Brendan Peveril . net

So, I just hit California a couple of days ago. While I was on the road I sent people emails to keep them up to date on where I was and whether or not I was dead. Below the cut there I’ve compiled everything into a readable narrative. It’s like autobiographical flash fiction. You can also read about someone else’s take on the trek here.

Notes from the road:

Nov 3, 2007 10:07 AM
I think that’s everyone who cares. I’m, seriously, packing up my
computer away from leaving.

Later.

–
-bmp

Nov 4, 2007 11:00 AM
We made it to Georgetown, Colorado last night. There is, seriously,
one recognizable restaurant chain in this town. I think people come
here to shoot themselves.

Also, last night, Jeremy was mistaken for a truckstop whore. Rock!

–
-bmp

Nov 6, 2007 5:00 AM
So, after driving for the entire day on the wrong road, and it not
making any difference (Hello praries) we crashed in Topeka without an
internet connection. Then an 18 hour drive to PA. Wow.

Let’s see, what else. I forgot to say something about the time, before
Georgetown, where we almost ran out of gas. We spent what seemed like
a week driving through the foothills with the gas light on, hoping
we’d be within walking distance of an offramp when it died. If the gas
station had been more than a mile further away, it probably would have
come to that.

–
-bmp

Nov 6, 2007 8:53 PM
We did a short day today, Knox PA to Hamilton Ontario. The snow and
rain in New York were a bit worrying, but we made it. Once we were
over the border everything was nice and clear. I think the plan is to
sleep in a bit tomorrow and decide whether we’re good for a long day
or if we have to break it up. Either way, we should make it to Halifax
on Thursday some time.

There are some pictures here:
http://flickr.com/photos/lazaruschurch/sets/72157602973764804/
It seems that the coolest stuff to see, like the rockies, etc, all
happened while we were driving at night. Oh well.

–
-bmp

RE: Paperwork at the border
Nov 7, 2007 9:14 AM
There weren’t any problems. I was expecting to at least be told to
pull over to explain my story to someone else, but the girl we stopped
at just laughed at us for being idiots and driving across the country.
She especially thought that it was funny that Jeremy was doing it for
fun.

We’re watching the weather. We’ll be cool. Later.
- Show quoted text -

On Nov 7, 2007 8:26 AM, Mabel wrote:
> I’m taking it from the way you breezed over it that you had no
> paperwork issues at the border.
> Or if you did it was so minor compared to the weather that it didn’t
> merit a mention.
> Just so you know, I will be in Halifax on Friday this week (you can
> see it on my schedule).
> Some time over the weekend we are driving up to PEI but we haven’t decided when.
> So I guess I’ll see you Friday.
> Watch out for the weather.
> Love, mum

–
-bmp

Nov 8, 2007 6:09 AM
Last night we made it to Riviere Des Loups. Nothing really to report,
except that the French drive like assholes. Not exactly news. Tomorrow
I’ll tell you about how they smoke too much.

–
-bmp

Nov 8, 2007 7:06 PM
And we arrive. I little bit more than 4000 miles total. That is all.

–
-bmp

Still Alive

Jan 5, 2008 2:36 AM
Everyone’s favourite vagrant made it to Hartford today. I have so little time to sleep now.

–
-bmp

Jan 5, 2008 7:20 PM
huh, I hadn’t even thought of Geoff. I can’t hold a candle to that guy, unless you want to talk about vagrant’s hygiene, which I am all about. I’m looking at hitting Irvine on Tuesday night, one way or another. I’m done driving for the night ( 3.5 hours sleep + 12 hours driving is enough for this vagrant), so I’m going to take a shower and update everyone in a little while. For bonus points, who did I omit from the original email? Answer: anyone I’m related to! I should get on that too.

>On Jan 5, 2008 4:23 PM, Joe wrote:
>
> Gosh, Brendan, you’re certainly one of my favorite vagrants, but
>THE favorite? You should remember I know Geoff. He’s a pretty
>damned good vagrant, and he’s been at it much longer than you. When
>do you figure on reaching the oc?
>
> - Joe

–
-bmp

Jan 5, 2008 7:52 PM
Hey, look, I sent it to relatives this time.
Anyway, I left later than I should have on Friday, my own stupid fault, so I didn’t sleep much last night. After a little less than 12 hours I was starting to feel stupidly tired, so I pulled over to get something to eat a little bit north of Richmond VA. I decided I was too tired to keep going, so I’d pack it in earlier than last night and start fresh tomorrow. I’m three away from California now. I’m going to see if I can’t make that one super long day of driving, a day in a hotel, then a shorter day. We’ll see how I feel about that when I get
to Memphis. Right now, I have no depth perception.

