Monday, August 15
I underestimated the magnetic pull of familiarity and home on this last day of the car, as the desire to reach our destination swelled. Driving from Philadelphia through New Jersey, New York and Connecticut to reach Massachusetts was a drive I have done many times and the visual cues and mile markers seemed to push onwards instead of stimulating interest and a stop. I do feel that I did a bit of a disservice to my home area comfort zone, but at this time my brain was also incredibly saturated, swimming with thought from the Southern leg of my trip. The view from the inside of the car was familiar and didn't vary much, the same green deciduous trees lining highways with occasional and quick pockets of city. While this was a point of stress in Florida, when the landscape was straight and open, I felt snugly held by the leafy trees even if the scenery wasn't novel.
During the last leg of the trip I focused on simple public performance, leaving myself open to observe any reactions. I completed a car dance while crossing the George Washington bridge (NY), and a dance based on observation of people encountered at a highway rest stop in New Jersey. Connecticut was especially rough as we got closer and closer to home, and I improvised on my impatience in a strip mall parking lot. There were a lot of people walking about at the rest stop and several individuals made eye contact but all kept walking. I wonder if they feel like the performance wasn’t for them, and that they couldn’t stop to watch (minus one unfortunate male cat-caller), or if that they were just feeling the same sort of homewards travel magnetism. While affixing my head to the car and spinning about in the Connecticut parking lot, two older women were taken aback but not enough to linger. Perhaps that's a common occurrence in Connecticut.
View NY/NJ performance video here. View Connecticut performance video here.
See this Instagram video by @kholman * 14 likes