In hindsight, I can't believe I even considered not going. I had a great time on my eight day road trip down to the states.

To back up, I met him a couple of years ago on the internet. We were very close internet friends but we never thought we'd actually meet, as he lives in Washington state, and I live in Nova Scotia. I jumped at the chance to meet him when he decided that he was going to go on a road trip, and thought that I'd be a good destination point.

All the way across the continent, up to another country, one week after his start date, and we were meeting for the first time. It felt natural and comfortable.

Almost three weeks later since that day, Ty and I have spent less than 10 waking hours apart.

When it was time for him to move on (Customs would only let him stay in Canada for 10 days), it was time for me to make a decision about whether or not I wanted to go with him for a while. This meant living as cheaply as possible, living out of his car (it was our means of transportation, our dining room table, our bed, our couch, our washroom), and seeing all that we could see.

Last Thursday (Sept 26), Ty and I left, with Washington, DC as our farthest south destination.

Day 1.

Miles: 498
Hours: 11
Provinces: 2 - Nova Scotia and New Brunswick
States: 1- Maine

It was a little slow to start off with. Driving for 11 hours was tiring for a first day. We didn't drive more than that until our trip home. Thank god.

Day 2.

Miles: 448
Hours: 13
States: 6 (Maine, Mass, Connecticut, New York, New Hampshire, New Jersey)
Pictures in the newspaper: 1

[We saw a sign for towns called Bowdoin and Bowdoinham in Maine. We liked the name, so we found a little area in Bowdoin and sat down to eat cans of soup in the rain. We must have looked interesting, because a newspaper photographer came up to us and asked if he could take our picture. We let him, and he's supposed to send us copies of the newspaper.]

We spent the night at my mother's best friend's house in NJ. Although we had only left the day before, it was nice to see a familiar face and have a warm bed instead of spending the night in the front seat of his car.

Day 3.

Miles: 241
Hours: 6
Drink: 2 Mickeys
Cigarettes: 1 pack of Marlboros
Achieved: Arrived in DC.

Our destination was DC because Ty and I shared a mutual Internet friend named Liz. She wasn't a disappointment. Although I think her friends didn't like Ty and I very much, we had a good time. We got pretty drunk off of cheap beer and talked for a long time. The night, however, is pretty blurry.

Day 4.

Miles: 183
Hours (including spending the day site seeing in DC): 9
States: 2
Lunch: in Union Station
Film: one roll

DC is a lovely city. I did flip off the White House, and have pictures to prove it. I had to do it several times actually, but in a kind of non-chalant way, as to not piss off the rest of the tourists. We noted the high-tech security measures inside of the 8 foot tall fence around the perimeter of the property. DC has a lot of great buildings, and I couldn't help but think of Forrest Gump when I got to see Reflection Pool and the Washington Monument.

I saw the Pentagon. Realized that the East Coast is where all the shit went down.

Day 5

Miles: 306
Hours: 10.5
Destination: NYC
Repairs: New Distributor Cap

We drove through NYC, never leaving the car, for two hours. We arrived after lunch and left before rush hour. We drove down 5th Ave and I saw the Statue of Liberty. Never caring about the WTC before Sept 11, I wasn't sure where the buildings were supposed to be in the skyline, but we guessed it was the big blank spot.

I felt sympathy for all the people in the streets who looked like they lived there. I looked at the rough looking cops in their patrol cars, and knew that a year ago, they had known someone who died and their lives had suddenly changed. It was real in NYC.

NYC is full of smog, and like their reputation states, the people are rude. One guy yelled at us from his car, and I yelled back. Ha! Take that.

Day 6.

Miles: 106
Hours: 8.5 Woken by cops: One time, and told to get lost from the parking lot we were sleeping in.
Hours we drove around looking for a new place to sleep: 1.5
Number of times we missed our turnoff/got lost/got pissed off about driving/etc: Too many times to count.

A bad driving day.

Day 7.

Miles: 70
Hours: Doesn't matter! It was Ty's birthday!!

Our destination for Ty's birthday was Salem, MA. It is a really beautiful little city there. It's a total tourist trap, however. Even the police uniforms have little witches on them. We chose to go into only one museum, and it was the Witch Dungeon for $6. We got to hear some of the actual trial dialog, which was acted out by several actors, and then got to see a replica of the dungeons where they kept the accused awaiting their trial. We were going to stay in Salem for his birthday night, but people wanted to charge at least $80 for the cheapest place around.

We decided that we'd drive North, and see if we could find any cheaper places in Maine. On our way to another hotel, we came across a little place called Hoyt's Cottages. We fell in love with our one bedroom cottage. We had been sleeping in the back of Ty's car for several nights and had gone five days without showering.

We spent $38, and finally had a hot shower (or three), and a bed. We even had a little porch with chairs. We went to the nearby town and got food, beer, and cigarettes. We spent the night talking and laughing and eating and drinking and smoking. It was a great night. We fell asleep in a drunken slumber.

Day 8.

Miles: Uncalculated as of yet.
Hours: 13
Destination: NS

I was initially supposed to take the ferry from Maine to Nova Scotia, but upon closer calculation, we figured that it would be less expensive for me to get back home if Ty drove me. We decided we'd drive from Southern Maine all the way back up to NS.

It took us a while, and we were aching from sitting for so long when we finally got there, we were a bit giddy from fatigue, but we made it home at midnight last night.

**

I had a great time. I was able to easily slip back into "Travel Gillian", who is calm, collected, openminded and patient. I didn't know if she'd come out of the wood work after this long of not traveling, and especially since I'd never traveled with someone before. I'd never been on a road trip, and I wasn't sure how I'd feel about traveling through the States.

Some states were better than others. My favorite is Massachusetts, except for the police there, who woke us up both nights that we were sleeping in parking lots. Maine is very pretty, and is much like Nova Scotia. All other places, however, I had a certain amount of distrust for. But the trip was great.

Final stats will come once I calculate them. For now, it's a long enough journal entry.