Welcome to the 65th edition of Content Nausea. I hope I saved up something in the Content Nausea retirement fund. You can read No. 64 right here. Please let me know what you think. Thank you for being here. Here is the welcome blog.
Earlier this month, I broke my own personal record for longest solo drive a 15ish-hour jaunt from Carp Lake, Mich., to Hunter N.Y. My previous record was 12 or 13 hours from Denver to Davenport, Iowa, in 2014. I learned some lessons from that one, mainly to remember to factor in time changes and that I shouldn’t leave at noon before a long trip like that. Also, Colorado, Nebraska and, to a lesser extent, Iowa are all large states.
So I wasn’t going to make the same mistakes this time. And by and large, I didn’t.
I had this big idea that I would take notes during my trip and journal out some thoughts for a return to this newsletter, but once I started driving, I realized that I was too busy driving, and I did not feel like sifting through a bunch of voice memos at a later date. Maybe I should finally take the plunge for Otter.
The only two notes that survived in my phone for the drive were that I left at 5:13 a.m. and I saw the first other cars heading south on I-75 at 5:42 a.m.
Some other leftover clues from Instagram, photos, phone logs and whatever other info my phone is storing on me:
The final drive time (including stops): 15 hours, 21 minutes, 25.42 seconds
The first stop was in Ann Arbor, Mich., at 9:05 a.m., where I went to Mighty Good Coffee (thanks for the rec, Mary Clare!) and there was a shop called “MyUrbanToddler” in the same shopping center.
I crossed into Ohio at 9:58 a.m.
The weather in Cleveland — a city I sort of fell in love with on my drive out to Michigan the week before — was some of the worst I’ve ever driven through. There is no better way to experience a U.S. metropolitan area than by driving 25 mph with your flashers on.
My second stop was in Erie, Pa., at 1:40 p.m. I am not one for being amazed when I hear certain bands/songs out in public because everything is online now, nothing is that mysterious, etc., but “Pretty” by Girlpool was an unexpected soundtrack for a Sheetz in Erie.
During the stop in Erie, I did a happy birthday post for Anna on my Instagram Story because it was her birthday.
The third and final stop was in Johnson City, N.Y., just outside of Binghamton. The Wegmans there had a sick cider selection, and I am kicking myself I did not get the 1911 Pride cider that had the edible glitter in it. Instead, I went with the Hudson North Cider Co.’s Standard Cider, which was a “dry hazy cider.” I was mostly drawn to the green and yellow can and slick design. It was a little sweet for me, but I mixed it in over the weekend with some Southern Tier, Stowe and Citizen ciders. (And some Svedka, but don’t worry about that).
At 8:52 p.m., I texted my mom (and more importantly, posted) that I had arrived in Hunter after I got the wifi password for the house because service in the Catskills is rather spotty!
I sketched out my plan of three four-hour drives and then a two-hour drive to close things out and… it pretty much went exactly to plan! I stopped where I expected to each time.
It rained pretty much the whole way. There are photos on my phone from Hinsdale, N.Y.; Nineveh, N.Y.; and Stamford, N.Y., where it was pouring. It also rained most of the way from Carp Lake down through Ann Arbor. And then there was the aforementioned Cleveland experience. The weather broke around Oneonta, N.Y., which was nice. Jack called me around then, but the service kept cutting out, and then the weather got bad.
The albums I listened to in chronological order:
Sundowner by Kevin Morby
Our House on the Hill by The Babies
Swearin’ by Swearin’
Ideas Riding by Gary
House of a Thousand Horses EP by Gary
Last Building Burning by Cloud Nothings
Life Without Sound by Cloud Nothings
Celebration Rock by Japandroids
Nocturne by Wild Nothing
Happy To Be Here by Barrie
What Did You Expect from The Vaccines? by The Vaccines
Every Sun, Every Moon by I’m Glad It’s You
Post-Nothing by Japandroids
The Monitor by Titus Andronicus
An Obelisk by Titus Andronicus
White Blood Cells by The White Stripes
Get Behind Me Satan by The White Stripes
I finished the drive listening to some version of “Adrenaline Nightshift,” “Younger Us” and “The House That Heaven Built” by Japandroids because even though I was doing well on the drive, I still needed a little something to push my over the edge and finish strong.
There’s definitely a bit of a theme in everything that I was listening to. Post-Nothing has been a beautiful re-listen. I had the windows down while listening to “Young Hearts Spark Fire” during a 9 p.m. grocery trip Monday night and it felt really, really good.
I didn’t really listen to any podcasts on any of my drives.
The drive from Hunter back to State College (via Bloomville) was pretty bad in that I drove through a tornado warning and my brain was absolutely fried from the weekend, but I got home in one piece.
Thank you for indulging this exercise that didn’t quite reach the potential I thought it might.
Thank you for reading the 65th edition of Content Nausea. It will get better. Thank you, and see you soon.
[instrumental]
—D.G.