South

I have never been to the South.

It has always intrigued me as a place with a rich culture all it's own - a blend of clever eccentricity and hospitality. But it also has a history of intolerance that held enough of a shadow over it in my mind to keep me away.

Then a young guy named Daan from Guatemala came to stay with me last year. He was a friend of a friend who needed a place to stay in San Francisco. He told me that growing up in Guatemala, he always hated the US, but now that he had the means, decided he should see it for himself. He had a great time during his stay and, although many of his objections may still stand, he was able to appreciate the people and culture of the US, and vowed to return.

I took that as a lesson to live by, and while in Asia last year, started imagining a road trip through the Southern United States.

I know it's very humid and uncomfortable in the summer time. So I loosely planned to try and make the trip in Fall 2012.

But then I found myself with the time to travel sooner than I thought.

A long term project wrapped up at work, and they offered me a generous opportunity to take some time off if I wanted to.

So I took it.

Suddenly I have more time to travel than I really need or know what to do with. So the road trip got moved up to March.

Austin, Texas and New Orleans have always been high on my list to try and visit. They both have a rich culture of live music and great food.

Sweetening the deal for me was the fact that South by Southwest, an enormous annual live music conference was happening in Austin right in the middle of March.

I have always wanted to attend SXSW, but I always seem to forget to put it on my calendar so that I have time to plan for it. This year I would finally make it.

I looked into getting a pass for the event, but quickly realized two things:

1. It's super expensive. The cheapest music pass was over $700 at the time I looked.
2. If you want to get a hotel room in Austin, you have to book it months in advance of the event. The website said all hotel rooms in Austin were sold out for that week.

My understanding about the pass is that, although it's cool to have, there are lots and lots of events going on around town that don't require a pass, most of them free. So I don't really need one.

And for accommodations, I've always got Rusty. Although urban camping can be a little tricky and not super convenient, I really have an ace in the hole there. I can live anywhere, hotel or no hotel.

So it's on.

I nagged many of my friends to come along with me, but none of them could make the trip.

My friend Jeremy was going to be there for the interactive (computer geek) portion of the conference. We'd overlap in Austin for two or three days. The rest of the time, I'd be on my own.

Every now and then someone would ask me, "are you all prepared for your trip?"

Prepared? I'm not going to the moon. All I need to do is get some gas and drive away.

I did carefully pack some clothes and gadgets similar to what I'd bring backpacking. But the difference between packing for a domestic road trip versus somewhere like Southeast Asia is that I'll have the benefit of stocked retail stores all along the way. If I forget something, it will be available.

The one other preparation I made was for Rusty's sake. If she were to break down along the way, I'd prefer to tow her to a solid VW mechanic rather than the nearest gas station. And I wasn't sure I'd have Internet access where I broke down, so I checked the Roadhaus website which reviews VW mechanics across North America, and wrote down contact info for those along my route.

I preferred not to drive the same highways both ways if possible, so I chose to take Interstate 10 on the way there, and Interstate 40 (roughly the old Route 66) on the way back.

It would take me four and a half days to get to Austin. The first two of those days, I'd have a place to stay the night in Los Angeles and Phoenix. The other two nights and possibly the remainder of the road trip would be in Hotel Rusty.

I prefer not to rush when I'm traveling, but it was valuable to me to have those few days with the one friend I'd have in Austin, and to not miss any more of the event than I had to. So I'd push hard on the driving on the way there (the faster but more boring route), and go more leisurely on the scenic route home.

Another ace in the hole I have is my membership to 24 Hour Fitness. They have gyms in some of the cities I'm visiting, so not only can I get workouts in, I also have a friendly place to shower, shave, and even hot-tub.

My journey through LA and Arizona were uneventful. I had done that stretch of highway many times in the past since I used to live in Phoenix. Rusty was doing great and the time was flying by.

But then as I got closer to New Mexico it got cold.

Then it got colder - into the low 30's.

One thing VW vans are notorious for is ineffective heaters. Rusty does put out a trickle of heat, but since the engine is in the back, the trickle only comes out in the back of the van - nothing in the front.

I think something is wrong with her vent controls also, because I learned the hard way that I can't seem to stop outside air from blowing straight at either my face or my feet.

I never noticed this (or cared) before because I never really drove her in weather this cold.

I had checked the weather at my destination cities, but I didn't think to check any of the towns in between. Lesson learned.

Maps aren't very good at letting you know when your altitude is changing so it's tough to tell when you'll be going over a mountain pass. It didn't seem very mountainous where I was. I think it was just unseasonably cold.

By the time I got to Las Cruces late at night, I realized that it might be a poor plan to try and sleep in the van in weather like this, so I checked into a cheap motel by the highway. It was pretty crummy, but it had a kick ass heater.

The next day was my introduction to West Texas.

I had heard that it was a pretty long boring drive. I was ready for it.

It seemed possible I could make it to Austin the next day, but not very likely unless I really pushed hard. You have to understand, Rusty's top speed is about 65 mph on a flat surface, no match for the Texas 80 mph limit. In her defense, she was manufactured in 1981 when the maximum national speed limit was 55, so I guess she gets a pass on that one.

Everyone on the road passed me. Everyone. And each time a semi truck passed me, Rusty would get blown over about three feet to the right, and then shimmy back and forth in the wake of the truck's rear end. It's kind of cute the first twenty or thirty times.

So after passing through El Paso, where you can actually see the impoverished town of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico from the highway, I threw myself into the dark side of the moon.

I say that because - remember that list of VW mechanics I made? It works great in most parts of the country because my platinum AAA membership will tow me up to 200 miles in any direction. The distance between the only two VW mechanics I could find between El Paso and San Antonio? 552 miles.

That's not a stretch of highway I want to break down on.

So I was cold and nervous - bundled up in four layers of clothing, two pairs of socks, a scarf and a beanie cap.

I must have looked funny driving up to the Border Patrol checkpoint out in the desert past El Paso. Everyone else looked all comfy in their modern heated cars, but when I rolled down my window to answer the guard's questions, I looked like I just walked off the frozen tundra somewhere - my scarf wrapped around my face.

Beyond that checkpoint there was a whole lot of nothing. 100 miles between rest stops and the occasional gas station. Rocks and dirt and some sparse shrubs.

As it became evening, it began to rain as well. I drove as long as I could, but at some point I was just too cold. So I stopped at a rest stop and crawled into my warm sleeping bag.

It wasn't until the next morning that I realized my feet were so cold the night before because the vents were dripping the tiniest amount of rain water directly onto my feet. My socks were soaked on the toes. Something else to remember when checking the weather.

Once I was within about 50 miles of Austin, the terrain finally transformed into green rolling hills and ranches.

Around mid day, I rolled into an Austin suburb and found the nearest gym so I could get a shower before heading to the conference area.

After 1900 miles, I'm finally done driving for awhile.