Something Creative
My freshman year of college was great & horrible all at the same time. I was away from home (so homesick I’d cry myself to sleep…) & while I loved classes & made many friends it was overwhelming to move to the city from a small farming community. By the time I was into my 3rd quarter I was flaming out hard. I wasn’t sleeping enough, eating horribly etc. and was about to crack under the pressure. Late one Friday night in April 3 of my friends got a wild hair to take a weekend road trip. The 3 of them were also feeling the pressure build & had decided that a trip somewhere was just what the doctor ordered.
I started out as the voice of reason in the whole conversation. They were talking about heading to Florida for the weekend. I vaguely remember suggesting that MN to FL in a weekend seemed to be a bit much. However the more we talked the better a trip to warm sunny Florida sounded to me (yes that’s right, for those of you keeping count I was once again talked into doing something crazy…I’ve said it before I’m an easy touch if you go about it the right way.) and soon I was ready to join in the adventure. So we headed off to our respective rooms to quietly pack swimsuits, shorts & other warm weather gear (I also packed all my books etc for homework—that’s right I’m a dork) for a weekend trip to Tampa, Florida.
We left Saint Paul, MN at 4:30 on Friday morning with every intention of being back in time for noon classes on Monday. So off we went, 3 girls & 1 guy on a weekend road trip south in a Pontiac Grand Am. We made pretty good time at the beginning. Minnesota & Iowa whipped past. We stopped somewhere along the way to make some phone calls so that nobody reported us missing. We made Atlanta sometime at night. I remember waking up & looking out the window to see this enormous orange ball hanging low in the sky. We used rest stops to take short naps & made it an hour north of Tampa by early morning. That’s when things went bad fast.
Suddenly there was smoke pouring out from under the hood as we choked & sputtered off to the shoulder. We all got out & someone popped the hood. When the smoke cleared we gazed into the engine compartment to see if we could determine the source of the trouble. Being unable to locate anything we did manage to get a tow to a service center & a phone call went out to a friend of C (the lone male) who lived in Tampa. We got picked up & went to this friend’s house where due to a completely ruined engine (block had cracked) we spent a week.
Yes, that right….our weekend turned into a week in Florida. Now for 4 pasty white kids from Minnesota the weather was heavenly. We had access to the pool, the beach (of course the natives thought we were out of our gourds) and had a free place to stay. Other than the bizarre love triangle that developed (I was smart enough to avoid the drama & just watch) it was exactly the break we (I) needed. Of course I’ll admit I did my best to keep up with all the homework & reading that needed to be done (I was the only one that didn’t end up dropping out or not coming back in the fall).
Now I’m not going to pretend I didn’t enjoy myself immensely…I did. We got fresh shrimp one day & did a boil. I’d never had shrimp before then (grew up on a dairy farm remember…we ate beef, pork & chicken) but I was in love with it from that day on. I also put the delightful sunshine to use by eschewing all clothing but a swimsuit for 90% of the time. My pale Scandinavian skin was a glorious shade of red by the time the car was ready a week late
me & reality. Unfortunately we didn’t get very far. Some few hours later we were once again on the side of the road with a broken down car. This time I just stepped in front of the car, raised my right hand & stuck out my thumb… on the side of the freeway, in Georgia, after 10 pm. In a rather short amount of time a nice looking lady in a minivan stopped & gave us a ride to the nearest truck stop. Once there I was offered (while on the phone to my mom, bawling my eyes out & uncomfortably pink) a place to spend the night (along with my friends of course) at the nearby house of a guy & his mom.
We went back to the truck stop Sunday morning & hung out there all day. I’m sure I was quite the sight…a 19 yr old college girl, burnt to a bright red (and therefore wearing as little as possible) sitting on the curb of a truck stop reading Greek literature. Eventually I was approached by a man in a wheel chair who asked me to pull his van forward from the pump while he paid for his fuel. I obliged of course (I’m a nice girl) and we started chatting. When he heard our predicament he offered to drive us to the nearest Greyhound station in Valdosta, GA.
We did make our bus on time with all our luggage & a giant box of fresh grapefruit we’d been given when we left Florida. The four of us made our roundabout way back to Minnesota courtsey of Greyhound. Along the way we wound our way north…I had a small personal adventure (no I won’t tell you about it) and managed to arrive on campus 11 days after we departed.
Thus ended my 1 & only college road trip…I gained a little perspective, a lot of sun, some noteriety & memories of bright sunshine hitting my skin while I studied.
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