Aug 19, 2011
I was not surprised about the general reaction to my announcement that my daughter and I would first head north from West Point, NY to Portland, Maine before heading south to Miami to garage my son's new Mustang. Clearly, it was a crazy idea to drive north to go south. But, being a purist when it comes to experiences, I argued, “How can we call the trip 95: THE DRIVE if we don’t motor through all of the 15 states it connects?”
On the other hand, I was surprised to find out that I-95 is not one continuous route like I-90. It’s missing a section in New Jersey just above the Pennsylvania-New Jersey border. In reality, I-95 is like a night crawler that has been cut in two at its clitellum, aka the flat part you’re taught to put the fishing hook through as a kid. However, I-95 is still regarded as the nation’s longest north/south route even if the politics of NIMBY have kept it disconnected for now.
In a moment of weak-hearted pragmatism, I did contemplate the idea of driving just the southern section of the route. We could have headed south from West Point to Trenton, New Jersey and saved a lot of driving. However, I quickly returned to my sensibilities and entered Portland, Maine in the Google map. I wanted to make the DRIVE, not a drive.
Before you side too quickly with the majority of people who found this idea baffling, keep in mind that either way the drive was going to be a long one. Making it a bit longer by making it a challenge seemed like a great idea. We had to drive the car to Miami anyway; why not make it into a journey? Adding a few hundred miles gave the trip a sublime purpose — it would make the trip something my daughter and I could reminisce about long after the physical toll wore off.
To her credit, my daughter didn’t question the sanity of the idea. She was in from the start. She intuitively understood the opportunity to change the task of delivering my son’s car to Florida into the shared experience of beating the beast. She loved the idea of taking on the road famous for its monstrous traffic jams in one swift drive. Unfortunately, not yet licensed, she could not help with the driving. But, she did make it fun!
Commonly, we say that the devil is in the details. But, in this case, God’s grace seemed to be there instead. We hit only two traffic jams in the 1,688 mile trip. We passed over the George Washington Bridge unimpeded at 6:30 AM. I actually had to slow down to 40 MPH so that my daughter could take in the skyline. The only really difficult patch was DC — but nothing seems to pass through Washington without problems these days.
The trip took a total of 37 hours. We spent 28 hours and 38 minutes actually driving. We averaged 60 MPH inclusive of pit stops, which count in races, and exclusive of sleeping time, which was minimal. To keep awake, we listened to music interspersed with CNBC reports on the market and comic relief from Laugh USA — I am not sure which channel had the greater grasp of reality. I do know that I like Sirius XM radio better than cable TV.
I can’t hide the fact that I felt a great sense of relief when we pulled my son’s car safely into the garage. The trip was a crazy idea. I had admitted that to myself the night before when I pulled into Jacksonville, FL at 3 a.m., worse from the road — a lot worse. Haggard from hours of driving, I was reminded of the mixed sentiment that comes after winning a rugby match against a bigger, less skilled team that has beaten you physically, but not numerically.
On the other hand, we had done it. We had braved a road that frustrates East coast commuters daily with hours of waiting. Along the way, we had seen dozens of things that make this country great — not the least of which is our amazing highway system. Within minutes of putting the cover on the car, I missed the road and motoring. [Sing that last word in a wispy Sister Christian way and you will, too.]