Day 7
It is really weird waking up before the sun rises out here. My room didn't have a working air conditioning unit and so I had Damocles' ceiling fan spinning all night. If you didn't sleep well last night then you might be able to while we're on the road today because today's journey is the destination and to be honest, it's actually quite a lot mind numbing.
We have to traverse 2117 kilometers today. At the posted speed limit of 130km/h, that's more than 16 hours where it will be just the two of us, in a metal box, surrounded by nothing of interest in all directions, and always with death driving along behind. The Grim Reaper is an agricultural worker (you can tell that from his sctyhe) who drives along in a farm truck (which is probably a Toyota Hilux) with his best mate The Destroying Angel. I haven't personally met either of them¹ but I can tell where they've been and done the job that they were assigned.
In the great tradition of giving things obviously obvious names, the road which we a driving along is called the Eastern Highway. Well over 5500 km away lies the Silver City but I don't know if we'll make it that far this month.
You can drive for a while. We've got probably 20 hours of travelling to do today; so it's not like I'm all that bothered about making good time.
It very quickly becomes apparent if you are confined in a small space for a long time, that on a long journey by yourself, you are either going to be your own best friend or your own worst enemy. When you combine those elements of cosmic loneliness and being the centre of the observable universe, then it is self-evident that what exists within the boundaries of your mind, contains all of the resources that you have to play with. I think that it is a truism that you only ever deal with the next challenge in life, as the person you were at the end of the previous one.
In the midst of a journey like this, everything that you packed before you set out, is all that you have. If you have packed snacks, then that was sensible and if you packed something more substantial like sandwiches, then that's even more sensible. At least on today's journey, there are no places to stay and the only places that we can stop, are the occasional petrol stations.
That also goes for all of the games that you can play because you're bound to get bored at some point and for all of the entertainment and distractions that you bought along because we will be so far between cities that radio reception will be non existent.
Our Bellini Tiger GTi is a comfortable enough car. It will sit at 150km/h all day long if you ask it to; though even out here in the woop-woop, there's still the possibility that the police might get you for breaking the law.
There is a sense after a while, after you've observed the Blaupunkt radio, the turn dial to select where the air goes, the 12 volt slot that everyone used to call a cigarette lighter hole but which they no longer provide a cigarette lighter, and the amusing yet redundant badge on the dashboard telling us that this car has Airbags and Radial Tuned Suspension, that we are traveling without moving. The scenery is being pushed past the windows at an alarming rate although it all looks exactly the same for hours at a go, the numbers on the signs are getting smaller and that lead digit will change from a 2 to a 1 and then disappear before ticking over with three digits more rapidly, but everything in here remains virtually static.
I don't mind this sense of isolation inside my own mind because I have been here before and let's be honest, it is massive in here. I have loads of space to run around inside of. I even kind of enjoy the idea that I might be bored from time to time; though to be fair, in an age of perpetual stimulation, I can't really remember the last time that I was genuinely bored.
Adults like to scold children for having imaginary friends or building worlds inside their minds to play in; yet isn't it weird how in an age of complete lockdown, everyone is now retreating to the world's that other people have built in their minds. I am willing to bet that the friends and places that used to exist in your imaginings, are still there somewhere. Maybe they've grown up, maybe they've bought houses and built imaginary companies, maybe they are exactly the same and are still waiting for you to come and play.
Perhaps you might like to drive around inside your own mind and visit the places that you used to. Are they still the same or has someone demolished them or boarded them up?
As we stop at the Golden Fleece and pick up a Pizza Meat Pie² and a can of Mello Yello, I am kind of proud of the dust that has accumulated on the side of the car. Those shiny SUVs in the city might look pretty but they don't go on journeys and their owners tend not to have a lot of imagination. Especially out here on the imaginary roads, it is the people with dents, with grime, and people who have learned how to spin their own spanners and have made modifications to their mind vehicles that are interesting.
There is one thing neat about being alone for hours on a journey like this; nobody is going to be around while you sing, nobody is going to be around while you swear obscenities at the universe, nobody is going to be around to judge you. It is a perfect opportunity to go away and rebuild the fortresses in your mind; to built cathedrals from paragraphs, to restock and resupply the resources that you have to play with in your mind; so that when deal with the next challenge in life, you will not be the same person who is dealing with this one.
¹for if I had, I wouldn't be here
²Pizza Meat Pie is not as you might think a meat pie with pizza inside the pie but rather a meat pie with pizza for the lid.
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