The news is remarkably grim, even if it’s possible to be mildly amused by some of it: So I’m taking a break from the news today, and trying to share the break. I’ve written a few times about how important it is to me to put the tent in the car and get the hell out, and about
I got utterly disgusted by living in the UK in 2003 so I sold up everything I had, bought a Hi-top Leyland DAF with a Peugeot engine and virtually no electrics. Fitted a bed, a gas cooker, an air-vent and various creative storage spaces. Piled two dogs and a cat into it and took off for Europe. You know what was the very best bit? No plan. None. Just a map at the end of each day and a search for the next wild place, riverbank, lake or mountain waterfall. I did 20,000 miles before I stopped and settled down in an off-grid fruit farm on the foothills of the Sierra de Gredos in central Spain.
I'm THIS damn close to buying a Mustang GT off my neighbor and driving that bastard all the way to Vegas and back! In the meantime, I just stare at it in his driveway and listen to its growl when he fires that thing up! 4.6 Liter V-8 sounds like....freedom!
Aug 16, 2022·edited Aug 16, 2022Liked by Chris Bray
When we left Hell for Florida in January 2021, one of the online mapping sites showed "COVID roadblocks" at various points on I-95--who knows what they were?--so the kid and I stayed off 95 until the very, very end. We drove through Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia before reaching the Promised Land, on roads like 64W, SC-277S, and GA-121. The best part was early in the morning of the third day, when we were looking for a crucial turn from US 301S onto West Hencart Road, and I feared I had missed it. We stopped at Dollar General, and the only employee there was new to the town. I remembered that a place called The Rusty Pig was supposed to be on or near the corner. She brightened up: "Oh, everybody knows Rusty!" she said, assuring us we had not missed it. We drove on, making the turn and vowing to come back for barbecue when Rusty (in Glennville, GA) was open (which we did at Thanksgiving, staying in Statesboro and visiting the arboretum). I love the Mazda MPV that (along with the hand of the Almighty) brought us here. The trip was unforgettable, and would have been, even under easier circumstances. I'll be grateful for the experience forever.
Dear Albert, you are a complete moron. Actually, all the morons that follow your talking points are even bigger morons. Point being, you mass formation, vaccinated fools are .... yep, morons.
Some day I hope to see you ... in front of a tribunal, until then, happy moroning!
Remember the people who tell you "you will own nothing and be happier than you have ever been" are the people who own everything and want to tell you when you can be happy. In the meantime (mean time?) they are buying property all over the country. The Chinese government owns just under 200,000 acres of farmland, some next to our military bases (spy today, control the food supply tomorrow). Bill Gates is now the largest owner of farmland in America with 269,000 acres (it's a toss-up on who you can trust the least, Bill Gates or the CCP!).
Thank you Chris for describing exactly my experience with cars, and why I find it horrifying that the New Normal Schwabians are trying to take fossil fuel powered cars away from us. Even at age 16 in 1982 I understood that cars represent the ultimate liberty and freedom. I think a lot of my generation also understood this.
I took my first road trip, alone, (with my parents' blessing), only a few months after I got my driver's license. Denver to Los Angeles along I-70W and I-15, summer 1982.
Forty years later, I still remember this trip as one the greatest experiences of my life, and likely something no other generation will get to do at the age I got to do it.
Mine isn’t a map, but close. This may seem like an attempt at shameless self promotion, but it’s not-the promotion for this ended in 2007. However, driving is so important to me I pretty much wrote a love song about it. I can also boast having gone to almost every state, alone, being the weird girl on a booking roster that would enthusiastically take the gig that required a drive WAY out of her way, to open for established acts. Just to drive. Driving is EVERYTHING
My daughter and son in law spent 4 1/2 months traveling and camping when they were first married. 12 National Parks, starting here in NC, to Maine, across the north to Seattle, down CA, Yellowstone, then east. They lost steam in New Orleans and came home but it was amazing. Glacier was their favorite. All my adventures would be on a boat, south and east to the islands. And yes, MOVE from CA. I can’t even imagine.
Drove the Alaska Canada highway after college early 1990's to Fairbanks. Worked there a couple of years. Long dark winters not my thing so flew to Phoenix and traveled through Mexico to Oaxaca coast for a month by local buses; almost died there in rift current, saved last minute. Good times!
In 1990, my first husband and I quit our jobs, sold our furniture, bought a Chevy Blazer and took our two kayaks and our old tent and gear on a six-month camping trip across the country.
We left Atlanta in April, returned in October.
We camped in national parks, state parks and a few KOA sites (HATED the RV noise!) and only stayed in a hotel one night in Oregon when it just would not stop raining.
