psipsy | Entries tagged with wanderlust

Japan is technically open to tourism again but they're requiring them to go with tour groups. No thanks. I'll wait for them to open up to individual tourists like before. Some progress is better than none. Looks like I'm sticking to road trips this year (and maybe next).

On my ipod, I have a curated playlist of music for road trips. The running time is about 15 hours, and I'm often adding music to it on a regular basis. Some are recent inspirations, others are songs I've associated with road trips for as long as I can remember, and some songs just ask to be on a road trip playlist. Some songs are better suited for night driving, some for the day, and some songs are best for the actual beginning. I'm not going to post all of them, just some of the juicy bits.
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I'm starting to get jazzed about the upcoming road trip. I'll probably get even more amped about it in about a month. Warmer weather has that effect. When it's freezing snowy rainy yucky and the sun sets early, I don't really want to go anywhere if I don't have to. I'd rather just stay at home and watch anime. When it's warm and sunny, I start to get that itch to go places. I've set aside 2 full weeks, but I'm probably not going to use all of it for the road trip. I've learned it's good to have a couple days for wind-up and cool-down. A day or two before to make sure everything is all set, and a day or two after to decompress and unpack (or if needed, a spare travel day).

Lemme tell you about the first-night anxiety that tries to sneak in. That's a thing I've noticed about myself. It's nothing serious, a slight crackle of static that's just loud enough to notice, but that's it. In fact I don't know if it's strong enough to qualify as an anxiety. What happens is, I'll set off on my trip, and drive however far I can the first day. Then in the evening, there's that low-level urge to go back home, with the logic of "if I turn around now I can get back home in only a few hours". I have to fight that urge. It's not much of a fight, and it ends when I reserve a room for the night. "Well, I just paid for a room, so I guess there's no turning back now." When I wake up the next day, that static is gone. I'm off and running, and ready to keep going. After that, the only time the return-urge comes back is when I'm starting to run out of days. Then I'm like, okay, you have a point there, it's time to start heading home.

The origins of that are somewhat logical. Usually, when it's time to stop for the night, I'm still relatively close enough to home that I could get back in several hours, and my night-owl tendencies allow for this easily. This happens frequently when I go places like Ocean City or Skyline Drive. It's less about "what if this or that happens" and more about "let's just save a few bucks on a hotel and go back home". But it doesn't account for the time used. Which is why that urge disappears after that first night, because when I wake up I'm in a whole different area, (mostly) new and (mostly) unexplored territory that's right there, strange new places ripe for immediate exploration, no 4-5 hour lead time required. And then I'm that much closer to where I want to go next.

Sometimes that static wins out, such as when I'm down in the Ocean City area during the summer, and my choices are to either pay $250 for a night at a rundown motel ($300 if I want to keep both kidneys) or make the 3-hour drive home. And as it usually happens, at the times I'm heading back home, I skip the worst of the traffic. Light traffic on 4-lane roads in good weather makes for quality night-driving.

If all goes well, I'll start looking at doing something even bigger next year. Something historically significant that I've been wanting to do in some capacity for the longest time: Route 66. Of course, if Japan fully re-opens to tourists by then, that'll add a wrinkle.

According to research based on internet sources that may not be accurate but I don't have anything else to go by, the average American has only been to 12 states, and 10% of Americans have never been outside of their home state. Having seen what other Pennsylvanians are like, I can believe it. Some people around here have a housecat mentality, never going far from home, afraid they'll get eaten by a manticore or something.

But not me! Currently, I've been to 37 out of 50 states in the US. Of those that remain, Alaska and Hawaii are probably going to be the most difficult on account of sheer distance. I could drive to Alaska, if I'm willing to set aside three whole weeks and drive for 8500 miles round-trip. Hawaii? I have to fly to that. I'll say that one's the Final Boss. The other 11 states are in a pair of clusters that are still a good distance away.

The Northeast of the US has a lot of small states, and they're easy to get to. There are at least 5 other states within 3 hours of driving, and if I'm willing to drive for a whole day, about 20 states. But all of that low-hanging fruit has been picked. For the Western states, it'll take a couple days of driving before I get to any I haven't been to yet.

Having been to all 50 isn't going to get me anything more than bragging rights. Some would say that having been to Japan is more impressive than somewhere like say, Nebraska. (I have not yet been to Nebraska.) It's one of those things where the experience is more valuable than the achievement itself.

