In his most recent post, here, Doug Stockdale said:
I just wanted to get a visualization of my feelings of detachment, separation anxiety, loneliness and sadness that occasionally came with my extensive travel. It is not a memoir, although it does have autobiographical elements, I want to create the experiences. You don’t have to go mad to be able to write about madness, eh?
He was talking about his most recent project, Insomnia: Hotel Noir. This particular post really hit home because it’s what I feel from time to time. Also, I know that I want to explore this photographically, but am not quite sure which way to go. Mind you, I’m not feeling all melancholy, but the constant change, every weekend, is a bit unsettling. I start to feel like I have no place to call home. There’s only a Monday-Thursday night stop, then a Friday-Sunday night stop, then the loop repeats.
No. I don’t feel sorry for myself, but it is interesting to me to look around and try to capture that feeling visually. A typical Friday for me is to get up, make sure that the kitchen is clean, gather all of my dirty clothes, suitcase, etc. and put them into the car. Leaving work at about 4:00 PM, I get onto I-26, which is always jam packed with traffic for the first 5 or 6 exits. Around about 5:30 or so, I arrive in Columbia, SC, where I stop at exit 5 off of I-77 and grab some Chick-Fil-A. Next stop, NC. I roll into the driveway around 7:30 PM, greet the dog, who is always the first one to the door, greet the wife, and sometimes even Tony, when he’s home.
Sunday night, a small bit of anxiety creeps in, as I know that it is nearing bedtime and almost time to leave. 5:00 AM signals the time to get up, get dressed, and head back down the road. I try to switch up the routine and stop in a different place for gas, etc. but as the routine is so pat, I seem to stop in the same place, get hungry at the same time, and see the same people. Excellent material for a series, I think.
Monday-Thursday, consists of working, coming home, browsing the blogs that I read, practicing a bit of my harmonica, perhaps watching a bit of TV, then off to slumber land. Although we talk on the phone, daily, I miss the in-person conversations with my wife. We talk a lot. I can handle a lot of alone time. I’m not one that needs to be around a constant crowd. My very good friend, Richard, keeps me company sometimes. We talk on the phone several times per week for quite a bit. Most of the times it’s very light-hearted and I usually end up laughing quite a bit. He has an interesting take on life!
Somehow, I’ll want to capture these moments … for personal reasons. They are interesting, to me. I look forward to seeing what Doug puts into his series. Not to copy it, but to see what his experience is and what he found important to include.
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9 Responses to “The other side of travel”
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Paul, you bring up a point that I need to be sure not to over emphasis, that during these protracted road trips, it is not gloom. I had not thought about the need to create a balance of the good with the bad, but in the evening by myself, unless I distract myself with something, it is usually not so much fun. So maybe I am not tooooo far off the point, eh?
@Doug: It is a balance. There are good parts and not so good parts. You have time to do things that you probably wouldn’t have done, such as learn to play the harmonica, in my case.
I completely agree with your feeling of “having no place to call home” – same here, from time to time at least (maybe also emphasized by the sudden change in language and culture that accompanies my trips between work in Sweden and home in Germany). Fortunately, there are also those times when I get the luxurious feeling that I actually have two homes.
One thing that I try to avoid as much as possible: going by car. It’s such a waste of time. Plane is quicker and I can read or get some work done. Ferry is considerably slower, but very nice as it’s a night ferry – so you just wake up and you’re there. But both alternatives by far beat going by car.
@Thomas: Yeah, I wish that I could catch a train or something, but my only two choices are really car or air. Air travel costs too much and takes more time, actually, than driving. I’m rather used to the drive now as long as I have my books on CD, I’m good! I stop by the library every week. It’s a must!
I went through that sense of disorientation during that period after we had bought our place here in the mountains, but hadn’t yet moved from the place in LA. I would feel it when I had the impulse to talk about “going home.” Where was that anyway? Neither place qualified at that stage. It was a strong reminder to me how much I need that base to provide an essential element of stability.
I think you are doing an amazing job rising to this challenge,and I look forward to seeing how you depict your experience with photographs.
@Anita: You know, I think about that a lot. The photographs. There are so many possibilities. I just have to remember to put the camera on the front seat with me and to take it out when I get home in the evening.
Mh, yeah, audiobooks certainly ease the pain of long car travels somewhat. Sorry to hear that there are no alternatives for you – but I guess at least the driving itself might be somewhat less hectic for you in the US that it is here in Germany – with no speed limit at all on the main highways. Hence you always have to cope with a crazy horde of testosteron-ridden idiots behind the wheels who all think that they are little Michael Schuhmachers (the Formula 1 pilot).
PS.: Guess what, I just had to make the tour via car…
@Thomas: If I had to drive on a highway without speed limits, I think that I’d most certainly have to find an alternative. The speed limit between here and Charlotte, for the most part, is 70 MPH/112 KPH. However, most people drive between 80-90 MPH/130-145 KPH. I’m kind of uncomfortable about 75 or 80. Forget unlimited!
Going on travel has always a positive and negative effect. Somehow if you travel alone, you’ll going to miss your family back home, on the other hand you get the chance to unwind.