The Genuine Rt 66 begins:
Day 5. Missouri
6:40 AM. I was woken up by fresh and crisp early morning air. I went to sleep in my underwear with no blanket but this morning, I found myself under a blanket. Sumi must've covered me up, but she wasn't there next to me. She must be up and doing something already. It is not uncommon that I wake up and Sumi is not around. She tends to get out and do something as soon as she opens her eyes in the morning, such as walking, taking photographs or etc.
I, on the other hand, was still wrapped in the blanket in the tent, while looking outside through the entrance. Beyond this thin layer, morning light was getting brighter and there were various bird calls, meandering fog, sweet smelling soil, and pungent smell of phytoncide that surrounding trees emit. This mixture of air was seeping through tent interior. Even a five star hotel couldn't provide this. I was beginning to feel the positive aspects of camping. If you set aside little bit of effort and discomfort, it is simply much better to camp than to stay at a conventional lodging. Fresh air and the positive energy from the forest began to enter my body. I may be turning into a god of the forest. My body started to elevate into the air. This must be levitation that people talk about. I was afloat with the air of the forest, then I heard a voice coming from Sumi.
"What'cha doing sitting in your undies?"
My short levitation ended with her voice and from god's realm I landed back in the human realm. Swoop and squat. Sumi had gone to take shower when the bathroom was empty.
We had breakfast with Doen-Jang Jjigae(bean paste stew) and beef chili paste and made coffee afterwards. Daily routines that happen in the mornings in the woods are also the best part of camping. While I was thinking this, stars and stripes pattern on the paper cups came into my sight. Half jokingly, I said to Sumi,
"Oh, this is so American!"
Sumi replied piteously.
"There's nothing un-American about any of these."
Right. But then, I realized I hadn't seen much of Korean national flag patterns on anything when I was in Korea. Growing up, national flag was something that hung only from the flag pole. To me, it was refreshing to see American flag pattern on various uniforms of American Olympic athletes. American flag patterns on paper cups reminded me that I was far away from Korea.
For our morning work, Sumi painted the signs she saw yesterday and I drew Sumi in the campground as the backdrop. It was a beautiful sight.
"Now, this is truly American" I said jokingly, again.
"Stop it, you're a yankee to the bones." Sumi laughed hilariously then continued.
"You know, I bet Americans wouldn't know what I meant by yankee."
She's right. When you say, 'yankee' in Korea and 'yankee' in America, they mean two different things.
Yankee
The term 'Yankee' has many origins, but one notable is the Dutch origins. Since there were many Dutch colonists in New England, the Dutch given names Jan("John") was common. Then this had grown to include non-Dutch colonists as well in the area. Now, the term Yankee is to call people from New England or the Northeast, but outside the US, Yankee simply means anyone that's from America. Someone from the South or the Midwest might be taken aback if called a Yankee, but outside the US, a Yankee just means any American. However, this can sometimes be used as somewhat of a derogatory word, so it should be used cautiously.
Now that we started talking 'American' things, I'd like to talk about a real American camping habit. In last year's Blue Ridge camping and this year's trip, I've noticed that Americans love to make camp fires. Even in the middle of summer, people get up in the morning and start the fire in the pit. As soon as there's a fire, everyone gathers and starts chatting around it. It is almost as if it were a ritual, or right out of movies when cowboys camp out in the wild west and the first thing they do is make a fire. Maybe it is the remnants from the old culture, or simply that people watched too much western movies like me. Making fire when camping must be a code engrained in genes of camping and leisure in every American.
After finishing some creative work, we started to pack around 10 AM. We continued to pack down stuff every day and after the fourth day, it was at an optimal level. Efficient packing and daily schedule gave us valuable time in the morning to do more artwork. Within an hour, we left Meramec campground. Good-bye, Meramec Cavern campground! You were alright, just a little disorderly. Kids ran around 'till very late and the guy who laughed silly through the night was pretty funny, though. Thanks to all, anyway!
We got on the Interstate 44. This section of Route 66 runs side by side with the Interstate for a while so we decided to cover more distance and enjoy the view of Rt 66.
Once out of city, highways look very different from the highways in Korea.
"When do we get on highway?"
"We are already on a highway."
"Really? This isn't a regular road?
When I first came to the States, I had asked Sumi this question. Being used to highways in Korea, to me, highways should be at least 4-5 lanes and covered in think concrete chunks. However, the highways in the States were mostly like the one I'm on now. Near cities, highways look like that of Korea, but once past the city boundary, instead of concrete median, a wide lawn spreads in between the lanes going opposite ways. There are usually two lanes on both ways, one for driving and the other for passing. Most drivers seemed clear on this concept and usually kept the passing lane open and drove on the right lane. Sumi said that people are better about the passing lanes in the eastern US in general, probably because there are less lanes on highways than the west or midwest. People know it by heart that the rules are there to their advantage. On the other hand, places like L. A., the drivers are relatively more reckless in changing lanes and driving on all 6-7 lanes all together. Shortage of something made the standard high for some people, I thought to myself. Sumi, of course, didn't forget to mention that Korean drivers are no better than L.A. drivers. I remembered a news commentary from few years back that people that do not know the concept of the passing lane outnumber the ones who know this basic driving rule.
Though, only two lanes, driving amongst calm drivers next to grassy knolls made me enjoy the drive. But when noon came, strong rays started to heat up the pavement.
The temperature in the Midwest was getting over 100 degrees and we'd been driving several hours on sun-scorched highway. Our destination wasn't anywhere near. Highway was boring to drive in the same way as in the US or in Korea, and our sweat-soaked bodies under afternoon heat had long forgotten about the fun or excitement of a road trip. Then, suddenly, a couple biker women appeared before our eyes. They had matching jackets and their long pony tails flowing in wind behind them like scarves. They've got to be the Rt 66 travelers. Their flowing pony tails perked us up instantly and we were reminded again that we also are travelers on the Route 66.
One thing we got from this boring drive that had some value was this Rt 66 map of Missouri from the visitor center. All sorts of places of interests was listed in detail. It is hard to get this kind of information elsewhere. Another thing we got from our highway drive was….
This half-burnt and acned face that I got from driving from east to west for few days. We alternated driving, but the side that exposed to the sun was always the left side of face because we were heading little bit southwest.
And because Sumi insisted on wearing tank top or sleeveless shirt, she also got half of her face, left arm and knee burnt.
We couldn't just head back east to avoid getting burnt only on the left side. So we endured it and kept on driving under the scorching afternoon heat. Sumi had tuned on NPR and in the radio show, they said the nude models in Paris were on strike. In Paris, the city operates figure drawing classes for its people, so the models were hired by the government. I wondered what it would be like to see nude models on strike, while we drove on Interstate 44. We also couldn't have imagined that in a few hours from here that we'd be pulled into a magic of this jewel-like place on Rt 66.
Next episode in [Sketch Trip America] will feature Gary, the guide to Route 66 and his mom and pop store Sinclair.
Visit Jingoogk's original blog in Korean here:
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