We drove from Georgia to Tennessee, to Arkansas, to Missouri, to Kansas, to Colorado, to Wyoming, to Montana, to Alberta, to British Columbia, to Vancouver Island, to Washington state, to Oregon, to California and took the PCH all the way down to LA, then to Arizona, to New Mexico, to Dallas, Texas where we picked up I-20 and drove through Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama and back to Atlanta.
The things/places I remember fondly and most vividly: Maroon Bells, Colorado, all of Yellowstone, Going To The Sun Road, Glacier National Park, Redwoods National Park (glorious!), the PCH, Lake Tahoe, Petrified Forest National Park, the oil.fields and derricks in West Texas, and returning to the luscious green landscape of the Southeast.
Favorite memory: Waking up at dawn in Yellowstone to the sounds of an entire elk herd quietly munching and grazing all around our tent as I peeked out a small opening in the zipper door.
If you are looking for the ghost of Pa Ingalls in De Smet, then bend your loop a bit to see Mansfield, Missouri and the Rocky Ridge Farm of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Nice place.
I hope to do a loop around New Mexico next spring, we'll see.
It is heartbreaking to think that the current generation of young Americans do not yearn for the open road. I grew up with rock and roll and the promise that the open road, as Bruce Springsteen sang, “these two lanes will take us anywhere.” A clip from “Thunder Road:”
You can hide 'neath your covers and study your pain
Make crosses from your lovers, throw roses in the rain
Waste your summer praying in vain
For a saviour to rise from these streets
Well now, I'm no hero, that's understood
All the redemption I can offer, girl, is beneath this dirty hood
With a chance to make it good somehow
Hey what else can we do now?
Except roll down the window and let the wind blow back your hair
Well the night's busting open
These two lanes will take us anywhere
We got one last chance to make it real
To trade in these wings on some wheels
Climb in back, heaven's waiting down on the tracks
Oh-oh come take my hand
We're riding out tonight to case the promised land
Distributed Mental Health Break
I got utterly disgusted by living in the UK in 2003 so I sold up everything I had, bought a Hi-top Leyland DAF with a Peugeot engine and virtually no electrics. Fitted a bed, a gas cooker, an air-vent and various creative storage spaces. Piled two dogs and a cat into it and took off for Europe. You know what was the very best bit? No plan. None. Just a map at the end of each day and a search for the next wild place, riverbank, lake or mountain waterfall. I did 20,000 miles before I stopped and settled down in an off-grid fruit farm on the foothills of the Sierra de Gredos in central Spain.
It was the best thing I ever did in my life.
Chris, you should move. My family and I left Massachusetts because of the craziness for Florida. I feel so much more at peace.
I'm THIS damn close to buying a Mustang GT off my neighbor and driving that bastard all the way to Vegas and back! In the meantime, I just stare at it in his driveway and listen to its growl when he fires that thing up! 4.6 Liter V-8 sounds like....freedom!
When we left Hell for Florida in January 2021, one of the online mapping sites showed "COVID roadblocks" at various points on I-95--who knows what they were?--so the kid and I stayed off 95 until the very, very end. We drove through Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia before reaching the Promised Land, on roads like 64W, SC-277S, and GA-121. The best part was early in the morning of the third day, when we were looking for a crucial turn from US 301S onto West Hencart Road, and I feared I had missed it. We stopped at Dollar General, and the only employee there was new to the town. I remembered that a place called The Rusty Pig was supposed to be on or near the corner. She brightened up: "Oh, everybody knows Rusty!" she said, assuring us we had not missed it. We drove on, making the turn and vowing to come back for barbecue when Rusty (in Glennville, GA) was open (which we did at Thanksgiving, staying in Statesboro and visiting the arboretum). I love the Mazda MPV that (along with the hand of the Almighty) brought us here. The trip was unforgettable, and would have been, even under easier circumstances. I'll be grateful for the experience forever.
Dear Albert, you are a complete moron. Actually, all the morons that follow your talking points are even bigger morons. Point being, you mass formation, vaccinated fools are .... yep, morons.
Some day I hope to see you ... in front of a tribunal, until then, happy moroning!
Remember the people who tell you "you will own nothing and be happier than you have ever been" are the people who own everything and want to tell you when you can be happy. In the meantime (mean time?) they are buying property all over the country. The Chinese government owns just under 200,000 acres of farmland, some next to our military bases (spy today, control the food supply tomorrow). Bill Gates is now the largest owner of farmland in America with 269,000 acres (it's a toss-up on who you can trust the least, Bill Gates or the CCP!).