–
-bmp

Jan 7, 2008 7:48 PM

On Jan 7, 2008 7:48 PM, Nikole wrote:

Hello-

Brendan didn’t have internet access last night, but he called me earlier and asked me to let everyone know that he is still alive. He was just outside Oklahoma City when he called me about half an hour ago and plans on making it to Albuquerque tonight. If he has internet access, he might write an update email as well.

Nikole

Jan 9, 2008 2:46 AM
I don’t know how, but I made it. It was 16 hours from Amarillo to Irvine, but I think I met the Devil, I’m twelve feet tall, and I can tear a bear in two with my bare hands too. At least one of those things isn’t true, so it might have been more or less than that. I’ll write more tomorrow, since it took me nearly fifteen minutes to write this.

–
-bmp

Jan 10, 2008 1:05 PM
So, I meant to write like a summary email, but I never got around to it. Now my senses are trickling back, so I should get this done sooner instead of later. First, a list of things that I learned.
- I should have tried harder to bully someone into coming with me.
- When you hit that point where your depth perception disappears, it will go away but you should probably stop for the night anyway.
- I AM SATAN
- 30$ hotel rooms are exactly what you’d expect for 30$. Stay away if your shots aren’t up to date and bring your own alarm clock.
- Nearly everything you think of while driving alone for five days is crazy. Keep that in mind before you tell people about it.
-Putting a coffee shop and a wireless connection at all of the rest stops would not only make money from the likes of me, but it would give me a place to take a break, and increase the distance that I can drive.
-New Jersey, if you drive through it from the West to the East is kind of ugly, But if you drive through it from North to South, it’s pretty.
-New jersey is not as nice as The Appalachians at sunset. What’s not so great? Heavy traffic on twisty mountain roads right after dark.
-New Mexico and Arizona could use some more rest stops. California could use some that aren’t closed.

I had more things, I think. I should have written them down. I’ll just move on to various adventures I had.

After I woke up outside of Memphis, my credit card didn’t work. Turns out that after two months of using it in Canada, the bank decided that it was suspicious and put a hold on my account. I debated various things that I could do, including driving until I was out of gas and dealing with it then, until I decided to pull over at a rest stop that might have wifi. They didn’t, but I decided after a little bit of pacing and fuming that the grownup thing to do would be to call the company and see if I was marooned here without any money, or what. Turns out that it was just a hold for suspicious activity, I confirmed my purchases and moved on. Handling things the right way has left a good taste in my mouth and may influence the way I deal with the world in the future. It was still rejected by about one in three gas station pumps, though.

The next adventure, when I stopped for lunch that same day, was my headlight burning out. it wasn’t the same one as burned out a couple of weeks ago, it was the other one. It seems like, when you’re traveling and you don’t need car parts there are parts places all
over, but when you do need parts you can’t find any. This happened out side of Little Rock, I think, and I’d have kept going on to the next town, but there was a bad accident, so I decided I should do the grown up thing again. For people keeping score, that’s two incidences of me acting like an adult in one day!

I look at what happened to me, and I kind of wonder if I should feel glad that it was all crammed into two days, or worried that I narrowly escaped a very interesting death or something.

Same day, just East of Oklahoma City, I hit some heavy rain. No big deal, I’m not from California, I know how to drive in the rain. After Oklahoma City it started to rain again, and hail. I couldn’t see at all, so I pulled off the road, until a truck nearly killed me and I decided that I felt safer when I was moving. As soon as the rain let up a tiny bit I was on the road again. Sure, it doesn’t sound safer, but it felt a lot more safe. It looks like I survived anyway.

Fast forward a day driving through a disturbingly snow encrusted New Mexico and Arizona, I get to the California border, and, for the first time I’ve ever experienced it, the inspection station is open. I’ve, of course, not got anything interesting, except for the two bottles of wine, which the inspectors are very interested in. I promise to bring
one for them next time and keep going.

I stop at Goff’s road for a cup of coffee and get accosted by a lady who is stranded and forgot her debit card. I am a chump, by nature, so I buy her some gas and decide that I’m too tired to really figure out whether I’m a nice guy or a sucker.

I don’t really remember the rest, as I was hell of tired. The last day was 17 hours, not 16. I’m sure I’ve forgotten a story or something, so you may hear a little more out of me yet.

-bmp