A reader recently asked me what I missed “from back home that seemed like – maybe – a weird thing to miss for someone else.” I thought about this question, since, to say it is “weird” would assume that other things were not weird, that other things were normal or understandable. I got that. Surely when we move abroad we expect to miss certain things: speaking the same first language, understanding culture norms, Starbucks. We are prepared to miss those things but, often, we are blind-sided by the things we never expected to miss at all, the small pieces we ever realized were comforts of home that even others from our same country might not understand (unless maybe from the same state or town).
It was funny how quickly my “weird” comfort came to me: rest stops. Rest stops? You ask. As in driving-down-the-road-OH HEY! Let’s stop there-rest-stop? How weird, you say.
I know. Let me explain.
I am from Jersey. It is a small state on the East Coast with more highways, roads, routes and cars than in a state twice its size (for example Wyoming). New Jersey has more miles of road than Maine, Rhode Island, Delaware, and Hawaii combined. We are road people. And as road people we take our driving and our road trips quite seriously which means that we take rest stops very seriously too. I-95, the major highway that runs along the whole of the East Coast, is only about 97 miles long in New Jersey, and in that short distance, you will pass 7 rest stops along the way — that’s a stop every 13 miles. And that’s not including regular exits that offer restaurants, coffee, and gas stations with quick-fix mechanics, etc.
On our first trip out of the city in Santo Domingo, I was charged up for a road trip, thrilled for the open road ahead. And there was open road all right. Lots of open road. I eagerly watched out of my co-captain window seat, wagging my tail with excitement looking, waiting for exit signs promoting what fun, fast-food lay ahead of me. Oh, the plentiful decisions of the road trip rest stops. Would I get my Peanut M&Ms now or at the next stop? What about a Coke? Where could we stop to get a cup of coffee and some beef jerky? After an hour on the road, I had my answer… nowhere.
To be fair, there are a couple (2?) of decent stops along the 4.5 hour highway ride but you have to plan your trip around them because once you pass them… well…let’s just say it’ll be a while. There is a rush of excitement that comes with discovering what’s next on the road and a strange fun to be had in finding out that the next stop is actually better than this stop. It’s like gambling – should I play it safe and stop here or let it ride. For this Jersey road girl, rest stops are part of the road trip experience and my Dominican rest stops are a far cry from the NJ Parkway’s Cheesequake stop that includes Burger King, Quizno’s, Sbarro, Starbucks, Cinnabon, a Quickie Mart Stop, a Sunoco Gas Station and clean bathrooms with an endless supply of toilet paper. On these roads there are but two options. Love ’em or leave ’em.
Oh well. At least they sell beer at the rest stops here.