Epic Banality

Washington becomes #22 on the visited states list as of today. K.L. and I flew in today and, aside from an experience much like one documented earlier when I was in Salt Lake City, there weren’t any major bumps getting here. This trip is not what I would call a regularly scheduled vacation. It’s actually a trip with a purpose. K.L.’s middle brother, whom she refers to as the “Seattle Brother,” lives here and her parents and oldest brother, referred to as the “Weird Brother,” are flying in tomorrow so I can meet everyone. The trip, so far as I know, was not planned with me in mind specifically but it works out that I get to meet everyone. Whether this is a good or bad thing, I do not know yet.

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Mornings and I have had a strained relationship, at best, throughout my life. I think the only time I ever consistently got along with mornings was on Saturdays when I was young enough to look forward to cartoons. That was a good era. However, still being two hours ahead of my native time zone, mornings are brutal. This is compounded by the fact that I’ve always had trouble sleeping when out of town. It doesn’t matter if it’s a hotel or a friend’s place. It takes me forever. I had a Josh Turner song and Brad Paisley song on a continuous loop as I tried to sleep last night because both songs, as corny as a lot of people would think they were, remind me of K.L. I miss her.

Hotels, no matter where I go, always seem to serve a “continental breakfast” in the mornings. I’m not sure precisely what a continental breakfast is since the contents differ from place to place. I always forget to look it up too. Hopefully, next time I have an internet connection (I’m on the road right now) writing this will remind me to look it up.

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The morning came too early this morning. It’s not as if this is a new thing. About the only morning I can think of in recent history that didn’t come too early was Tuesday morning and that’s entire the fault of K.L. and her mood. Well, not her fault I suppose, since she makes it clear to me on a regular basis that nothing is her fault. The point is though, Tuesday morning coming pleasantly, despite nearly no sleep, was entirely her doing.

We’re in the central time zone. Aside from my brief stop in Houston on Tuesday and the actual flights across the country, I’ve never been two hours ahead before. I’ve done three and one and I’ve even been on Arizona time before. Two is new though. That being said, had we left at the same time from Charlotte, my body would be running as if it had awoken at 3:00am rather than about 4:00am.

While getting pizza last night with Tacita I noticed one of the service station, a place called Huck’s which proudly displayed a picture of some guy with a straw hat and missing teeth, had a sign for “homemade donuts.” We sort of agreed to check it out in the morning for donuts. Turns out that Huck’s don’t do donuts anymore. In retrospect this is probably a good thing. Since I radically changed my diet six or seven months ago, sugar affects me pretty badly but I still have issues saying no to copious amounts of baked sugary goods. So yeah, no donuts this morning.

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I arrived in Charlotte yesterday to help a friend of mine, Tacita, move back west to Salt Lake City. By help I mean we’re trading off the role of pilot and co-pilot/chief-napper over the approximately 2,100 miles of driving to get her, her car and her stuff back west. While a part of me has been dreading this trip—those who know me know I always have massive anxiety issues about traveling and being apart from K.L. isn’t exactly a picnic—the other part has been looking forward to this trip since it was planned. When I visited Charlotte, Philadelphia and Washington D.C. in April, it was the first time in my life I’d left the confines of the southwest. Having seen what the ends of America had to offer, I was curious about the middle. And, although Tacita probably wouldn’t publicly admit it, we tend to have a good time in our travels, even if I’ve been mocked to no end and she’s been forced to listen to me carry on about K.L.

I have to say, although I didn’t make any stops, I’m quite enchanted with both Tennessee and Kentucky. The rolling hills and the green all over is just beautiful and it’s a different kind of green than Northern California that, for whatever reason, makes me feel alien. I felt very at home driving around here and was actually interested in the idea of living here despite only seeing things from the highway. (I’ve been recently afflicted with wanderlust which is a completely new feeling for me. I’ve also enjoyed traveling despite my anxieties. I hope to do it a lot more over the next couple years.)

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