What counts as having been to a state? That depends on each person. I have three different levels: Absolute, Meaningful, and Overnight. Absolute is just that, it means I've been within that state's borders for any amount of time, for any reason, or lack of. Meaningful means I stopped and did something particular to that state. Much like when I went through Vermont and stopped at Ben & Jerry's. Overnight means I was in that state for at least the better part of a day. More than enough to really pick up a state's vibe.

Maybe it feels like cheating to include the Absolutes. I'd actually like to go back to some of the states I zipped through before and take a closer look at them. I stopped for gas in Rhode Island, and even though there was nothing out of the ordinary about it, doing so almost doubled the amount of time I spent in that state. I think what I'll do going forward is, when I get to a new state, I'll obtain and mail back a postcard to myself. Or something similar. In addition to getting a fridge magnet. That way, even if that's the only thing I do, it's still something. I'll probably also do postcards with some of the others I've already been to.

A postcard to myself? What would I say to myself though?

As much as I'd like to do another trip to Japan, I'm aware it's just not happening this year. It just isn't. Supposedly they're opening back up to business travelers and students, which means my only chance of going in the near future is if my company wants to send me there for any kind of training on new equipment. You know what? I'll just wait until they open up normally, and use my vacation time for other things this year.

Things like a 2-week road trip this summer. I have some ideas on where to go and what to see. It's difficult to get the ol' Wanderbeast roused up when it's still winter, and I don't really try to. But when it gets to be around April or May, that's when it perks its ears up, stretches its legs, and starts scratching at the door, itching to take on the road. A few daytrips here and there help to take the edge off. Then summer officially takes hold, and that's when it really wants to run.

Back in early 1998, I wanted to go on a road trip but my cars at the time were a non-running Subaru and a Nissan that wanted to be non-running too. Then at the end of May that year, I got Ai, and suddenly a road trip was very much an option, almost obligatory. I'm kinda like that with Miharu now. Ai and Nozomi are still running, and can go a few thousand miles without all hell breaking loose, but they'll be needing big things in the near future. At least they have valid inspection stickers now.

Just watch: Japan will reopen to tourists right after I use up all of my vacation time on road trips.

Last weekend:

Exit 298: I drove Ai on the entire length of the Skyline Drive, and part of the Blue Ridge Parkway, in the daylight, due to getting a hotel room near the north entrance of the Drive the night before. That's just from one overnight stay. It's enticing to think of what could be done with a 3-day weekend.

Exit 6: That method is a departure from my usual tactic of making a day-trip of the Drive, something that would require me to be up earlier than usual in order to get TO the Drive with enough daylight to spare for one of the segments.

Exit 264: There are 4 access points to the Drive, so 3 segments. I learned that covering all 105 miles of the Drive takes at least 4 hours (more like 5), due to the 35MPH speed limit and the inevitable stops for the various attractions. Spending a full day on the Drive is easy to do because of the various attractions. It's not a freeway for the exclusive purpose of getting from Point A to Point B.

Exit 300: In the past I would get an annual pass for just the Skyline Drive, but the prices on those have gone up enough that now I just pay the extra few bucks and get the interagency pass, which gets me into all of the national parks that charge for entrance.

Exit 227: Went on a side quest to an antique store after reaching the end of the Skyline Drive. The business model of the place is such that individuals would rent stalls, bring stuff in, put price tags on them, then a buyer would take items to the checkout. Basically a big consignment store. That by itself isn't out of the ordinary, as there are places like that everywhere, except...

Exit 221: I was aware of this particular one ahead of time, and was passively interested in visiting it seeing as how I was going to be in the relative area, but as I got closer, the passive interest turned into an itch, then an urge, then a need, and I couldn't figure out why until I arrived and walked around for about 40 minutes. I found a few things of interest but not enough to get excited for, nothing that would explain that kind of fixation on being there. Then suddenly I found a substantial amount of Lego. Ok, that would do it. Of course I bought it.

Exit 99: The bricks were sold in various quantities, via clear plastic cans and a large glass jar. The glass jar has a top that's also a lamp socket, making it a Lego-filled table lamp, so to get the bricks, I had to buy the lamp. I guess I have a lamp now.

Exit 243: The total volume of this find was about 6 gallons, and it looks like it includes a lot of specialty bricks. This combination resulted in a super-presence I was able to sense once within a range of about 40 miles.

Exit 283: Found a Radio Shack that was open and operating. A rare find these days. Its survival was due to being an independent franchise, not one of the corporate stores. I never thought I'd say this, but I miss Radio Shack. (I miss Baynesville Electronics even more.)

