[Sketch Trip America] Episode 6: Jeepers Creepers, Field of Dreams, Corns…. and more Corns….

Morning of the 28th. Breakfast was simple sandwich with boiled eggs. Sandwich was good but the eggs were especially good with the seasoning that Sumi prepared from home.

SUMI'S MIX - All-around player seasoning

7~8 seasonings for several different recipes are mixed in one bottle: Black pepper, rosemary, cayenne pepper, thyme, and……and a lot more, I forget. Sumi's Mix was put in my mother-in-law's diabetes prescription medicine container. We have a lot of them around the house. I hope my mother-in-law exercises regularly so we don't find the containers any more at home. Then I'd gladly buy real seasoning containers for camping. Go! Mother!
Another positive aspect is that the volume significantly reduces: several bottles into only one.   

We decided to walk around the Parker Dam State Park before we left. We wanted to know the place we had stayed the night. When we arrived, it was dark and we thought we saw some sort of a pond. Besides, the park ranger trio we met the night before was so nice, this place must be pretty special.

Pictures below are the view of the Parker Dam Campground.

It was a manmade lake with a dam and even had a beach with white sands. I've been to about 6-7 campgrounds so far in the States, and this place was the best in terms of the openness and vast landscape. Sad not to have swum in the lake, but we have to keep going combatively until we get on to the Route 66.

We marched on listening to Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, and Barbara Streisand. My personal preference in music while riding in a fast car is hard rock and metal. American band music sounds somehow better when driving on American roads I found once I arrived in this country. The music seeps into the hot asphalt and becomes unison with the scenery. Of course, when we were driving on the country road, Roy Orbison and fast beat country music was best fitting with the road and the crops growing alongside it.

Two days since the start of the trip, I suddenly thought, "Where's our destination?"
From the beginning, our trip this time was different from our other trips. This trip had no real destination. Sure, we are heading for Los Angeles, but Los Angeles wasn't our destination. We weren't just heading for this one spot named Santa Monica, either, but the entire line of roads that connected to Santa Monica. The entire journey on the route. That was the purpose of our trip. Roads that never end, all scenery, and everything that we meet on it were our next destination. 'A-Ha! This is indeed what it is about crossing the country on Route 66!' A light bulb suddenly turned on inside my head.

Then, I remembered what we had met on the second day of our trip. 

Golden Rods along the road became our travel companion for hours.

Remnants of history that were seen from time to time.

And the biggest of the similar line of Ford trucks. The bottom of the car seemed to bounce up and down so much. I wondered how it would perform if it was in a monster truck show. Unfortunately, all I could see was the truck bouncing up and down on the top of a huge trailer truck.

And a fire-roasted corn on a cob.

We roasted some corns in a campfire last night. When we were roasting them, we hadn't a slightest idea how we would not be able to get away from this realm of corns for three days.

We drove two days straight passing Pennsylvania and Ohio and arrived in Indiana. We had met more corns than the entire population of seven billion people of the world. Everywhere we went, corns greeted and cheered us from the roadside. They can stop now, I thought, but still continued on when we drove over a hill. We waved back at them. Then I realized the faces of the corn looked all different as 7 billion of people on Earth all look different. You keep looking carefully, then you can tell the subtle differences naturally. Thank you corns, We appreciate all your greetings and cheers. You can stop at the end of Indiana please.


Click to go to Jingoogk's original blog in Korean: http://blog.naver.com/hwangjinkook/220120607925 


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[Sketch Trip America] Episode 5: Parker Dam State Park and the Park Ranger Trio

On, interstate 84 in Pennsylvania, shortly after we began the trip, the supernova auto chart system was put in a full gear. 
"Write in 'plan' category, during this entire trip, I will drink coffee only in the mornings. I won't drink coffee while we're moving." said Sumi. 
I wrote it down as it is in the chart while sitting in the passenger seat. She's right. There's nothing better to drink than water.
"Wow, that tree looks cool!" said Sumi.
Only in 1.5 seconds, I found that single tree out of thousands of tress passing by the car window. Then, while setting focus of the lens, I twisted my torso to the right and took an ultra speed panning shot. A success! However, my back was cramping from twisting too much. I would need to find the object sooner than 0.5 second. I need practice. 

There were many things to do. I wrote down road numbers, town names that we passed, what we ate, gas stations we stopped at and the specifics such as fuel price and mileage. I also wrote our conversations, thoughts from each of us, impressions of the landscapes, stories from meeting people. I wrote down every references that would become the foundation for the travel book. We wanted to leave a record of the traces of our travel. If we put these down well enough, it would be a piece of our life history. It would be rewarding to show our children after many years- sort of like the travel book that Bilbo Baggins handed to Frodo Baggins. 






In the afternoon, we were driving through the cornfield. I heard there are wealthy farmers in Pennsylvania, and it must be true. We were driving through cornfield last two hours and would find fence or divider every twenty to thirty minutes. With trees and water in abundance, gentle hilly landscape, four seasons, and strong summer sun, anything would grow in this land. Bring Yul Brynner here and he would start growing hair.        






I once read that George Washington had illegally acquired land west of the Appalachians which were reserved for Native Americans. These days, he would've been scrutinized at a hearing by the government. He must've really wanted the land. Now I know why he fought with England so vigorously. On the other hand, we were also fighting vigorously with cornfields. It was already 8:12 PM when we arrived at our first campground.






