The Road Trip

One month ago, I embarked on a road trip with Jay and two of his friends.  The trip started out from my home town of Ottawa, and we would hit up Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Chicago, Washington D.C., New York City, Boston and Montreal. We did all of this in seven days.

One of the guys estimated that we drove around 5,700 kilometers. Five of the days were spent on the road. Among the sights while driving were the Great Lakes, the awe-inspiring storms of the Midwest, the beautiful rolling hills of Pennsylvania, and the small forest Eden that was Connecticut.

Of course, we did do plenty of stops as well. We stayed a full day in Washington D.C. and New York City. We toured the Capitol building. We walked around the MIT campus in Cambridge. We took a nice break in Milwaukee. We wandered around the Chicago water front, which you can see in the picture below.

For the most part, things went smooth. There were a few surprises a long the way as well. As this was my first time doing extensive driving in the US, I hadn’t realized to what extent Americans love toll roads. Most major routes between the big cities were toll roads. I remember one day costing us over $60.

The extensive advertising for basic medical care and for religion were also a bit of a culture shock. I know that Americans treat basic medical care as a privilege rather than a right, but I always get taken aback seeing those ads.

If I could go back to any place, it would be New York City. I really felt like I only touched the surface. On our first night, we visited the core of Manhattan, ate dinner in the Empire State Building, after which we took a ride to its top (second photo below.) Then the following day, Jay and I went shopping while the two other guys we were with (picture below) went off to Ellis Island and toured the statue of Liberty. We got back together at Central Park and went off for a supper in the city’s vibrant Chinatown.

The day complete, we headed back to our hotel in New Jersey. But there was so much more to see: Queen’s, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Harlem, SOHO, etc. Most of the cities were like this actually – there was so much to do and see, and so little time to do it in.

After all was said and done, I felt like I needed a vacation from the vacation. Too much driving and too little time for the places we were at. But despite these minor gripes, this was a great experience, and one I’m glad I had the opportunity to take part in.