Exit 94: VA56 from the Blue Ridge Parkway to US11 is very steep and squiggly. In good weather, roads like this are fun in cars like Ai and Nozomi. And when I get to the end of it, I can mentally hear "Donut Plains" from Super Mario World.

Exit 205: This seems to be a new rubicon for me. For some reason I never seem to go any further south than here, unless I'm zooming through for an event such as AWA or when I went to a friend's wedding. Otherwise, that's about as far as I get when I have to start heading back home because I have to be at work the next day. There's also a sense of liminality at this exit, as there are a few truck stops, 1 of which is rather large. It's a good place to cool my heels after coming off VA56, get some gas or food as needed, and then switch on the afterburners for the drive back home.

Rest area: For some reason, taking a nap in Ai is more comfortable than in Nozomi. Certainly not comfortable enough to replace a proper bed for overnight. Good for a short snooze. Might be due to Ai having cloth seats vs Nozomi's leather seats.

Food/Lodging/Fuel: While comparing offerings on Priceline, one hotel had reviews that all complained about hearing road noise, because it was right next to the highway. The one I did stay at was 1/4 mile from the exit. Close enough to be convenient, far enough away for peaceful rest. I'll probably stay at this one again for future excursions.

Exit 4: I was considering a visit to the Ocean City area instead. Hurricane Dorian was going on and I decided maybe it was best to go there on a different weekend.

Exit 40: Heading east on I-66, this is about where the DC suburbs start in earnest. Someday these suburbs and the associated retail apocalypse hellscape will creep further west as they are wont to do, but for now, this is where the line is drawn in the sand, where rural ends and the chaos begins, starting slow and building to a crescendo of madness as it approaches the I-495 Thunderdome.

Exit 273: Even as far as I got into Virginia, I still found a Sheetz easily and often. The one at this exit is probably the biggest one I know about ever since I stumbled across it back in the mid '90s. It used to have a Baskin Robbins and a Wendy's but those are long gone. One memory of that Sheetz was from back in '98, when I was coming home on a larger road trip (also with Ai), and I learned the hard way that eating an ice cream cone while driving a manual-shift car in the summer is a bad combination that resulted in getting ice cream all over my shorts and legs.

Exit 38B: Columbia MD does not have a downtown, no matter what anyone says! This "city" is really a cluster of suburbs that formed around a mall then metastasized, each one run by HOAs like 3rd-world dictatorships.

Exit 36: Ai handled the trip well. Having fresh gearbox fluid made for smooth shifting.

Right before I arrived back home, the Doors' "The End" started playing on the playlist.

Crossposts: https://psipsy.livejournal.com/232556.html

This 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.

Crossposts: https://psipsy.livejournal.com/230585.html

Over the winter, when the temperatures were constantly below freezing and everything was covered in ice and snow, I just wanted to get where I needed to go and get back home, bundle up with a bunch of warm things, and stay home for as long as possible.

Since there were a couple half-decent weekends this month, I ended up driving around a bunch of places, seeing a few new things, and otherwise having a good time. I felt the urge, the tingling, to Keep Going, even though I know that wasn't really feasible just yet. As the weekend weather gets more tolerable, this happens more often. As I've taken to logging mileage when I fill up on gas,

This tells me the Wanderbeast is awake.

Currently, I'm already looking at the feasibility of another road trip during the usual time of year, around July 4th. What direction will I go in? I don't know. That's by design, really.

For many people, their idea of a road trip is to zoom out to one particular destination, stay there for as long as possible, then zoom back home. That's not how I roll. To be sure, I have gone on trips like that, and they were fun, but when I'm on a road trip for the sake of a road trip, there is no primary destination in mind. I just pick a semi-random direction, follow semi-random roads in that direction, and stop for whatever sights I want to see. Eventually, when I have about half of my available time left, I'll start to turn around, and take a different route home. The end result is a giant loop of various stops and attractions. Each one couldn't justify the trip by itself, but on the whole, it makes for a fun experience.

Ah, someday I'll get more in depth with this road trip zen thing.

And so last Sunday, I wrapped up a considerable road trip, of considerable length. In retrospect, it was chock full of fun, mayhem, madness, chaos, and destruction.

Here are the chaotic bits:

-On the first Saturday, I spent most of that in Virginia, dodging downed trees and power outages due to a cluster of thunderstorms that went through Friday night. There was also briefly another thunderstorm, complete with hail. This went on for about 300 miles and didn't stop until south of Richmond.

-At a motel in South Carolina, I woke up to find the Shoney's next door, had burned down overnight. As it had been closed down for over a year with no gas or electric, the fire is being ruled as "suspicious". We were close enough that

nozomichan05 was lightly covered in ash; nothing a car wash couldn't fix. The fire started about 5AM-ish; when I checked out around 10AM-ish the fire trucks were just finishing up.