Parker Dam State Park Campground

First one to greet us at the campground was a young deer. It was cute with white spots on the back and long legs. The cutest part about juvenile animal is that they are so clumsy and naive in their actions. This deer looked at our car and must've thought to himself at least three times. Uh, should I run away? Should I stay? My friends are gone. Should I run backward? Forward? Well, I dunno. Let's go to the side! He ran with the white tail up and hopped away clumsily. I was worried about him. Hope he takes good care of himself.






As we entered the park ranger's office, three rangers looked at us simultaneously. They were chatting before we came in and it seemed like we both needed some time to figure each other out. Maybe two seconds? but it was a long two seconds. I couldn't tell what they were thinking but my impressions of them were as follows:

'How come their arms are so thick? Did they share something bad to eat and got bloated? How are their uniforms so tight? Are there not enough large sizes? How old are they? The one with the goatee must be the oldest? By the way, is this the park office? not the mountain bandits headquarter?'

It took about 17 seconds for me to figure them out. They were all in their 20s. They were all very muscular and had enough fat layer in between so the uniforms looked tight on them. They were very friendly park rangers and we were indeed in the park ranger's office. Sooner or later, we were conversing about the Route 66 and they recommended us campsite #60. One ranger asked the other which site would be good for us, then the rest of them said, "60. 60!" It was a perfect spot with the shower facility right next to it. 











Morning of the 28th. I woke up by the fresh breeze in the wood. Wait, what is this fresh air, then, I was woken up.
Sumi left the front of the tent fly open when she went to the restroom and I could see up the trees through the gap. The tall trees surrounded the sky in a small circle. Fresh morning air is a great part of camping. Sumi and I ate the fresh air of the woods along with sandwiches and checked our next route. Indiana is next.


Also check out Jingoogk's original posting in Korean. Korean letters look really cool! 

Permalink: http://sketchtripamerica.blogspot.com/2014/09/sketch-trip-america-episode-5-parker.html

[Sketch Trip America] Episode 4: Begin Cross-Country America, to Meet Great Scenery and People

Finally, we are off to travel cross-country. To meet the great landscape and the people.

It took us some time to get ready for the trip. Things that aren't necessary for short trips of 3-4 days become must-have's for a trip that's a month-long. I divided the cargo in two layers- camping gears at the bottom and things we need often on top. I tried to make cargo area very flat so nothing would be blocking the view for the driver. When we were shopping for a car, we had camping on our minds. We can flip forward the back seat of this car and make it completely flat.








Even if we were camping, we would leave few things we don't need inside the car. So I stowed them further away from the trunk door. Things that we need frequently, I stuck them in the gaps and crevices behind seats and between cargo boxes. Some miscellaneous items like baseball gloves, small axe, shovel, map, sun shield for the car, umbrella, and the automatic underwear washing machine was also shoved into those spaces.

Right before we got inside our car, Sumi asked, "Are we ready? Did we forget anything?" "Well, we'll only know when we are on the road," I answered back.

There has to be one or two things that we leave out even if we were trying to be very thorough. And one can only realize after the departure. It's also part of the trip. It's August 27th, 1 PM in New York time and finally, off we go.







 
We planned on driving 300~350 miles(400~500 km) a day or even less. We have to draw, take pictures, and also write during the trip. The most important mission on this trip is to make a book of our travel. Also the car has to be taken into consideration. As I said before, we are driving 2002 Volkswagen Passat station wagon with 180,000 miles on it. The engine had been replaced and has little over 80,000 miles. Therefore, we don't know what will happen if our middle aged car was under a stressful condition. The latest health checkup showed a good result and our car doctor 'Dr. K' said it would be 'No Problem' to drive to L.A. However, I was reminded only after we got on the road that Dr. K said 'no problem' going to LA, but nothing about coming back.

Let's go! Cross-country America! Can't wait to meet the unknown landscape and people along the way!


Today's Route: Going through Pennsylvania

After three hours of driving, what we first encountered was a firetruck. It had an unusual green and yellow color. It was actually very cute. Cute may not be appropriate for this dangerous situation, but the fire had been put out already and only some smoke was rising from the burnt remains. The firemen looked like they were resting, too. Few thoughts passed through my head. Someone must've reported the fire pretty early on, and the fire truck got there fast enough. The mountains look pretty rocky so the fire must've been slow to spread. The policemen were redirecting the traffic behind the fire trucks, and everything seemed well managed. It seemed as though policemen and firefighters were moving under a tight emergency manual.







Next thing we encountered was an old car at a gas station. It was carrying a canoe on top of it. Because, I was looking at the car with such amazement, the owner came over and started talking to me about the car. It's a four wheel drive and very strong with a great suspension.... You like it and you want to have it. Well, he didn't say the last part. I was just thinking out loud. He looked like he was in the mid 50s. In the States, you can easily spot people driving around with various sports and leisure equipments on their cars. This blue car is probably much more awesome because it's hauling the red canoe. It was as though it came out of the factory with the canoe attached on top. Who knows. Maybe the canoe is just for a decoration, just like the emblem in front of a Rolls Royce.






Then, of course, we started remembering what we had forgotten when we left the house- Dried seaweed, frozen pork belly, steak to cook for tonight at the campground, and…. our cat Kopi.
Actually, Sumi's mother is taking care of him and we left some yummy canned food, too. We would have taken him with us if we were traveling in a large camping car. But our car is too stressful for a cat. Take care, Kopi. Let's go on trips together next time when we buy an RV.

To read Jingoogk's original blog in Korean, click here.

Permalink: http://sketchtripamerica.blogspot.com/2014/09/sketch-trip-america-episode-4-begin.html