope by The Format. I sent an email to Nate to ask him about some things in the song and he emailed me back right away with an answer and told me he hoped I got an A+.