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Surrealism and liminality
Jul. 7th, 2019 01:01 amThis week I took my road trip, only 6 days long, 2700 miles, 42 hours of driving time. I took Nozomi because driving through the Midwest in the summer is slightly crazy; driving through there in a car without working air conditioning is very crazy. This happened because I had the week off, and I thought "I'd like to see this place, and then this other place" and that turned into a string of places. Then, while in the Chicago area, I opted to visit a long-time friend of mine who I hadn't seen in years after he moved to Wisconsin. It was good to see him, good to see he's got a family going, and he likes where he is. He pointed out the biggest difference between PA and WI is the people; they're a lot nicer there.
The rest of the trip was a long sequence of oddities, anomalies, modern anachronisms, and liminal spaces.
Summit Racing in Ohio. While the store is big, there's not much there for imports. Most of that is online. It caters mostly to old guys with old muscle cars. I do not judge, for that will be me someday for Hondas. I accept and embrace that future.
In the York area, there used to be a restaurant chain called "Hot n' Now". Their claim to fame was being fast and unapologetically cheap. They were everywhere but then vaporized seemingly overnight. As it turns out, there is one left in Michigan, only a couple miles away from the Indiana Turnpike. This last location is aware of its rarity, as they also sold t-shirts and bumper stickers.
There are still Rax restaurants in existence. For an idea of the food, they're similar to Arby's. I bring this up because when I was growing up, there was a Rax nearby, and I looked forward to eating from there.
Fry's Electronics was enroute. While I did find something I was looking for (1TB mSATA hard drive for an experiment), the store wasn't as good as it could have been. There were lots of empty shelves, which were only chest-high. So the store itself was huge but not implemented efficiently. After not counting large appliances, it could have been condensed to the size of a MicroCenter.
Mitsuwa Marketplace. This reminded me very much of when I was in Tokyo. Any more authentic and I would have needed to pay in yen. Oh hey there's one in New Jersey. They need to put one in the DC area.
From there, I went up to Wisconsin to visit my friend and his family. I stayed overnight at his place, then he had to leave for work at 5AM, so I opted to hit the road then as well. Driving across Wisconsin at the crack of dawn was surreal. Then again this is normally a time when I'm still up from the night before.
Mall of America. This mall and King of Prussia are constantly in some kind of battle to boast which is the biggest mall in the USA. Ultimately, it doesn't matter because the stores are 99% the same. But MoA does have an indoor amusement park, I'll give it that. I went, I saw, I got a fridge magnet.
I droned south on I-35 until I got to a welcome center in Iowa. A man working there gave me a paper map and booklet, and circled in highlighter the various places and points of interest. While most of the suggestions didn't pique my interest, I did find them useful for future reference. It's also reassuring to know that a place like Iowa does have tourist attractions, they're just very hidden. I wouldn't move there though.
Iowa80, the world's largest truck stop. Truck stops are inherently liminal spaces. Iowa80 is a liminal space, if only on the technicality that it still caters primarily to truck drivers, and that it's large enough that a driver will find a place to park a truck. Otherwise it's too flashy and touristy, almost like an airport terminal. They did have a truck museum next door; that's definitely worth stopping for.
From there, I started to navigate towards the east to go home. I made one stop at a convenience store in Illinois to use the toilet. There was a new place being built next door, likely to replace the one I stopped at. I picked up the vibe that the change was coming soon, because everything in it was broken, run-down, and dusty.
After one final overnight stay in Ohio, I started to make a push home. I considered traipsing about in the area I grew up in, then decided against it. I felt it would be better if I went there on a dedicated weekend. Though I did stop in Greensburg for Joy's Japanimation. It's a veritable time capsule of an anime store, where locals can still rent anime on VHS and buy bootleg SonMay anime CDs. I did notice a few recent titles on the manga shelf, so it's not entirely locked to the late 90s. I also noticed the uneven floors and what smelled like wet ceiling tile.
At some point I left the PA turnpike to take a more scenic route and stopped at a consignment store called Hoke-e-Geez. Basically, an ongoing indoor yard sale. See, I'm weak against that sort of thing. When I see a yard sale, I just about have to beat myself with a stick to keep moving, and that doesn't always work. I got there about 30 minutes before closing so I didn't see much.
