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82
AUGUST 2012
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HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
The most critical parts of any
road trip are also the most
obvious: co-pilot, route, car.
I suspected I’d made a good
choice on the first requisite
with Amanda, an old high
school buddy, the moment she
eagerly tucked into a tray of
local delicacieswhile bantering
with the waitstaff at a Maine
roadside eaterynamedFlo’s.My
wisdomwas confirmed later, as
we strolled road-weary along a
rocky beach by our motel, and
she conjured a bo le of Bulleit
Rye from her bag.
As for the drive itself, we had
decided on Route 1, from Bos-
ton up through Maine, ending
in gorgeous Acadia National
Park. Early on in the journey,
around the town of Topsfield,
Mass., the asphalt narrowed to
two lanes and the blur of trees
gave way to a procession of
kitschy motels, age-old diners
and adorable antiques shops.
It was here, I think, that we
realized the drivewould not be
about ge ing anywhere fast.
It might seem a little odd,
then, that we’d opted to take
Rule No. 1
GET THE
BASICS RIGHT
our trip in a 2012 Chevy
Corvette Grand Sport
Centenni a l Ed i t ion ,
perhaps not the obvious
vehicle for some New
England pottering. But
then, it
is
a ’Vette, the
epitome of the American
muscle car. Better yet, the
Centennial is a convertible
that comes in just one color:
black. What else would we go in?
The instant a road trip begins, the
clichés start piling up: Amanda’s hairwhip-
ping in the wind, the pair of us cruising the oldest East Coast
highway toward a state that bills itself as “Vacationland,” old
friends escaping the city for a spell, reminiscing and sharing our
current problems over endless cups of bad gas-station coffee. As
I look back on it now, the trip unfolded like amoviemontage, set
to a compilation of songs with the word “free” in them.
Rather than bucking the clichés, we decided to play along.
We munched lobster rolls at roadside shacks, stopped to ogle
pretty little farms, chatted with no-nonsense waitresses, got
strangers to take our picture at lighthouses. We sang along to
every corny song we knew. Finally, as we neared our destination,
we pulled onto the highway for a while, just to see how the ’Ve e
performed in top gear.
We kind of had to, didn’t we?