#RSRSeesTheUSA Day 1: MA-CT-NY-PA
I’m off on my cross-country road trip!
I’m doing an experiment to share the experience here, in a way that’ll hopefully be entertaining for you all and manageable for me. Each day I’ll share a few impressions, some sensory experiences, and the next sentence of an extemporized, ongoing creative writing experiment that will turn into some sort of exquisite corpse style story by the end of this trip.
(Creative Writing Rules: One sentence per day only, and I’m not allowed to look at the sentence from the day before when writing that day’s sentence.)
Today I mostly spent on the highway from Massachusetts (state #1) to Connecticut (state #2) to New York (state #3) to Pennsylvania (state #4). Rain plopped down off and on throughout the day, and the spit spray from passing trucks made my windshield so cloudy I ended the day with a stop at Auto Zone to buy new windshield fluid when mine ran low.
I stopped at the much-beloved Rein’s Deli for an order of blintzes and their delicious spicy fried pickle chips, plus a hot corned beef sandwich for dinner later (exceptions to my mostly-vegetarian lifestyle must sometimes be made, and Rein’s is one of those). A couple blintzes remain for breakfast tomorrow, but the rest (plus the half-dozen rugelach I impulse-purchased) is completely consumed.
A tank full of gas—in this time of Russia’s Ukrainian invasion and the ensuing global oil market instability—cost me $82! (the prospect of the fuel cost alone for this trip is… YIKES).
My ears were full of, in no particular order:
the audiobook of Maggie Shipstead’s newest novel, Great Circle
Phoebe Bridgers’ album, Punisher
The Amazing Devil’s album, ruin
Miley Cyrus’ album, Plastic Hearts
the ear candy of wind and floor boards in my Airbnb (listen for a minute)
Cloud of the day: this sunset beauty after the rain in Harrisburg, PA.
Creative Writing Corner:
The wind howled loud enough to drown out the incessant drip of the tap, the hum of a fridge long past the days of its youth, and the susurrus of passing cars.
(next)