Thank you Chris for describing exactly my experience with cars, and why I find it horrifying that the New Normal Schwabians are trying to take fossil fuel powered cars away from us. Even at age 16 in 1982 I understood that cars represent the ultimate liberty and freedom. I think a lot of my generation also understood this.
I took my first road trip, alone, (with my parents' blessing), only a few months after I got my driver's license. Denver to Los Angeles along I-70W and I-15, summer 1982.
Forty years later, I still remember this trip as one the greatest experiences of my life, and likely something no other generation will get to do at the age I got to do it.
Mine isn’t a map, but close. This may seem like an attempt at shameless self promotion, but it’s not-the promotion for this ended in 2007. However, driving is so important to me I pretty much wrote a love song about it. I can also boast having gone to almost every state, alone, being the weird girl on a booking roster that would enthusiastically take the gig that required a drive WAY out of her way, to open for established acts. Just to drive. Driving is EVERYTHING
https://youtu.be/oic3-Y8YS70
My daughter and son in law spent 4 1/2 months traveling and camping when they were first married. 12 National Parks, starting here in NC, to Maine, across the north to Seattle, down CA, Yellowstone, then east. They lost steam in New Orleans and came home but it was amazing. Glacier was their favorite. All my adventures would be on a boat, south and east to the islands. And yes, MOVE from CA. I can’t even imagine.
Oh look that malignorant psychophant Albert Bouria is forced to recite The Covid Prayer.
Drove the Alaska Canada highway after college early 1990's to Fairbanks. Worked there a couple of years. Long dark winters not my thing so flew to Phoenix and traveled through Mexico to Oaxaca coast for a month by local buses; almost died there in rift current, saved last minute. Good times!
Map; I moved back to small town where I grew up , today I finished planting 8 spruce fir 🌲 trees.
Exotic vacation; my house.
Then again my nearest neighbors like 200 yards away, most of my neighbors are 4 legged.
If you don’t insist on status locations you can move cheap, and probably you can work remotely
In 1990, my first husband and I quit our jobs, sold our furniture, bought a Chevy Blazer and took our two kayaks and our old tent and gear on a six-month camping trip across the country.
We left Atlanta in April, returned in October.
We camped in national parks, state parks and a few KOA sites (HATED the RV noise!) and only stayed in a hotel one night in Oregon when it just would not stop raining.
We drove from Georgia to Tennessee, to Arkansas, to Missouri, to Kansas, to Colorado, to Wyoming, to Montana, to Alberta, to British Columbia, to Vancouver Island, to Washington state, to Oregon, to California and took the PCH all the way down to LA, then to Arizona, to New Mexico, to Dallas, Texas where we picked up I-20 and drove through Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama and back to Atlanta.
The things/places I remember fondly and most vividly: Maroon Bells, Colorado, all of Yellowstone, Going To The Sun Road, Glacier National Park, Redwoods National Park (glorious!), the PCH, Lake Tahoe, Petrified Forest National Park, the oil.fields and derricks in West Texas, and returning to the luscious green landscape of the Southeast.
Favorite memory: Waking up at dawn in Yellowstone to the sounds of an entire elk herd quietly munching and grazing all around our tent as I peeked out a small opening in the zipper door.
Camping is the BEST!
Do we really think ol Albert actually took all the shite wares he claims he did , made by his evil corp?
Color me skeptical.....
BTW, I love driving long distances. Every
chance I get.
If you are looking for the ghost of Pa Ingalls in De Smet, then bend your loop a bit to see Mansfield, Missouri and the Rocky Ridge Farm of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Nice place.
I hope to do a loop around New Mexico next spring, we'll see.
It is heartbreaking to think that the current generation of young Americans do not yearn for the open road. I grew up with rock and roll and the promise that the open road, as Bruce Springsteen sang, “these two lanes will take us anywhere.” A clip from “Thunder Road:”
You can hide 'neath your covers and study your pain
Make crosses from your lovers, throw roses in the rain
Waste your summer praying in vain
For a saviour to rise from these streets
Well now, I'm no hero, that's understood
All the redemption I can offer, girl, is beneath this dirty hood
With a chance to make it good somehow
Hey what else can we do now?
Except roll down the window and let the wind blow back your hair
Well the night's busting open
These two lanes will take us anywhere
We got one last chance to make it real
To trade in these wings on some wheels
Climb in back, heaven's waiting down on the tracks
Oh-oh come take my hand
We're riding out tonight to case the promised land
Oh-oh Thunder Road oh Thunder Road oh Thunder Road
Lying out there like a killer in the sun
Hey, I know it's late, we can make it if we run
Oh, Thunder Road, sit tight, take hold
Thunder Road