Breezewood, PA. The thing about Breezewood is the whole town exists as both a liminal space and a nexus, with several major roads going out in different directions. For where it is, it should be thriving better than it is. I saw a lot of abandoned structures, and empty overgrown parking lots of what used to be diners/gas stations/motels. It's not the location's fault but the lowered necessity of a place like Breezewood.
Back in the 60s/70s (and maybe early 80s), places like Breezewood made sense because we did more long-distance driving. Airfare was out of reach of most. It took longer to cover the same distance, and travelers had to make more stops. Now the roads are better designed, and the vehicles can handle high speed driving for sustained periods of time. It's easier to cover 600 miles or more in one day now than to cover 300 miles 40-50 years ago. (If I cover only 300 miles in one day in one of my trips, it's because I'm goofing off.)
When the roads used to be mostly 2-lanes with steep hills and sharp turns, that really slowed things down. Those were remade or bypassed by highways that are 4 and 6 lanes wide, hills smoothed out, and the sharp turns softened into gentle curves. There was also that silliness with the national speed limit of 55MPH. Now it's possible to set the cruise control to about 80 and take turns with a nudge on the steering wheel from one gas stop to the next.
It's not necessary to go into detail about how much better the cars are. Collectors may covet old cars, but would they dare drive more than 200 miles in them in one sitting? Nope. The same 200 miles in a modern car is going to be far more comfortable and more reliable by orders of magnitude. In terms of fuel efficiency, there's no contest.
Cheap airfare put its own hurting on Breezewood. If it looks like it'll take more than a day of driving, most people will just opt to get a cheap flight instead. Maybe they'll see Breezewood if they get a window seat and the flight path goes close enough to it.
So, every time I go through Breezewood, I tend to see another place closed and gone. The Sheetz and the Gateway are still going strong, but they're the exceptions rather than the rule. Even the Flying J is obviously struggling and is in the early stages of Giving Up. Their restaurant was closed for who knows how long, the convenience store has lots of empty floor space, the gas pumps were shut off, and the parking lot looked like the surface of the moon.
I reached home in the early evening, with the sun still out. Maybe I could have spent more time on this trip, but I think 6 days was good enough. Any further expansions would have required more time and preparation than what I did. Plus I had things to do, such as getting Ai's inspection done (spoiler alert: passed as-is with no issues).
The thing to remember here is, one should not stay in a liminal space for any longer than necessary, lest one becomes part of it.
The rest of the trip was a long sequence of oddities, anomalies, modern anachronisms, and liminal spaces.
Summit Racing in Ohio. While the store is big, there's not much there for imports. Most of that is online. It caters mostly to old guys with old muscle cars. I do not judge, for that will be me someday for Hondas. I accept and embrace that future.
In the York area, there used to be a restaurant chain called "Hot n' Now". Their claim to fame was being fast and unapologetically cheap. They were everywhere but then vaporized seemingly overnight. As it turns out, there is one left in Michigan, only a couple miles away from the Indiana Turnpike. This last location is aware of its rarity, as they also sold t-shirts and bumper stickers.
There are still Rax restaurants in existence. For an idea of the food, they're similar to Arby's. I bring this up because when I was growing up, there was a Rax nearby, and I looked forward to eating from there.
Fry's Electronics was enroute. While I did find something I was looking for (1TB mSATA hard drive for an experiment), the store wasn't as good as it could have been. There were lots of empty shelves, which were only chest-high. So the store itself was huge but not implemented efficiently. After not counting large appliances, it could have been condensed to the size of a MicroCenter.
Mitsuwa Marketplace. This reminded me very much of when I was in Tokyo. Any more authentic and I would have needed to pay in yen. Oh hey there's one in New Jersey. They need to put one in the DC area.
From there, I went up to Wisconsin to visit my friend and his family. I stayed overnight at his place, then he had to leave for work at 5AM, so I opted to hit the road then as well. Driving across Wisconsin at the crack of dawn was surreal. Then again this is normally a time when I'm still up from the night before.
Mall of America. This mall and King of Prussia are constantly in some kind of battle to boast which is the biggest mall in the USA. Ultimately, it doesn't matter because the stores are 99% the same. But MoA does have an indoor amusement park, I'll give it that. I went, I saw, I got a fridge magnet.
