We Be Trippin' (a travelogue by Jessica Piazza)

Hello all.  My name's Jess.  You don’t know me, but very soon, you will.  You see, just like the sleep-away camp summers of (other, richer) children’s youth forged lifelong friendships in unreasonably short time periods, you and I are going to benefit from long, happy memory-making hours in close and somewhat uncomfortable proximity.  However, instead of mosquito-infested wooden cabins and mess halls, we'll be in the heated leather front seats of a white, 2002 Jetta named Bobby Frost, on a cross-country car trip over the next week that will, I promise, make us BFFs forthwith.   

Bobby Frost

You and I, buddy: we’re going from Los Angeles, CA to Austin, TX, and along the way we’ll be talking poetry, truck stops, stoplights, headlights, Marfalights (we’ll be stopping in Marfa, yes), Newport Lights (not really, but I wish—I quit smoking ages ago and still miss it, especially while I’m driving), eating light (somehow, despite all the McDonald's drive-throughs and Cracker Barrel Family Restaurantscalling our names), lighting fires under our writing careers’ asses, and fiery obsessions of the fearful and lustful varieties.  Hopefully, these and all sorts of other fascinations will make the potentially hellish hurtle through ironing-board flat West Texas seem as lively as an impromptu game of Twister with a secret crush.

But fear not, lest the overwhelming intimacy of it all frighten you; we won’t have to go it alone!

(I mean, I get it… driving this long with a stranger might be little uncomfortable.  All those awkward silences.   Varying tastes in driving music.  Trying to politely haggle over gas money.  The ever annoying elephant in the front seat—how I’m a real person and you’re just an imaginary Internet blog reader—that neither of us is comfortable discussing.)  To allay such dramas, we'll have some friends along with us to serve as buffer, social lubricant and/or devil’s advocate, as needed: 

Joshua Rivkin  

Dear friend.  Poet of astonishing talent.  Graduate of the Houston MFA program and former Stegner Fellow.  Jewfro-sporter.  Runner.  Wise-cracker, Spanish speaker, world traveler, swine-flu survivor, fraternal twin (not to me, though, nor you) and my favorite tag-team cooking partner.  We are blessed to have him with us on this journey.  (NB: Sometimes we will refer to Josh by his nickname, "Crash," which he earned by being the only person ever to have had an accident with a parked fire-truck while driving a U-Haul.) 

Special the Dog 

 

Despite looking like Winston Churchill, speaking only the mysterious dog-language Rouge, suffering from rather upsetting flatulence and being a self-hating dog, we are sure Special has a rich inner life.  His reflections, whatever they are, would probably be invaluable to this chronicle could we decipher them.  As it is, we cannot.  Thus, we will just have to use him (and his doggie car seat and his prodigious, free-hanging face meats) for comic relief.

Along the way we’ll also encounter plenty of wily characters (some of whom we know, some whom we will get to know, and others who will randomly talk to us and whom we hope aren’t serial killers.)  Each will pepper our journey with stories we’ll tell our grandkids together someday when all this—our first blush of friendship—seems like a distant memory.

Also, because the best part of getting to know each other is uncovering little details about our lives, sharing small confidences and learning the quirks and idiosyncrasies we so often try to hide, I’d like to end each of these posts with a question for you.  Please, do answer.  How else will we wile away the hours?  I promise it’ll be more fun than playing I Spy or Geography.

So now, on the evening before we depart, here’s what I’d love to know, new BFF:  

What’s your favorite driving song?  

(And if enough of you answer, maybe I’ll make a mix so we can listen to it on the road….)

Comments

[Julie]

Favorite driving song?
Are You Gonna Go My Way? Lenny Kravitz (Nice Jewish Boy)

[Bree]

my favorite road songs and some specific to your trip... and one that I like to scream along to while driving. you can figure out what's what.

Kris Delmhorst- Open Road
West Texas Wind - Dixie Chicks
Roadrunner - Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers
All the Roadrunning - Mark Knopfler & Emmy Lou Harris
Turn the Page - Bob Seger
Car - Built to Spill
Jeff Davis County Blues - Mountain Goats
Trouble Hunters - Astronautalis

[paula]

The U-Haul we drove up to Texas (from Seattle) in didn't have a CD player, so we made do with the radio.

I know all the words to Brad Paisley's "Wrapped Around" and Garth Brooks' "I've Got Friends in Low Places", two songs which seemed to play every hour on the hour on every station during that (very long) road trip.

Hm... but yeah, favourite driving song... I love summertime driving in Austin with Sublime cranked up.

So, Sublime - Wrong Way.

[dave]

"Let There Be Rock" by the Drive-by-Truckers. The whole Southern Rock Opera album is damn good driving music.

Rock on, Jess.

[Pao]

Anything off CAR WHEELS ON A GRAVEL ROAD(Lucinda Williams).

Hugs to you(and Joshie)

[Stacey]

Radar Love(Golden Earing)

[Vic]

"jezabel" by the drones

[Daniel]

Ben Folds - "Effington" or "Cologne" (piano orchestral version)
first half or so of Guster's Lost and Gone Forever
R.E.M. - "Hope"
2 Big 2 Be Buried - "Waighton the Dawns"

[Jill Essbaum]

selected old time radio programs. always.

[Zack]

Woody Guthrie - "Drivin' In My Car". Can You make those noises?

[bender]

"A Mind of Her Own" leading into "Never Leave a Job Half Done" - Pedro the Lion

"Adder" - Patrick Wolf

Although at nighttime the music needs to be softer, like Beach House or Peter and the Wolf.

ahhh, driving is awesome! like jess!

[Crash]

morning
"To Be Young (Is to be Sad, Is to Be High)" Ryan Adams

afternoon
"Graceland" Paul Simon

evening
"My Girls" Animal Collective

night
"For Emma / Re:Stacks" Bon Iver

[KZed]

Absolutely 'Radar Love,' with certain proclivities towards appropriate titles ('In the Backseat' by the Arcade Fire, 'Open Road Song' by Eve6), 'Hand In Glove' by the Smiths, and the entirety of _Blood on the Tracks_.

[TW]

I made you a mix-tape of driving songs I like. Listen to it. Exclusively.

T

[Mike]

Personally, I like to drive in silence until the other person gets weirded out and asks if something's wrong with the radio. Then I say, "The radio? Huh. I never thought of that."

Always gets the road trip off to an awesome start.

Or you could just put on an erotic book on tape. That'll work the magic, too.

[Leanna Applegate]

A collection of marches I bought for Roger years ago---from Aida (the opera, not Elton John) to John Williams's Indiana Jones. The Eagles reunion album is hard to beat, too.

[Lauren]

As the other half of the aforementioned fraternal twin (me, yes, me), I vote for anything Lady Gaga- as I've recently learned she is Joshie's favorite. :)

[Eric]

"Drive Somewhere," by the Vulgar Boatmen.

[WINNIE LEE FRASER]

More about Spesh, aka Spoooooberrrrs. Feel free to write about me and tragically missing my bday at Sammy's Roumanian.