[Sketch Trip America] Episode 1: Preparation

Sumi and I are preparing for a cross-country trip across the US. We've been talking for a while about drawing, writing, and taking photographs on the trip and making something like a travel book. The idea started even before we came to the US two years ago.

Let's make a travel book of our cross-country trip!

Personally, cross-country trip across America was something I dreamed of since I was a young boy. But, it was like a story that happened on the moon or something. "It'd be awesome to rent a car and drive across an endless desert and canyons in America, Wouldn't it?" There wasn't a single friend that said "No" to that wonderful idea. If there was one trip that anyone dreamed of going, I thought it would be crossing American continent.

Camping! Camping! Camping! Cross-country America camping trip!

As a young boy, watching Western movies and seeing people camp out on a desert with a camp fire next to them was such an exhilarating idea. Sometimes, one of them gets shot by an arrow or bullet or strangled to death, but the survivors of the night get to enjoy a cup of coffee in an aluminum cup and cooked stew over the remaining hot charcoals. How delicious it looked! They may not have been necessarily crossing the country but they sure roamed about. In 'Red River, (1948)' John Wayne and Montgomery Clift take a huge herd of cows across from the west to the east. Why do they risk such danger? To sell the cows for more money, of course. Maybe it was this kind of movies that seeded the fantasies of crossing America. 

We also want to camp as much as we can along the route to the west. Sumi says she loves camping in a desert and I would love it, too. Dark blue sky at dusk would soon be filled with so many stars as if the big bang just happened and nothing but a lone Joshua tree would be looking down on us. Sumi actually has done cross-country trip twice already. She lived in the States for 18 years, so for her, it isn't 'how far have you traveled in the US?' but 'where haven't you been to in the US?' But the trips were way too quickly done and she'd like to take the time and really see everything this time. Besides, she is excited solely from the thought of camping in the desert. They say real meat eaters know the taste of meat, I guess an experienced desert camper would know how great to camp in a desert is.

The Route and Prepping for the trip

Everyone dreams about it maybe also means the opportunity is rare. People in the US think about it but there are many that haven't had the chance. One can think about it all his/her life, but it's not easy to just get up and go on a cross-country trip. There are two reasons that encouraged me to get up and go this time. First, there are three childhood friends that live in Dallas, Texas. I wanted to go visit them all in Dallas sooner or later, but I heard there aren't much to see near there so I was actually a bit hesitant to go. Then, recently, one of them moved to LA and another moved to Houston. Naturally the route to visit them spread to west and east. Besides, Sumi's brother lives in Tampa, Florida and another of Sumi's relatives lives in Delaware. So the orange route came about in the picture above. Namely, 'Visit friends and family across Southwest and East of US trip.' Another important reason for me is to begin our long journey of taking trips, making art and making books of the trips. I want our relationship to become a true spiritual partnership living and working together. 

At first, the blue route across near Canada and completely around the US was considered, but soon put off as a future trip. Some said it  takes way too long and another said it's not so rewarding afterward. Then, there was another reason that made us change course completely without hesitation.

Route 66

While I was feeling hesitant to give up on the route across the north, Sumi mentioned route 66 to me. "There is a popular road from Chicago to LA called Route 66." "What? Rootsixsig? What's that?" At first that's what it sounded like to me. However my English listening skill is at this point, this road called route 66 seemed very intriguing as I learned more about it. First, it was the famous novel by John Steinbeck, "The Grapes of Wrath."

The stories and talks about Route 66 is so vast and long, so it will have to continue on our next story: [Sketch Trip America] Episode 2: Preparation II

  

*The original blog is in Korean and can be viewed here.