Roamers – Ep 04 | A 3.000 Miles’ Mission

16 July 2022 Redazione Experience, News, Stories

ROAMERS – Cars Stories

A 3.000 miles’ mission

Words by Christian Parodi / Photo by Jaron Whelan

“Never do tomorrow what you can do today”. It’s not my motto and to tell the truth I don’t even remember where I heard it in first place, but these are words now etched in my soul. Time slips away like sand in an hourglass and every day we let slip is gone. There are so many things to do, places to visit, music to listen and movies to watch, but just a lifetime to do so. And meanwhile years are passing by. I do not intend to bore you by rattling off my cheap philosophy, but simply to push you to chase your wishes, tick off the entire list without waiting for who knows what moment, because we are the ones in charge for creating the right one. I have always thought that there was time for everything, that it was never the apt moment and when I finally decided to start I realized that I would not have waited a single second.

At the top of my wish list there has always been one trip in particular, an on the road adventure from one coast to the other of the United States. After all, it is everyone’s dream, the ambition of any self-respecting traveling motorist aware that the essence of the USA is contained in that iconic “coast to coast”. This is partly true, but it is good to know that 3,000 miles and two weeks of vacation are not enough to discover America the Beautiful. Indeed, not even a whole life would be enough, because the point is to get lost among the peculiarities of each state, each city, town or remote road that cuts in half a desert infinitely larger than what one imagines looking at a random photograph. Despite this, I had no doubts about how I would spend the 15 days at my disposal, landing in New York and running like crazy to find some of the locations coming out of my favorite films and TV shows. The next morning the alarm sounds early and waiting for me just outside the city – in Morristown – was a ‘70 Chevrolet Chevelle SS, the first traveling partner for this unforgettable solo journey.

Why did I choose to be alone? Simple, I decided to bring nothing but the bare essentials for a trip that would allow me to dictate my times. I would have stopped when I thought most appropriate and would have outlined the itinerary at my discretion, just making sure to touch a couple of stages that would have represented the car switch. Yes, in America, friends lend you their sports car and let you drive thousands of miles with them. How much I want to go back. Within a few hours I found myself literally bewitched by this trip. After passing Pittsburgh, Columbus and Indianapolis (with the necessary, albeit short, stops) it was time to reach St. Louis and leave the wonderful Chevelle in time for jumping at the wheel of my friend Ryan’s Corvette C4. Windows down, courtesy of a hot summer, and the constant hum of the big V8s as the eyes are captured by those secondary roads that are the lifeblood for small villages that seem to have come out of the most typical Hollywood movies.

New Mexico and Arizona deserts turned out to be majestic due to their invisible borders, but certainly less engaging than I thought, especially due to the stringent speed limits. But it is the simple fact of being in such a wild place that increases driving pleasure and makes everything exactly as I expected. The penultimate stop in Wickenburg, just north of Phenox (Arizona), is useful to say goodbye to the Corvette and put my hands on an ‘88 Camaro. A few more miles to Los Angeles and by now it is as if I were catapulted into the best scenes of some late eighties action, with the worst possible music coming out of the radio and some of the most beautiful and vivid sensations pumping the blood in my heart. To be done once again, absolutely and as soon as possible. And so it was. Indeed, it was even better, because after a few months I came back and stopped way longer, wandering through the States with extreme freedom and getting behind the wheel of over twenty stars and stripes dream cars. There was enough material for a brand new column – which is what I’m working on – but while waiting to read all the episodes we will include, I have a humble advice for you. Go, do it today, because tomorrow you could drive where you have always dreamed. It is what each of us really deserves.