-That same morning, as soon as I got on I-95, traffic came to a stop due to an accident in which a car collided with a tree. One person in critical condition, two fatalities.

-Stopped at a hotel in Tennessee. Apparently a thunderstorm came through earlier, knocked out power to a significant area, and wreaked havoc on a bunch of boats in a nearby lake, flipping them over or sinking them. Parts of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park were closed due to downed trees.

-While on the Blue Ridge Parkway on Sunday, as I was about 60 miles from the northern end, yet another thunderstorm had passed through and knocked over some trees, blocking the road. It must have just happened, because there was no sign of any park rangers near it. I decided it was time to call it a trip and go home in earnest. I ended up encountering the thunderstorm in question for a few miles, and brushed against another one further north.

-As my body had readjusted to waking up before noon because of this trip, staying up until 2AM had become too much to ask. I stopped at a rest area to sleep for about an hour. Then, I made a final and energetic push home, only to find across the road from my neighborhood, fire trucks were everywhere. The sawmill there had caught fire.

-Florida was surprisingly calm overall, aside from a thunderstorm that wasn't out of the ordinary. Maybe I should have stayed there a bit longer.

Aside from all that, it was a pretty good road trip.

Road Trip highlights and observations so far, in absolutely no order:

Virginia and Maryland were totally kicked in the balls by last Friday's storms. IN.THE.BALLS.

Stopped at LegoLand, which officially opened October last year, which to me is 30 years late. I have so much to say about this later.

Got as far south as Key West. As vacation destinations go, it lives up to the hype. I will have to return.

The red and green hotel coupon books may have the price edge when it comes to stopping for the night, but the Priceline app on my phone can find places that still have vacancies.

Florida is a deceptively large state. And the water tastes funny.

I'm wondering if the legends and horror stories associated with I-95 are simple myth, or I'm seeing it on some off-times, or I'm so jaded by my experiences with running the gauntlet between Baltimore/DC more times than I can count and dealing with that gladiator fight called I-695 at rush hour on a daily basis, but to me it was like any other semi-rural interstate. Although, I must say that on my way down, I noticed the northbound lanes had an endless convoy of power and phone utility trucks, on their way north to assist with cleaning up the storm damage.

From where I'm typing this, I could be back home in about a day. But then I would still have 3 days left. It would seem a terrible waste to end the trip so early. So I won't. I'll figure something out.

The trip to Japan later this year is somewhat in doubt for me. What's at issue is one of my friends wants to go via a group tour (which would greatly limit or possibly eliminate what I'd like to do, negating much of my reason for going); I'd like to just row my own oars and go as-is. Besides, the yen/dollar exchange rate sucks, I'd rather not deal with the TSA if I can avoid it, and I've got an incredible itch for a massive road trip, like in 2008. Maybe more massive, if I can tweak the right settings. I still want to go to Japan, but would prefer better conditions.

I'm already having dreams about road trips, which I take as a sign that the time is nearing, the time for the wanderbeast to run free, unleashed. Where will I go? I won't know until I'm there. When will I get there? Whenever I arrive. What will I see? Whatever is presented to my eyes.

Something I would like to point out that on major, proper road trips, my return route is always different than how I started, effectively making one big loop. This makes for a constant sense of discovery, seeing new things and places, even after I've reached the apex and have started the inevitable return home. So, instead of looking at it as Point A to Point B, it could be seen as a really long distance between Point A and... Point A. The inverse of a wormhole. Or it could be compared to a rollercoaster. Yeah, I like that better. Sometimes backtracking is unavoidable, which is ok. Like if there's only one road that goes out to a certain point, or if I'm close enough to home where I know all the roads anyway and it doesn't matter by then.

This weekend? Maybe I'll give the wanderbeast a treat.

Current Music: The Doors - "The End"

That itch again. The kind where I get goosebumps just from opening a road atlas, or bringing up maps on the internet. When familiar songs on my Road Trip playlist get stuck in my head. When unfamiliar paths beckon. The wanderbeast is fully awake for the spring and summer seasons, energized by the unusually warm weather heralding the official demise of winter. I would have to say that every weekend this month so far has seen me taking some form of mini-trip; by "mini" I mean "not overnight".

