What is this road trip?

When I started planning this road trip, it was pretty simple. I needed to get to Denver for the Creating Change Conference (www.creatingchange.org). Then I realized I was going to be in DC right before Denver, so I could just combine them. Then I realized that I should probably do some college visiting while I was there, so I made plans to see a couple schools. Which blossomed into a few more schools, and some friends. It quickly became clear that flying wasn’t going to work— I had too many short trips to make it time or cost effective. I then looked at taking Greyhound buses, and found out that they were pretty much as expensive as flying, but took much longer, and were super sketchy. Then I looked at Amtrak, and discovered that they weren’t sketchy, and that I could experience gorgeous scenery while going through a couple of states I had yet to visit. On the longer haul routes (say, DC-Denver and Portland, OR-Minneapolis) the train takes much more time than flying, but on the shorter trips they are pretty comparable. My final decision was made when I learned of the USA Rail Pass. It lets me take 12 train trips anywhere in the U.S. (a trip is anytime I get off a train) in a 30 day time period.

So, that’s why and how I am doing this particular trip. But the bigger reason that I have the freedom to do a trip like this is because I just graduated high school this January. I graduated a semester early for a variety of reasons, one of which is because I wanted opportunities to do things like this trip!

Jan 24- Second Day of Trip, and my Cousin’s Bar Mitzvah

The second day of my road trip was much more exciting. We’re here in the DC area because a cousin of mine is having his Bar Mitzvah. I all woke up super early, in order to make sure that we would be on time to the service. Well, we got there exactly when the invitations said it started, but it turned out the service didn’t really start until about an hour later. This was fine, except that it left us exhausted by the end of it, around lunchtime. My cousin did really well, as did my dad who was layning at the service. My sister, my uncle, my great-uncle and I all had aliyahs too. The shul was much bigger than our at home, and had two rabbis. It also had a bunch of religious men who were convinced that I was a boy, and who kept telling me that I had to wear a kippah. Which was slightly weird, but not particularly bad. But the shul was really amazing for one thing: they had an ASL interpreter! Apparently Gallaudet students come sometimes, and there were a couple of Deaf people who were regulars. The interpreter knew English, Hebrew and ASL, and would interpret both the Hebrew and English into ASL. I couldn’t understand the parts that were Hebrew-ASL, but I got the English-ASL parts. I had been wondering how services would be interpreted for some time, so it was nice to finally figure it out. After services we went back to the hotel room, where I finished my Artemis Fowl book and repacked my bag (I wanted to make sure all my stuff fit before this road trip!)

The really cool part of the day though was when we were leaving for the party. We had to take an elevator down to the parking garage, and we got stuck in it. I guess it wasn’t very cool, and it definitely wasn’t that much fun, but it was exciting. It also wasn’t that scary, as we got rescued within 15 minutes, and had cell phones and such. But it was my first time getting stuck in an elevator! The hotel wasn’t that responsive to our predicament, and I’m not even sure they purposely fixed it— it’s possible we got out by pure luck. So, the hotel fails for letting us get stuck in an elevator (and charging for internet— I mean, really?), but it kind of wins for having these cool hybrid iPod speaker/alarm clock things.

Tomorrow I’m meeting a friend of mine who goes to college in DC for lunch, and then I’m leaving on the first part of my road trip! I leave at 4pm from DC on the Capitol Limited train, and arrive in Chicago at 8:40am (if it’s on time.) I’m nervous, but also pretty excited!

Jan. 23- First Day of My Road Trip

The first day of my road trip was rather uneventful. I woke at up 8am, to find that the rest of my family was already awake and packing for our ride to DC. I was already packed, and spent some time cleaning up my room and trying to finish loose ends. We finally left around 10:15, and started driving. We stopped four times: for lunch in CT (pizza), snack in NY (ice cream), dinner in DE (food court), and finally just for a bathroom stop in MD. We arrived in Bethesda, MD around 8:30, and my brother and I went swimming in this nice pool with a Jacuzzi. It always amazes me that our family can just get in a car and drive for such a long time. Granted, there is always some petty fighting and a need for stopping, but in the end it all works out. And now I can say I’ve been to Delaware, the first (but not the smallest) state in the Union.

Anti-Climatic Graduation

I graduated high school last week. As several people have pointed out to me, I am now an alum of my high school. My recent graduate status is sinking in slowly, but it is definitely sinking in. I had to go back to my school today to pick up some final papers and get everything wrapped up, and it was weird. I already felt that I had outgrown the school, and that I no longer belonged there. However, I'm not sad, strangely enough. I guess I am just really ready to be moving on to new things.

I spent my entire last semester waiting for it to end, and waiting to graduate. I literally started the school year thinking "Only 90 more days!" but my time in high school has ended so anti-climatically. I wasn't expecting fireworks or anything, but I guess I was expecting something, and really, nothing happened. Very few of my other class mates were graduating, and the school wasn't doing anything either.

But I'm recognizing my graduation in my own way: I'm going on a train trip across the U.S. for a month. I will be using this blog more, as I will be blogging from the road and keeping updates about what I am doing.