I droned south on I-35 until I got to a welcome center in Iowa. A man working there gave me a paper map and booklet, and circled in highlighter the various places and points of interest. While most of the suggestions didn't pique my interest, I did find them useful for future reference. It's also reassuring to know that a place like Iowa does have tourist attractions, they're just very hidden. I wouldn't move there though.
Iowa80, the world's largest truck stop. Truck stops are inherently liminal spaces. Iowa80 is a liminal space, if only on the technicality that it still caters primarily to truck drivers, and that it's large enough that a driver will find a place to park a truck. Otherwise it's too flashy and touristy, almost like an airport terminal. They did have a truck museum next door; that's definitely worth stopping for.
From there, I started to navigate towards the east to go home. I made one stop at a convenience store in Illinois to use the toilet. There was a new place being built next door, likely to replace the one I stopped at. I picked up the vibe that the change was coming soon, because everything in it was broken, run-down, and dusty.
After one final overnight stay in Ohio, I started to make a push home. I considered traipsing about in the area I grew up in, then decided against it. I felt it would be better if I went there on a dedicated weekend. Though I did stop in Greensburg for Joy's Japanimation. It's a veritable time capsule of an anime store, where locals can still rent anime on VHS and buy bootleg SonMay anime CDs. I did notice a few recent titles on the manga shelf, so it's not entirely locked to the late 90s. I also noticed the uneven floors and what smelled like wet ceiling tile.
At some point I left the PA turnpike to take a more scenic route and stopped at a consignment store called Hoke-e-Geez. Basically, an ongoing indoor yard sale. See, I'm weak against that sort of thing. When I see a yard sale, I just about have to beat myself with a stick to keep moving, and that doesn't always work. I got there about 30 minutes before closing so I didn't see much.
Breezewood, PA. The thing about Breezewood is the whole town exists as both a liminal space and a nexus, with several major roads going out in different directions. For where it is, it should be thriving better than it is. I saw a lot of abandoned structures, and empty overgrown parking lots of what used to be diners/gas stations/motels. It's not the location's fault but the lowered necessity of a place like Breezewood.
Back in the 60s/70s (and maybe early 80s), places like Breezewood made sense because we did more long-distance driving. Airfare was out of reach of most. It took longer to cover the same distance, and travelers had to make more stops. Now the roads are better designed, and the vehicles can handle high speed driving for sustained periods of time. It's easier to cover 600 miles or more in one day now than to cover 300 miles 40-50 years ago. (If I cover only 300 miles in one day in one of my trips, it's because I'm goofing off.)
When the roads used to be mostly 2-lanes with steep hills and sharp turns, that really slowed things down. Those were remade or bypassed by highways that are 4 and 6 lanes wide, hills smoothed out, and the sharp turns softened into gentle curves. There was also that silliness with the national speed limit of 55MPH. Now it's possible to set the cruise control to about 80 and take turns with a nudge on the steering wheel from one gas stop to the next.
It's not necessary to go into detail about how much better the cars are. Collectors may covet old cars, but would they dare drive more than 200 miles in them in one sitting? Nope. The same 200 miles in a modern car is going to be far more comfortable and more reliable by orders of magnitude. In terms of fuel efficiency, there's no contest.
Cheap airfare put its own hurting on Breezewood. If it looks like it'll take more than a day of driving, most people will just opt to get a cheap flight instead. Maybe they'll see Breezewood if they get a window seat and the flight path goes close enough to it.
So, every time I go through Breezewood, I tend to see another place closed and gone. The Sheetz and the Gateway are still going strong, but they're the exceptions rather than the rule. Even the Flying J is obviously struggling and is in the early stages of Giving Up. Their restaurant was closed for who knows how long, the convenience store has lots of empty floor space, the gas pumps were shut off, and the parking lot looked like the surface of the moon.
I reached home in the early evening, with the sun still out. Maybe I could have spent more time on this trip, but I think 6 days was good enough. Any further expansions would have required more time and preparation than what I did. Plus I had things to do, such as getting Ai's inspection done (spoiler alert: passed as-is with no issues).
The thing to remember here is, one should not stay in a liminal space for any longer than necessary, lest one becomes part of it.