Let me tell you about the wanderbeast. Some of us have one, some of us don't. Its size and speed depend on the abilities and determination of its "owner". And each wanderbeast has different preferences for the source of its satisfaction. But generally, the wanderbeast likes to be on the move. It's a creature that will roam about if not restrained, and not like a pet dog or cat getting lost, making you go out and look for it. No, when the wanderbeast gets loose and runs off, you're going with it. It doesn't escape its cage on its own, you choose to let it out, knowing full well what it will do. Sometimes it can be led on a leash, so that you have some control over how far you go and where you end up and it's just happy to get any kind of exercise. But it's far more gratifying to let it run fast and free, letting it decide where to go and carry you there, treating you to the sights and sounds of strange new lands.

Mine? It loves roads, especially roads it hasn't been on before, or at least rarely been on. It can be just as happy on freeways as it is on backroads; although it's developed a taste for two-lane roads, leaving the interstates for when it really needs to cover some ground. It knows what both of the girls are capable of, who in turn embrace the wanderbeast and its intentions in their own way.

I can tell when the wanderbeast is satisfied, which is rare but does happen sometimes. When I'm relieved to be finally home after a trip and the idea of immediately starting another road trip doesn't sit well with me, that's when I know that it has had its fill. How long it remains satisfied varies, but it's only a matter of time before it's ready for another go.

This weekend isn't over yet.

Today

nozomichan05 and I gave the wanderbeast a short but gratifying run on some local backroads. Didn't go very far, didn't have to. Just enough to stretch its legs before winter is done. It'll get plenty rambunctious and loose-footed enough when spring comes around, eager to run past the invisible barriers and borders that were set before, setting new ones, only to return later to run past those. Eventually the only barrier remaining will be time.

Wanderlust. The effects are subtle. Maybe you'll catch yourself staring down a road that leads to points unknown, wondering what lies beyond the horizon. Maybe you find yourself gazing at maps of places you've never been, or places you want to re-visit. Maybe leaving town for no real reason for a few hours, or days, or weeks, sounds like a great idea.

There are triggers for it too. Naturally, anything travel-related will suffice. Maybe it's going past a local truck stop and seeing the assortment of out of state license plates, with a hint of diesel fumes in the air. A stop at the local AAA office, with the reams of pamphlets of attractions and tourist traps. Various songs. Or, something as simple as a warm sunny day with a gentle breeze and the sudden desire to follow that breeze.

The poor wanderlust beast has been in its cage for too long. It's been let out from time to time for various day-trips, since the massive road trip of '08. That was enough to make the beast go back into its cage willingly, satisfied by an 8-day road trip. If I could, I'd not keep it in a cage at all. Unfortunately that's not quite practical, what with keeping steady employment and such.

I woke up a bit later than I wanted and spent more time on this computer than I wanted today. The skies threaten rain. But, the day is not completely lost.

Random driving, on roads unknown, with "forward" as my only guidance. Hot wings and fall-off-the-bone ribs. Classic rock playing while hurtling down the highway, with the only light coming from headlights and the moon. Stopping at Stuckey's. A bit of cleaning (cathartic?), some organizing. Shiny things with the word "Craftsman" on them.

Itches were scratched this weekend.

Cooked up some turkey last weekend. As I haven't come down with any kind of food poisoning, I think I did it right.

A GPS is handy at times, but it can never fully replace a good map and a sense of direction.

So far, so good.

I need to go on a field trip.

Wanderlust claws at the back of my throat like a vampire's blood cravings. Going on sporadic day-trips helps keep this in check but I know that will eventually lose its effectiveness, especially after I learn enough about the backroads around here. There are still enough to keep me occupied for the time being.

A week from now I'm going to be on first shift. For a week. Then it'll be back to second shift. It's going to be rough, but it's also for some training at work. I have a plan.

The Home Server plan is going forward, although it's becoming a fully functional desktop machine in its own right. Put the memory at 4gb and replaced the Ubuntu variant with Windows 7 Pro, which is more friendly with sharing folders. I just could not get Ubuntu to play nice with the others. That doesn't mean I gave up on it, I'm probably going to reinstall it on another hard drive and use it for diagnostics and general learning. Also, the onboard video "works", but if I throw a 1080p video file at it, it chokes. I'm thinking an actual video card would help with that. And, for staying with the original purpose of this machine, more hard drives. 2TB drives are floating just over a hundred bucks, especially for the low-power ones. Ah, computer upgrades, there is no end to them.

Lastly, this: http://supermariobroscrossover.com/

Sleepytime now.

The thing about road trips is that once I get started, I feel like I could just... keep going. I know it's impossible, so I go as far as I can, for as long as I can, until I reach the ultimate destination of any road trip: home.