Road Trippin' Eastward
Peaks and Valleys; Ups and Downs
And we back! Sorry for the hiatus guys and gals. I’ve been traveling and going through a lot of craziness, so it’s not always easy to write. To answer the question of “Where in the world is Jake Lynch?”: currently at home in New Rochelle. As some of you know, I recently drove across country from Seattle to New York, with the help of two buddies. Time for some reflection.
I was excited to get on the road as I was feeling stagnant in Seattle while on break from work. Going through Oregon in the fall has been on my bucket list for a while so I’m glad that I finally got to do it. I had done a road trip out to Seattle as an intern at Microsoft with my dad and it was a great time.
We listened to “On the Road”, by Jack Kerouac. In many ways, going West, in a car (or a wagon), has always been the fulfillment of “manifest destiny” for Americans. It certainly was for me. After 21 years on the East Coast, through high school and college it was time to get a new experience.
This trip, however, it was time to come home. As in “On the Road”, the journey East is never filled with as much energy as the journey West. As my old colleague at work put it, you go through all the cool stuff - mountains, national parks, forest - early in the trip and then you slog through the farm lands of Indiana and Illinois with nothing to look forward to until you get home. Would I do it again? I’m not sure. Was I glad, I did it? You decide. Here were my highs and lows from the trip.
Highs:
Spending time with friends and family along the way - As I’ve mentioned previously in this blog, I’ve become more focused in the past year on spending time with the set of people who already mean the most to me. A road trip is a great excuse to see places and people you’ve been wanting to see for some time. From each state I went to:
Oregon - Bend and Crater Lake national park (Bobby below).
Idaho - Boises downtown (more Bobby’s thing)
Utah - Arches (below) and Canyonland National Park
Colorado - Boulder (as always) (See below for pic)
Nebraska - Ogalala and Ale’s big game steak house, which my friend Slippery John recommended from college. It has the largest private taxedermy collection in the country including this polar bear. Needless to say, Shiney was shook.
Missouri/Kansas - Kansas City (which is apparently in both states). More on this later.
Iowa - Getting to Wisconsin (There is not much there).
Wisconsin - my sister Lauren, who drew this lovely photo of me:
Illinois - Joe L, Aaron and Tony taking me out for some tacos
As an aside, Illinois has a terrible tolling system. Very confusing.
Ohio - Kellen Dugan, the prince of Cleveland and an old fraternity buddy who is now out on his own.
Pennsylvania -
Chareeni, an old friend from Seattle, who graciously let me stay at her beautiful house in Pittsburgh. She also took me to Pamela’s which is hot right now because Obama stopped there on a campaign visit.
Family from Kutztown - walking around the beautiful Kutztown University campus, pontificating on life. I’ve been coming to Kutztown for Christmas for a decade and never walked around campus, since I could remember. The town, which is a small Pennsylvania farm town flows into this beautiful rural college campus. I was floored and it totally changed my perspective.
New York - The indescribable joy of a pug who hasn’t seen you in a few months.
Exploring all sorts of lighting across the country - shoutout @Shapesbyshiney for these gems:
Somewhere between Colorado and Nebraska - PC @shapesbyshiney
Chatauqua Park - Boulder, Co. - PC @shapesbyshiney
The pleasant surprise of Kansas City and other middle American gems - One goes to cities such as Kansas City with minimal expectations. There can’t possibly be much to do there; there shouldn’t be any art, culture or food. It turns out there is, however. Not only did we get some great BBQ, we stayed at an incredibly tasteful AirBNB (the hosts, Chelsea and DuRon (sic) really belonged on the West Coast)
It was also an excuse to DM *Jordan Lucas* the pride of New Rochelle (in the post-Ray Rice era) and get a response from Dropp himself (“What’s good my boy”).
Cons:
Any road trip can also go horribly wrong. Even thought I tottered on that line the whole way home, luckily my car and body were able to limp home safely.
The wear on the body - Eventually the human body fails without movement and proper nourishment. After ten days of free motel brunches and coffee and six to eight hours driving or sitting, the nervous system gets thrown off. There is a need to walk around and move. Unfortunately, I had to be home to meet up with my parents on their return from Paris, and had scheduled plans in the city for a given day so I had to push through. When I got back to New York, the fatigue set in - long road trips are a great way to induce sleep in an insomniac. I’ve been sleeping solid nine hours per night since.
Your car inevitably breaks down - I have had the same Honda Civic since high school. An ‘09 silver beauty, the car has gotten me from New York to Texas to Seattle and all matter of places in between. However, it’s getting older and the wear and tear started to catch up to it functionally, not just aesthetically, this trip. Apparently, the catalytic converter allows a car more efficiently get rid of toxic byproducts into the atmosphere. It also can get plugged and cause the car to stall as I learned in Idaho, Nebraska and Wisconsin. Fortunately, unless it starts an engine fire, your car is safe to drive once the part cools down. I think the Civic’s glory days are behind her - or as my buddy tells me - “You need to burn that car.”
Wisconsin to New York - The fly over states are named that for two reasons - First, there is not much there to see so you should probably fly over them. Second, there are so many damn tolls it’s probably cheaper just to fly. By this point of the trip, my body and car had worn down and it was only the aforementioned hops with friends getting me through.
So that’s that, the highs and lows from a ten day trip across country. It was the best of times; it was the worst of times, but all and all I’m glad I did it. Thanks to all the people who took time out of their weeks and weekends to hang out with me and host me and especially to Zach and Bobby for accompanying me on my journey.