a windblown left side

My mind is going 85mph, so is my brain

NOTE: The reason this post is kinda random is because its just a collection of my thoughts and adventures from the past two days of driving.

So I've been driving for about 20+ hours in the past two days. In these 20+ hours, I've been thinking a lot, although not as much as you might expect. You'd think that with all that time, I'd solve many of the major issues in my life, or philosophize deeply, or come to great conclusions concerning my life or school or even my computer science research. This is not really the case. Some thoughts, especially computer science/research type thoughts, tend to require some physical medium to temporarily store my thoughts, such as a computer or at least a notebook. Big philosophical questions tend to be difficult to work out alone - it helps to have someone else to bounce ideas off or to input new ideas.

So a lot of the time I end up listening to music, which just lets my mind drift from the lyrics to things that the lyrics remind me of, such as memories or movies or other pop culture references. Have you ever just let your mind wander and then suddenly realize that you have been thinking about some odd topic for 10 min and you have no idea how you got on that topic? And you have to try to trace your thoughts back? Well, I have.

Speaking of music, does anyone know any good road trip songs? They don't really need to refer to anything about road trips, but maybe they make you think of road trips or otherwise capture the spirit of the road, whatever that means. Here's some I kinda like to listen to on the road, in no particular order. Not all of them even really make sense in reference to road trips.

Jimmy Eat World - Blister
Stone Temple Pilots - Interstate Love Song
Tom Petty - Last Dance with Mary Jane
Smashing Pumpkins - 1979
Counting Crows - A Long December

So camping alone is quite an adventure. I stayed in a campground area with quite a few memorable characters. There was the couple in the tent next to me, who didn't speak much English, but were very friendly and even took a picture of me and my tent. There was the touring ska band with their skateboards and crazy hairstyles. I got in to the campground at around 8, and set up my tent, which I think was last used in the 80s and still has the musty smell, even though I frebreezed the hell out of it before I left. I also went swimming in the camp pool around 9, which was kinda a mistake, because there was not enough clorine in that pool to meet sanitary state standards. I swam the whole time with my head outta the water because the water scared me. Then I went and showered at like 10. The bathrooms were big and scary and I am paranoid so I imagined all kinds of scenarios that usually take place in prison, so I kept my pocketknife near me. Luckily, nothing happened.

Blogging is a weird thing - I really have no idea who is reading this. It's not really like writing in a journal, where I know what I write will most likely not be read by anyone, or at least only those I give it to. But now I'm writing my thoughts with no idea of who is reading . . . which is especially weird when I write things that are inside jokes for certain friends, who may or may not be reading. If you feel like it, you can comment to this post and say something so I know who is reading. Or if you prefer to remain anonymous, fine. I know some of you are reading, because I've seen your comments, and they have made my proverbial day.

Isn't it weird how pictures really can't capture a lot of things? I've seen some amazing things on this trip and I've taken a lot of pictures, but most of those pictures are about 1/100 as cool as what I see. The camera can't really capture the immensity of mountains or valleys, the heat shimmering off the road, or the richness of the colors of the clouds. Plus, it can be hard to get good pictures while you are driving next to a semi at 80+ mph. You can't really compose like you would like to. Tragic.

I bought a bottle of caffeinated water today. It said on the side that it was just water with tasteless caffeine. Uhhh, no. Caffeine definitely has a taste, and lemme tell you, it's not good. I can see why caffeinated water never really caught on too much. As a side note, caffeinated gum is pretty gross too. Go all out and get caffeinated soap (soaks in through your skin) because you would never put that in your mouth. Then again, if a mother makes her kid wash his mouth out with that soap, she is probably in for more bad behavior in the near future, and that kid is destined for ridalin.

Rest areas in Nevada are quite a bit different than in the midwest. I'm basing this observation off the one Nevada restop I visited. In the midwest, a rest stop may have, but are not limited having
1) Bathrooms
2) Vending machines
3) And enclosed air-conditioned building, usually containing said bathrooms.
4) Maps and brochures of local attractions
5) Benches and eating areas

In the Nevada rest stop I stopped at, there was only
1) Two bathrooms, which were only big enough for one person apiece, and were really not bathrooms in the sense you might be thinking, unless you are thinking a hole in the ground with toilets built on top of the hole, contained in a shed made of thick plywood.
2) A small table outside. The table is downwind of the bathrooms, by the way. Ugh.

Also in Nevada, I met a very nice lady at a gas station. She seemed to be a grandmother, and did not let the fact that I was a complete stranger stop her from talking to me for almost 10 min about life in general. She wanted to know if I was really from Illinois (she saw my license plate) and then went on and on about how great California is. Then she decided to give me a big hug. She was nice, so I gave her a hug, but I'm also paranoid, so I checked for my wallet and other items right afterward. They were still in my pocket.

California is awesome.

Posted by Ben at June 13, 2003 04:55 PM