Part V: On The Road
I don’t drive. It doesn’t mean I can’t drive. I do drive every now and then (in the parking lot, most of time), but I just never manage to get my first driver’s license. However, I do have had “learner’s permit� from several states (in fact, from three different countries) in the past thirteen years. Most of them have expired. That is why after traveling to almost 50 countries, most of my destinations are urban area (such as Lisbon, Lima, and London). If you see me visiting a rural village, usually I was with a tour group. So after you heard my stories of traveling the Sacred Valley of Inca (with a tour group), getting lost in the narrow alleys of Toledo (taking train there then by walking to its hilly old town), and wandering around Kizhi Island in Northern Russia (on a cruise), you have never heard that I’ve driven from Boston to Seattle on I-90 or driving along the back roads in Scotland highland. Some of my friends� friend cannot even believe a person like me can travel this much without driving myself. Though having no car might be a determining reason why I don’t date much (cannot get to pick up my date. But now I live in New York, so this is a really bad excuse - most people in New York don’t have a car), I still cannot be determined enough to get behind the wheel. Then I was in New Mexico. While the Southwest provides a great backdrop for several generations of painters (including beloved Georgia O’Keefe), it provides a great practice ground for me to ‘upgrade� my driving skills (outside of parking lots). In the Southwest, the roads are usually straight forward and there are few cars outside of the Interstates. I thought I could drive for a few hours without encountering another car. I thought I could drive 100 mph without worrying about hitting anything except cacti. It turned out it was hardly the case. Even the speed limit on the highway is usually 55-65 mph, I rarely dared to drive faster than 50 mph. There was more traffic than I expected (and it was the beginning of the holiday season) and unusually large number of SUV or even trucks. Even I drove relatively slow, I was still worrying that I couldn’t brake in time if there’s suddenly a cow coming into the middle of the road. It took me more than an hour to just drive from Taos (New Mexico) to Colorado border. My friend was mad at me for being so slow, while big trucks behind us constantly tried to pass since our car was blocking the traffic. While I tried to steer straight, I usually ended up zigzagging. With the Jeep Cherokee we rented (by the way, this was also the first time I drove a car this big), it was smooth to steer and move around. Even for a perennial beginner like me, it is very easy to operate. However, with all the immature ability in steering, turning, braking, and speeding, I feel it’s really a bad idea to let me stay behind the wheel for too long. It’s not only a waste for an unskilled driver like me to drive this expensive car, it prolonged our time on the roads because I drove so slow. Eventually, my friend gladly took over the driver seat, with some disgust, still. The difference between traveling by train/bus and by driving is that you can get to so many places that public transportation doesn’t reach (such as most of Baltimore). You can stop whenever you want to take pictures or buy souvenir. We also don’t need to worry about miss our schedule to catch a bus or train. Thus, the whole itinerary can become more flexible. Since I do not drive, I hardly had a chance to enjoy traveling like that. We had chance to visit Chimayo, a small village hidden along the mountain road half way between Santa Fe and Taos. There, we visit a church with earth that is said to have a great healing power (Though it obviously did not heal my very ill social life in New York); we had chance to visit both Mesa Verde National Park and Arches National Park according to our own schedule. Both parks are very isolated and there are very limited tour groups visiting there unless we join a group leaving from Los Angeles or San Francisco (usually with a lot people in their 80’s). When we accidentally found there is a national park along I-40 between Flagstaff and Albuquerque (Petrified Forest National Park), we just took a detour to visit it. It is wonderful to travel this way. Of course, I was not the person who did most of the driving, so I have more reasons to feel great about this trip... The most memorable experience, of course, was driving across Monument Valley. Near the border of Utah and Arizona, it is one of the most recognized landscapes of the United States. And yes, I did the driving when we crossed the valley. We stopped at several points to take pictures and marveled at the grand towers and mesas. I wonder how much time a tour guide would allow us to get off the bus to take pictures if we were with a tour group. I think that’s another dream realized. This time, it is all sweetness and no bitterness. |
