The Greatest Adventure of All Time — September Competition
The road to self-discovery is waiting for you to find it
Enter into my story.
Change is in the air. Can you sense it? Storylines have spent their energy stores and are preparing for the next stage of life. Work has concluded. Luke is in jail. Aunt Barbara wants some space to herself. And Celina, as far as you can tell, is in a good place. It is time to move forward into something new. A period of renewal for your weary soul. It’s time for winter break.
A 3,000-mile road trip across the continental United States will suffice. You have never done anything like this before. You might as well take it slow and stray from the fast life. Enjoy the scenic backroads. You can also opt to sleep in the back of your car. It will save some money. Don’t plan the route — let Google Maps be your guide. Off you go.
The drive is full of twists and turns, hills and valleys. A scene that escapes the view from the freeway. The naked land rolls out in various shades of golden yellow. Then trees begin to pop up, one by one, until they form a forest. Their seasonal journeys are coming to an end too. Leaves change from wispy greens to humbling reds, yellows, and oranges. A lake appears from around a bend. You step out and take a deep breath of the crisp cool air.
Back on the road, the terrain becomes rugged as hardened black rock protrudes upward. Lava fields solidified long ago. This is the definition of the Craters of the Moon National Monument. Passing by Arco, the site of the first nuclear power plant, the sun begins to lower toward the horizon. It is time to find a place to rest your head.
You come to a large city. This will provide good cover for the night. Parking in a residential neighborhood in the dark won’t raise suspicion. Finding a quiet street, you park the car along a tall hedge. You hang up your light-blocking curtains, put in your earplugs, pull up a blanket, and fall asleep. It is a rough night. Your sleep is broken. You are surprised by how many times your body rouses you awake. It indicates to you to switch positions. Finding those in a cramped space is not easy. Temperatures are below freezing. Without the thick blanket you packed, it would be unbearable.
You awake before sunrise. Sliding into the front seat, you blast the heat. Then you map out the nearest McDonald’s, grab a couple of breakfast burritos and a coffee, and head back out on the road. The drive continues smoothly with ever-changing landscapes. Mountains begin to appear, rising higher and higher. Around a cliff-lined corridor, there is the sudden appearance of activity. It is a small ski town. A lively community tucked away like a gem. Passing through it, you see several peaks protruding higher than the others. Pulling over, you read a sign that says, “Grand Teton National Park”. You have no idea where that is on the map.
You shift through different scenes. Evening comes again. You find a small town and pull in front of a house. Repeating your routine, you pray to God to send an angel to shroud you with an invisibility cloak. In the morning you awake to what sounds like heavy breathing outside your car. Easing your way into the front seat, you turn on the ignition. The sound outside dissipates. You carry forward.
Back on the road in the early morning, you run into construction and gravel roads. Night-time driving can be a burden because of how your astigmatism blurs every light. Day breaks and you can see where you are. Flatlands with many fields. You realize how tired you have become from the restless nights. Sleeping in the back has taken a toll on you. As you move along, the speed limit signs reduce from 75 to 65 to 55. The roads widen and everything passes in slow motion. You opt to take the freeway instead. Towns are spread far and wide. Rolling the windows down to the chilling air, you blast epic adventure music to stave off sleep.
Towns begin passing more frequently. Drivers act like they don’t know how to use off and on-ramps. You know you are definitely in the Midwest now. Crossing into Minnesota, your vision is filled with immense beauty. The countryside is quite different from the great plains. The trees are shorter and stockier. Rolling hills now. The sights keep you awake. Night falls and two hours later you pass over the mighty Mississippi River. You are in Wisconsin now. You ponder the idea of a hotel, but you are so close to your dad’s home. You decide to give it everything you have. You come up behind a well-lit semi-truck to lead the way. The driver pulls to the side to let you pass. You wait patiently for him. He leads you to Madison. Now only one hour to go. When you make it to your dad’s, it is almost midnight. You used to not be able to drive for more than six hours straight. Seventeen is your new record now.
You stay for a month and help your dad paint his house. Then you are on the road again. The land through the Midwest is relatively the same. At the foot of the Appalachian Mountains, everything changes. You have never seen such wonder before. The trees here are in full autumn color. Much more brilliant than anywhere before. There is something magical in the air. Nooks and crannies dot the forest-lined roads. It is as if characters from fairytales will show. More cities and flat fields pass by before reaching the coast. It is not enough to just see it. Putting your feet in the Atlantic Ocean allows you to say you were there.
After three days along the coast, signs suggest that you should turn around. You break your record with eighteen hours back to your dad’s home. Surviving the drive through downtown Chicago at night is a bonus. You plan to winter in Wisconsin, but a promise you made calls you to return from whence you came. So you opt to face the mountains in the wintertime. You have never done such a thing before, but you do it anyway. Halfway up the mountains, snow begins moving in a horizontal direction. As you are inching your way up, the low tire pressure indicator lights up. Pulling off the road, you discover all the tires are low. It must have been the sudden twenty-degree drop in temperature. You keep moving. Entering Utah, the snow-capped mountains echo the moon’s bright glow. For this leg of the trip, you have chosen hotels for their comfort and warmth.
Upon arriving home, scripts are handled to you for new storylines to follow. Throughout the next year, you spend a lot of time in reflection. You realize how much you have grown in such a short while.
