West Coast Toe
I started the Tour Life blog at the beginning of our first
ever trip out west. The idea for myself was that I had been dreaming of touring
the country since I was in 10th grade, flush with the confluence of
seeing Springsteen for the first time and reading “Travels with Charley,” and I
thought that maybe other people might be wondering what it’s like to become
this weird travelling carny show traversing the country. It became more
meaningful for me when I realized that if I didn’t have something I had to do,
in other words not just parsing out the mazes in Yes and Know books, but
something I felt I had to stay on top of for the long-ass drives in the west, I
would crawl out of my skin and beat my brains out with the flappy, cellulite
flecked hide. I can do 4 or 5 hours napping and searching for ingrown hairs,
but after that I need something to do.
This is our second trip though, and not the undiscovered
country the last one was. There’s got to be a reason beyond staving off boredom
to write it though, or else it becomes like a teenager masturbating. Sure it’s
better than not masturbating but becomes rather desultory after awhile. The
question I guess I still have is whether the costs are worth it. I love pretty
much everything about it and ultimately this is the fulfillment of a dream
going back to 10th grade, but it’s a weird concept. It’s
phenomenally disruptive to not just ours, but our families lives. I am going to
spend almost every single moment with five people who at some stage of the trip
will fervently hate me, and vice versa. We will return so exhausted that it
will take weeks in a zombie like state of dislocation and exhaustion before we
feel healthy again. So I guess I’m just curious to keep that line between the
joys and adventures of this form of travel and the price you pay to attain it
firmly in my peripheral vision. I think it’s probably like looking at a nebula
through a telescope. I guess we’ll see.
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