I wish I had stopped at the JBJ Service Area
One Celsius, one water somewhere in PA
I’ve crossed into Ohio, circled around Toledo, and I realize I’m not on my familiar I-80 stomping grounds. I’m driving the way I did when I caught the eclipse on Kelleys Island last year, past Cedar Point and then through Cleveland. I’m driving to New Jersey from Michigan and I have accidentally toggled “avoid tolls” on Google Maps. I am paying the price. No lush Ohio turnpike rest stops with clean bathrooms and Auntie Anne’s for me; I’m relegated to hoping there’s a Sheetz (my prayers are answered by several towards the end of Ohio). The drive back is worse; I’m starting in Asbury Park this time, adding at least two hours to the drive. By the time I pull back into Michigan late Wednesday night, I’ll have driven a full day out of the six that I was gone.
How do you fill twenty-four hours of the road? Some roads are interesting and fill themselves with sights and sounds. But for the cornfields of Ohio and the empty stretches and the monotony of 80 as it drags across Pennsylvania with its creepy, bare bones, understocked rest stops? Sonic diversions are necessary. Unsurprisingly, as I gear up for a fall of performance art and sound gigs, my focus turned to sound-related listens. I’ve got five shows from mid-September through mid-October with three different sets. We’re booking shows into next year for a local music event. Even when I didn’t want to, even when I wanted to think about anything besides sound and gigs, sound and music were throughlines through a tough trip during a tough summer. From field recording across New Jersey to the Bruce-themed souvenirs of Asbury Park to driving past the Jon Bon Jovi and Whitney Houston rest stops on the Jersey Turnpike—I couldn’t avoid sound-related activities. So I decided to LEAN ALL THE WAY IN.
Time to play the highlight reel.**
Let’s start with the Rob Harvilla of it all. I sleep to most podcasts, but I cannot sleep to Rob’s. Maybe it’s the occasional yelling or the song clips, but whatever it is, this means I can actually listen to “60 Songs That Explain the ‘90s” and “60 Songs That Explain the ‘90s: The 2000s” while driving. Recently I was driving roundtrip to West Michigan and listening to the JLo episode. His mentions of Metallica: Some Kind of Monster and Madonna: Truth or Dare had me respectively watch and revisit those at 40. On this trip, I left Michigan relistening to the crossover episode with Bandsplain, where Rob, Yasi Salek, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessy draft 2000s movies soundtracks.
On the return trip, I start the book version of 60 Songs That Explain the ‘90s. Rob often defends Ohio and his love for it, so this choice felt apropos for my own cruise through the state. It gets a bit awkward when I listen to the introduction and he recounts a story of a couple listening to him on a roadtrip and how he thought that was weird. Sorry to make it weird Rob.
One of Rob’s goals is that his stories eventually make you think of your own stories. I found myself toggling between Libby and Spotify throughout the first two chapters as I made my own connections or had my own thoughts about songs and producers. Beck’s Midnite Vultures, an album I used to listen to with a friend as we drove around the backroads of our rural county and dreamt of our college lives, popped into my mind on this trip. I can’t remember what high school me thought of this album, but middle aged me definitely was not into it on this drive.
Switching gears, Daisy Jones & The Six has been a comfort audiobook of mine for two years now. My first time listening to it happened when I was making a trip to one of the places in NJ that I was visiting on this trip, so it holds good memories for me of ocean waves and shore driving. I’ve read the physical book, I’ve watched the show (more than once), “The River” is on several of my playlists (including one of songs that make me cry).*** The interview style of this book lends itself to the multiple narrators, but I never noticed before this trip that the cast includes Jennifer Beals (as Daisy) and Judy Green (as Karen) and their performances probably have something to do with why I love this one. Another Taylor Jenkins Reid recommendation is the audio book of her latest, Atmosphere. The recording features Kristen DiMercurio, one of my favorite voice actresses of the fiction podcast glory days.
But, you’re wondering, what are my music choices for a looooooong road trip? Long road trips are emotional affairs; you’re going to confront lots of things you’ve squished down in your brain and heart. As I’m all over the map geographically, I’m all over the maps of genres and emotions as well. I bounce from Imperial Teen’s “Yoo Hoo” to Oasis’ “Wonderwall” (also on songs to cry to) to KPop Demon Hunters/HUNTR/X’s “What It Sounds Like” to Stevie Nicks’ “Planets of the Universe” to Yellowcard’s “Ocean Avenue” while driving on Ocean Avenue to Bruce Springsteen’s “Ghosts.” I’m a Jersey girl who was in Asbury Park, did you really think this list wouldn’t include Bruce?
My best advice for road trip songs? Feel your feels, lean into your nostalgia, and let recommendations take you to new places. To paraphrase Stevie and to follow my own early advice, you will never change again the way you are changing on this trip, so lean all the way in to where you are at, crank it up, scream along, and get safely to your destination.
*Don’t tell me 24 hours doesn’t feel like forever.
**Look, I listened to other podcasts on this trip but I don’t want to be mean in this post or recommend things I didn’t actually enjoy
***#1 song to cry to? Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time”