Road trips galore! (and other nonsense)

So I woke up realizing that I had to drive a few hundred kilometers solo today. I could almost sense the dread of falling asleep at the wheel at 100kph. Well, I'm at the last 80 or so kilometers to home, so far so good I guess. As part of my Monday northern office routine, I drive solo to Pampanga (Clark) and/or Zambales (Subic)depending on what my itinerary is for work.

I must admit that I actually like this new work schedule of mine. There's nothing better to kick start your week like a good long drive! Today has been specially rewarding, I had just replaced the dilapidated rim (see earlier post) and was testing the roadworthiness of my new acquisition, a second hand SiR rim. It did well, meaning it did not explode into pieces leaving me dead along the SCTEx. So now my confidence in my banged up car is on the up and up again. Now, where to next?

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You, my loyal readers (all 4 of you), may probably have noticed that there has been a steep drop in the volume of my posts on this particular blog. No, I did not suddenly wake up and have a life, rather it is actually the lack of it. There is not much to be writing about and even less time to write about nothing. Work has taken up a significant portion of my time and thoughts (my boss would of course deny this) and when I'm not working, I'm staring at the wall. I have suddenly found a certain peace in idleness and am exploring all of its different facets and qualities.

But why stop now? Why bother to post in this blog at this very moment? No reason in particular, just finished up a double cheeseburger sandwich and am in no mood to play chess right now. Yes, when my brain gets restless from staring at my blank wall, I play chess on the computer. A sort of exercise for it, and a great way to either boost or deflate my ego. Often it's the latter, though, so I have resolved to take a month long vacation from pushing these irritating pieces on the computer screen. Thus, I am back to blogging as a last resort.

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In vanity, I tried to take pictures of myself while driving on the SCTEx. It is not such an easy task, traveling at a 100kph while smiling and looking at the camera. Fortunately, I did not hit anything and actually managed to get a few decent pictures. Am thinking of posting them as my latest profile picture on the many social networking sites that I subscribe to but am putting it off until I can 'photoshop' the pictures. I'd hate to see my big ol eyebags from taking up too much space on my face. Also did manage to snap a few pictures of the road and the hillsides all around it but have not yet found the time to scan through them. Why I took these pictures at the possible expense of my life, I couldn't quite explain as of yet. There was just the urge, and then the soft clicking sound of my camera-phone.

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Last night, a buddy of mine and I were thinking up a new destination for a road trip. Heck, I couldn’t think of anything new that we could try. Without an SUV or at least an AUV, there are a limited number of routes that we could go to without causing too much hassle. I have a map of Luzon on my wall and I stared at it this morning, trying to figure out some route or destination. Turns out there was a lot of places that I haven’t explored with good roads but the fact that these places harbor ‘nice people around’ automatically crossed them out of the list. So were stuck again.

One possibility is Bolinao, on the tip of Pangasinan. It supposedly has a great beach as well as some attractions which include a lighthouse. The route is pretty simple, NLEX, SCTEx, Camiling, then up to Pangasinan through Alaminos and the northern towns. There is also the Zambales route which would take us through the entirety of this mountainous province, possible stopping at some of the attractions along the way.

Then I also looked at Tugegarao, now this is a 14 hour challenge through the shadows of the Sierra Madre and Cordillera ranges. We could stop over at Edu’s hometown of Gen. Tinio or Manny’s Bayombong for a night, then tackle the mountains going north.

Hmm, haven’t been further south than Legazpi, which makes Sorsogon an ideal candidate. 16 or so hours, I believe. I don’t necessarily have to see any whale sharks, just the fact that we drove, we came, we got drunk at Luzon’s southernmost tip is enough.

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Speaking of getting drunk at road’s end, this has been the idea of most of my road trips with friends. Odd that having traveled a lot since college, I have very little photographs to show for it yet I remember how drunk I was each time.

One of my favorite anecdotes was the time that Dodie and I got drunk driving to Legazpi. This 16hour ordeal (Entirely sponsored by Dodie, by the way) included a lot of stopovers which made us thirsty, very thirsty, and so we entered a hotel there and drank ourselves to near death. A miracle that we still managed to get into the car, I drove (Dodie was dead tired of driving his car, by then) to where we could park in safety and doze off, and discovered this gate open to what seemed like a nice quiet garden. We stopped and slept, but soon woke to the nagging urge to hurl. So hurl we did, and pee, and hurl some more. Our favorite spot was this wall conveniently located on the passenger’s side of the car.

So in the morning we awoke, and our hangover was stymied by the sight of the Cagsawa bell tower, made famous by the postcards with the backdrop of the Mayon Volcano. How odd that we made this national treasure and monument our personal barf bag and urinal. We got out of there as fast as we could! (Well, after that last morning piss, of course)

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Well anyway, its pretty dark out. Better get going. Still another 80 odd kilometers to home. The blank wall must be missing me already.