7 A Beetle Crawls Across America

It was a pretty smooth ride. I had minimal traffic navigating through Cleveland (home of the rock and roll hall of fame). I finally got off highway 80 and got onto highway 90 for the rest of the trip. Highway 90 parallels Lake Erie through Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York until it gets to Buffalo. After Buffalo, the road heads pretty much due east passing Rochester and Syracuse to the north and the New York finger lakes (see picture) to the south. I turned south at Albany and drove alongside the Hudson River for about 20 miles before crossing the Hudson River and joining the Massachusetts Turnpike. The Hudson River flows past the Catskills and ends up pouring into the Atlantic Ocean at New York City. At one point near Buffalo, I crossed some tributary to the Erie Canal, which I read was the first real navigation system in the United States. It was surveyed in 1816, and when it was finished, the canal ended up connecting Lake Erie to the Hudson River which made it possible to travel (and haul goods) all the way from New York City to the Great Lakes.

Anyway, enough history. So I made it all the way home by 8:30 p.m. which was exactly 12 hours of driving yesterday, and a total of 742 miles. For statistics sake, I drove a total of 3,197 miles in 5 days, spent $290 on gasoline and got an average of 30.8 miles per gallon. The cheapest gas was in the Midwest, getting as low as $2.62 per gallon. The highest was in California at $3.40 a gallon.

Would I do it again? Hell, no. Not in a 33 year old, 1,800 pound VW bug. (A new Beetle is 3,200 pounds.) My hands are still aching from gripping the wheel while winds and 18-wheeler-produced air buffeted me from side to side for at least half of my drive time. But the scenery is great, and I will probably do it some time in the future in a new car or small RV. I also think I’m lucky nothing serious (or even minor) happened mechanically to the car. I think the car had been sitting for a while before I bought it, and, although I had it checked out and had front end work done and new tires installed, the smallest problem (such as a bad coil) could have left me stranded somewhere.

One advantage, however, was that driving this bug across the country forced me to slow down and go with the flow. I couldn’t be competitive with ANY other vehicle on the road, so I tried to accommodate their passing whenever I could; even moving over to the left lane at times so an 18-wheeler coming up from behind wouldn’t have to change lanes to pass me. Often, I would let the bug slow down going up hills, then harness gravity and speed up on the down slope. Because of this, when I got close to Boston where the traffic picked up, I was a fly in these commuters’ ointment. But I had no choice, really.

Everyone’s in a rush to go back and forth to work or whatever. And most of them will probably always be in a rush until they die. I think the ingrained American lifestyle of working until you’re 65, then finally relaxing and reflecting is all wrong. You should start the life reflection process a lot earlier and continue to do so for at least 30 years. It should be a phase of life. You’re going to say, “But I’ve got to pay the bills.” Well, maybe you don’t need a new Lexus every other year, or the latest Treo cell phone with unlimited internet access. Okay, one more thing and that will be the end of Paul Ogier's ‘Thought for the Day.’

And you run and you run to catch up with the sun,
but it’s sinking
And racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in the relative way, but you’re older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death. (Roger Waters)

So, I won’t drive across the country in an old Beetle again. No sir. But I am thinking of driving down to Mexico in a VW bus--after I take a break. And I’ve got my eye on a nice one. (see picture)