[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 


Permalink: http://sketchtripamerica.blogspot.com/2014/09/sketch-trip-america-episode-6-jeepers.html

[Sketch Trip America] Episode 3: Cross-Country Trip Route and High-Tech-Very-Smart-Super-Nova-Auto-Chart-System

 

Sumi drives better, speaks English better and uses computer better than me. So she got to plan the route and schedule.

Hm…. I need to do something that's comparable. What should I do?

The whole route was set as follows:

East-West route
New York - Ohio - St. Louis - Take the Route 66 then stop at town to town, canyon to canyon - L.A. 
3510miles. Estimated about 12 days. 

West-East route 

L.A. - again stop at canyon to canyon - New Mexico - Dallas - Houston - New Orleans - Mississippi - Tampa - along the East Coast - Delaware - New York

4288miles. Estimated about 12-13 days.

Total 7798miles. Estimated 23 to 26 days.

Of course, nothing was certain from the beginning. As soon as we discussed the overall route, Sumi started tapping something on her keyboard. I pretended I wasn't interested at first. Then when I glimpsed over her computer screen while I acted as if I was stretching, I saw something amazing. There was the entire route drawn on the U.S. map, and when Sumi put in places and the date, it memorized them and added to the whole schedule. It was a website called Roadtrippers. You put in places to stop along the way, then it also calculates the mileage, time and fuel cost. I ecstatically shouted, "Wow, this is amazing!" But, Sumi, not caring too much about my excitement, made a quick phone call to somewhere then headed straight out to the garage. She apparently made an appointment to take the car to the auto mechanic.

 

 

I don't need to follow her out to the garage. She probably wants to check on the car to see what's needed before taking it to the mechanic. Sumi is good at car maintenance as well. While she got our travel route ready and the car prepared, all I did was to say "Thirty days seems too long." I felt like I should contribute more. I wondered around the studio thinking what I can do, then decided to come up with an efficient system to make a travel book on the trip. I actually had been thinking it in my head last few days. It was a system, sort of like a black box, which records everything that happens, such as the route we travel, the mileage, food we eat, and places we sleep. But it needed more. A magnificent systematic recording chart comparable to Roadtrippers.

First, I flapped open the tents and sleeping bags as loudly as possible, and spread them out to dry where Sumi will easily notice. Then, It suddenly hit me. A system that will outstrip the Roadstrippers,… uh, I mean Roadtrippers.

 

It is…. HIGH-TECH-VERY-SMART-SUPER-NOVA-AUTO-CHART-NOTEBOOK System. 100 Sheets.

It is most important that we work on our travel book during the trip. We have to sketch and write constantly, but can't do that while driving. So I come up with the High-Tech-Very-Smart-Super-Nova-Auto-Chart-System-100 Sheets. It works quite simply. If the driver had something to write about, as if using a hands-free device or Siri, speak out his or her thought, then the non-driver jots them down in the notebook. To categorize the ideas, you must call out the subject before what you have to say, such as 'what to draw', 'photograph', 'tools needed', and etc.

For example, if Sumi yells out, "Jingoogk, write this down! You suck!" then, I have to write under 'Sumi', 'Jingoogk, you suck!' under 'Impressions' category. There is additional services. If Sumi says, "Jingoogk, water!" then a bottle of cold water is served to her. "Jingoogk, back itches!" I scratch her back. "A tree in 3 o'clock, take a picture!" then, you have to anything to take picture of this tree without it being blurry, in a car that is going over 60 miles per hour. It is a perfect system that even Siri on iPhone cannot even begin to copy. Now, the Roadstripper, I mean, Roadtrippers is beaten. Now what more can I do to be comparable to Sumi's car maintenance skills? Then, this hit me again, suddenly.

 

It is called, 'Auto Underwear Washing Machine'.

A clean pair of underwear is a difficult subject while traveling. During long trips, I am used to wearing underwear for many days and leave it glued to my body then peel it off like a second skin, but Sumi, like everyone else, likes her underwear nice and clean. So I came up with the auto underwear washing machine. It soaks and pre-washes garments while camping using a rather simple method. In a container with lid, water, detergent and dirty laundry are added. Then while moving in the vehicle, it's shaken around, thus washing garments clean. Upon arriving at the camp, rinse the soapy water from laundry while taking shower. Repeat. If the container has round bottom, it may help to speed-wash. I found an empty Planter's Honey-roasted peanuts container. I like to eat them with beer often. Very rewarding aspect of beer drinking, I must say.

Clean underwear for thirty days of our entire trip, this will compare to Sumi's car maintenance. I am finally proud as a man. I'm already married to her, but I still want to impress her.

 

Something extra- A mood lantern for night.

We bought this flat LED lighting from IKEA a while ago. When the round part gets pushed down, it lights up. If you place a bottle filled with liquid, it creates a reverberating atmospheric light. We randomly tried this idea during our trip to the Blue Ridge and it worked really well. Other people must have thought the same, this idea was listed as one of the best ideas for camping tricks on the internet.
We are ready to go now. Leaving is the only thing left.

 

I'm posting this two days into the trip. Currently, I'm writing about the first two days. Next episode will be about the first day of trip and the real travel story. Wi-fi is the most critical matter.

*Read Jingoogk's original posting in Korean here.